Hundreds of students secured university places abroad and for the last 2 weeks, they can still look for options to study abroad this October. However, the Leaving Certificate results on 3rd September and the first CAO offers on 7th make it too late for many this year.
“Many universities in Europe that Irish students traditionally go to have already filled their places and closed the admission processes, a few still remain open giving an opportunity to apply in early September.” Artur Banaszkiewicz from Medical Poland Admission Office directs to a list of the most popular Polish medical and vet schools that one can apply to until September 7th, where hundreds of Irish students already are.
“Almost a 9pc increase in the number of CAO applications with forty-two thousand applicants having amended their course application preferences during May and June may mean a significant increase in the competition this year,” he adds. “So there is little time to bet on other options which – in many cases – are students’ first choices as more and more Irish secondary school grads choose to pursue their dreams of becoming doctors and vets in Poland”.
A growing number of domestic applicants (up 5pc) is a threat to those in this year’s cohort, but also a huge increase (up 136pc) of EU applications. The latter may be good news for Ireland showing it’s gaining a competitive advantage against the UK and confirming students are ready to move around the continent again to experience new cultures, languages and in search for quality education.
Exactly for those reasons – as well because of the limited number of places in Ireland – Irish students in hundreds move to Poland, the Netherlands and other countries for third-level education. Each year over a hundred Irish students go to Poland alone to study medicine, veterinary medicine and other medical sciences.
“There were not that many options when I was trying to get into medicine, Poland was not popular yet, so I did a degree in neuroscience first” – admits Ross McCabe, now a graduate from a Polish medical school. “But after another challenging yet enjoyable 6 years in Poland, I can call myself Doctor Ross now”.
