IF YOUR MAIN ambition in life is to train as a doctor, and you fear you may narrowly miss a place at an Irish university, you would be well advised to investigate the British medical schools - and the Scottish ones in particular.
However, for anyone planning to study medicine at a British institution - or in Northern Ireland - Leaving Cert chemistry at higher level is a must.
Two weeks ago a number of young people bent on medical careers arrived at the Higher Options conference at the RDS to discover - to their great disappointment - that in many instances they were ineligible to apply for places at British medical schools.
These students are all taking a range of Leaving Cert science subjects, but unfortunately they lack higher-level chemistry making an offer of a British medical place well-nigh impossible to obtain.
Students from the Republic of Ireland competing for medical school places in both England and Wales are faced with a particular problem: their English, Welsh and Northern Irish counterparts are expected to take only three subjects at A-Level. This means that these students study science subjects in far greater depth than do Leaving Cert students.
Consequently, many British universities - including all the London medical schools and the University of Liverpool, for example - offer medicine as a five-year course only. According to these colleges, the Irish Leaving Cert is an insufficient qualification for entry to their medical programmes.
Leaving Cert students, then, must seek out those universities offering six-year courses, which include a pre-med year.
Of the British colleges at the conference whose representatives spoke to E&L, only the University of Newcastle said it will consider medical candidates with a range of "unspecified" subjects. Each year, this university admits 12 students on to a pre-med course to study a combination of chemistry, biological science and medical data-handling, which equips them to enter stage one of medicine with students who have the appropriate science A-Levels.
Irish students with minimums of four As and two Bs at higher-level Leaving Cert will be considered for this course.
Other universities, including Sheffield and the University of Wales, say that they will consider applications for their six-year programmes from candidates with minimums of four As and two Bs at higher level, including chemistry, maths, physics and biology.
However, the University of Manchester (minimum entry requirement: three As and three Bs, including higher-level chemistry, biology, physics and maths) will only admit Irish students one year after hey have received their Leaving Cert results.
THE BULK of Irish students use the British universities as a fall-back: they accept places in British medical schools only to turn them down once they have obtained Irish places. Waiting a year is proof of commitment, the University of Manchester says.
Queen's University Belfast offers six places each year on its pre-med course to non-A-Level applicants. However, Leaving Cert holders rarely avail of these places - because they invariably lack the appropriate science subjects. Leaving Cert chemistry at higher level is a must, while biology, physics and maths are also preferred at this level.
Unlike their English and Welsh counterparts, Scottish students take five subjects in the exams that are the equivalent of Leaving Cent; chances are that Irish students will fare better in the Scottish system.
The University of Dundee says it makes two offers to candidates - one for the five-year programme (minimum entry requirements: three As and three Bs at higher level, including chemistry, and two from biology, physics and maths, with the third taken at Junior Cent level) and another for a six-year course.
This latter course includes a premed year and is geared for good students (three As and two Bs) who lack one of the science subjects.
Meanwhile, at the University of St Andrews (three B1s and three B3s at higher level, including chemistry and either maths or physics), medical students take a three-year degree programme in medical science (BSc) and then transfer to Manchester University for their three years' clinical training.
All the medical schools - including that of the University of Glasgow (four As and two Bs at higher level, including chemistry and two of maths, physics and biology) - stress the importance of the personal statement that is included on the UCAS form. The colleges are looking for "padded value" in their medical students, they say, and are keen to enrol people who can prove commitment and motivation through their work with the handicapped, the elderly or in a hospital.
