Higher education institutes (HEI) in the university sector reserve small quotas of places on some programmes for FETAC applicants

One of the features of this year’s CAO application figures was the increase in the number of applicants presenting with FETAC qualifications. Many of them were successful in their application, but some queries indicate the need to check how this route operates.

Q I spent the past year doing a FETAC course believing that it would be an entry route to an honours degree programme. Now I find that this particular FETAC course is of no use at all for the degree of my choice. How does the FETAC system work?

A You have been very unlucky if you have just found out that your year-long programme was of no value for entry to the course of your choice, but unfortunately this can be the case.

If a FETAC applicant hopes to apply to a Level 8 honours degree programme, a lot depends on what course they are applying to. A number of different schemes operate.

Higher education institutes (HEI) in the university sector reserve small quotas of places on some programmes for FETAC applicants, who are presenting with FETAC Level 5 awards in courses with modules relating in content to the course they are applying to.

In UCD, for example, quotas range from three places in Commerce, five in Social Science, five places each in the Agricultural Science degrees, DN010 and DN048, to 20 places in Science, and 25 in Arts, with small numbers in each nursing programme. NUI Galway hold quotas for FETAC level 5 holders with specific relevant modules to Arts, Commerce, Business Information Studies, Nursing and Science. Every HEI prospectus shows the FETAC modules required for the degree in question. Not all honours degree programmes accept a FETAC qualification as an entry requirement.

When quotas apply, FETAC applicants compete with other FETAC applicants for the places in question.

Nursing honours degree programmes were among the first degree programmes in CAO to open up a quota of places for applicants presenting with a relevant FETAC award, with UCC pioneering that initiative. The quota of places for FETAC applicants on the different nursing courses in HEIs is small and applicants are usually required to get at least five distinctions from their eight FETAC course modules, although this result may not guarantee them a place when there are more applicants with such results than there are places available under the quota.

There is a second FETAC entry route scheme being operated on a pilot basis by most institutes of technology and some other HEIs. The universities do not use this scheme, nor does it apply to nursing programmes. Under this scheme, applicants presenting any FETAC qualification compete with Leaving Certificate candidates for most courses in the institution in question. They are not confined to specific FETAC quotas, nor does their FETAC course have to be linked in content to the HEI course they are applying to.

Applicants for courses under this scheme are listed in order of their points merit, whether on Leaving Certificate points or FETAC award points. A separate points scale is used for converting the scores of FETAC award holders, depending on three factors: the level of the FETAC award, the credit value of the module (which can range from 0.5 to 4.0), and the points based on the result, whether pass (20 points) or merit (35 points) or distinction (50 points). Eight modules are counted for points purposes. The credit value of a module in a FETAC Level 5 award is 1, so eight distinctions could score 400 points.

FETAC qualifications are opening more doors into higher education. But check with the colleges or with FETAC (www.fetac.ie) when planning your path.

NUI Galway has created a special website to support all students accepting places at the university this autumn The ‘Firstinfo’ website is at http://firstinfo.nuigalway.ie/ In addition, the NUI Galway Alumni Association hosts a series of information evenings next week for parents and students in counties Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Clare and Westmeath.

Mary O’Donnell