Universities have complained they were “cut out” of the decision-making process on the format and grading of this year’s Leaving Certificate.
The Irish Universities Association has also raised concerns with officials at the Department of Further and Higher Education that the Central Applications Office (CAO), which processes applications for third-level places on behalf of colleges, was excluded from an advisory group on this year’s Leaving Cert.
In practice, the decision not to invite either universities or the CAO into an advisory group on planning for state exams this year meant the most vocal advocates of tackling grade inflation were not in the room. After consulting with the advisory group Norma Foley, the education minister, decided that this year’s grades would be adjusted to ensure they are no lower than last year’s record highs.
Correspondence released under freedom of information laws show that Foley and Simon Harris, the higher education minister, were extensively lobbied by parents and students demanding that this year’s grades be similar to last year’s. Grades were inflated by 4.4 percentage points in 2020 and by a further 2.6 points in 2021 thanks to “predicted grading” by teachers, which replaced the traditional exam for most students.
Parents and students argued that measures should be put in place to ensure students could compete on equal terms for college places with the class of 2021, with most calling for a continuation of predicted grading.
The two education departments also got correspondence from TDs and ministers on behalf of constituents. An internal Department of Education memo in January stated that, in one three-week period, 35 representations were received from ministers and TDs. The constituency office of Leo Varadkar, the tanaiste, forwarded several emails, while the constituency office of Malcolm Noonan, the heritage minister, prepared a “sample of correspondence we are receiving”, all of which called for a hybrid system involving predicted grading.
Pól Ó Dochartaigh, the NUI Galway professor who chairs the CAO, and the Irish Universities Association have said grade inflation has made it impossible to equitably allocate places for some high-demand courses. Between 2019 and 2021 there was a 600 per cent increase in the number of students obtaining the maximum points in the Leaving Cert. As a result, places had to be assigned randomly for some high-points courses such as medicine.
Lewis Purser, director of learning, teaching and academic affairs at the Irish Universities Association, said continued grade inflation was “not good for the individual students, the reputation of Ireland’s Leaving Certificate, or more broadly for Ireland’s education system”.
Purser said that when Leaving Cert grading was reformed in 2017, much effort was made to ensure students would not end up in a “lucky dip”, whereby their results did not determine whether they secured a place on their preferred course.
The Department of Education said its advisory group included representatives of students, parents, teachers, schools, the State Examinations Commission and Harris’s department. It added that the Higher Education Authority attended in an observer capacity.
Universities have also called for Leaving Cert results to be issued sooner, in order to give students more time to secure accommodation or gain admission to universities abroad. This would also make it easier to attract foreign students to Ireland.
