NUIG plans to award points for sports and arts achievers

NUI Galway is working on a pioneering initiative to reward second level students who excel at sports or the arts – by awarding ‘credits’ or points to supplement the CAO points that they receive through their Leaving Certificate examinations. 

This would give them an extra advantage when it came to securing third level places – in a way that mirrors the state’s decision to award extra points for those who current do well in Honours Maths.

NUIG President Dr Jim Browne confirmed that the bold initiative – a new departure for the university and indeed for the third level sector in Ireland – will be introduced in time for entry into the 2014/2015 college year.

The details of the scheme have yet to be fully worked out but he envisages that students who excel at sport would be rewarded for that and would get compensation in terms of CAO points to recognise their endeavour. 

But Dr Browne, who was speaking at the announcement of a new partnership with Connacht Rugby, warned that the process of awarding points to athletes would have to be open and transparent given the potential for abuse.

He said the university is also looking at ways to reward other achievements of students – perhaps the arts – to recognise their commitment to activities that are not necessarily related to academia.

He said currently the main entry to university is through the CAO system, although about 20% of students enter through non-CAO routes including mature students.

“There’s also a trend in recent years in recognising sports excellence,” he said.

“We will do that but we will do it very carefully because quite frankly there’s potential for abuse there.

“We are working on it at the moment and what we will do is we will publish criteria, we will publish weightings and what we’ll probably end up doing, I don’t want to predict the conclusion of our discussions, but what we’ll probably end up doing is put a particular level of points and say that if somebody achieves at a particular level in sport they will have, let’s call it a credit, or perhaps 20 or 30 points alongside his or her CAO points to compete for a place in the university.”

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.