Brian Mooney discussing motivation and 3rd level options outside Ireland (educationmatters.ie)
My son
has been offered a provisional place by a Dutch university and seems to have
slacked off on his Leaving Cert study. He’s no longer worried and says he’s not
under pressure to get good grades. Is this really the case ?
It is
ironic that your fear is being driven by his loss of anxiety over the need to
secure a high CAO points score in his Leaving Cert. I often reflect on why I
have never experienced the flashbacks that others recount of reimagining that
they are in the exam hall resitting their Leaving Cert.
The answer
is simple: I sat the exam in 1971 prior to the surge in third level application
numbers which occurred following the introduction of free second level
education.
Securing
a place on most degree programmes on offer back then required no more than two
higher level C3 grades, a not very high bar to achieve for those interested in
pursuing an academic route after school. Most young people entered the labour
force directly from school in those times.
How times
have changed. A majority of school leavers in Ireland
now progress to third level. Uniquely in the EU, we are one of the few
countries where attending third level is not seen as a right, based on meeting
the minimum entry requirements for our preferred course.
Programmes
such as physiotherapy and psychology – which require CAO points of 540-plus in
Irish universities – can be accessed with two H4/5s across EU universities
taught through English.
The fear
and anxiety that drives much of what occurs after transition year in Irish
education derives mainly from a shortage of enough places in highly
sought-after programmes to meet the numbers securing the minimum entry
requirements.
We have
meekly accepted this reality for over 40 years without question and find it
hard to believe that our EU partner countries do not operate their third level
systems on this basis.
Where
your son may come unstuck in his more relaxed approach to learning is in his
perception that having a relatively modest academic target means the hard part
is now over.
Nothing
could be further from the truth. Dutch and other EU universities are ranked
among the best in the world. Attrition rates among first years on many
programmes are up to 40 per cent. The academic year is up to 40 weeks long and
continuous assessment begins during the first few weeks. Any let-up in study
can lead to a quick exit.
Recent
history would suggest that Irish students who have taken advantage of the
places on offer in EU universities have lower failure rates that domestic
students, partly because they really appreciate the opportunity that they have
been given.
But
learning to be motivated by a real interest in one’s subject matter, rather
than gut-wrenching fear of missing out on high CAO points, is in my view a
positive development.
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