The Provost of Trinity has said that College will “do anything in our power to find places” for students whose Leaving Cert grades are upgraded due to errors identified in the system for calculating grades this year. But added that Trinity would only give extra offers “if those places are fully funded by Government”.
Speaking to Trinity News Provost Patrick Prendergast stated that “this is about helping those students awarded new grades”.
This comes following the news of an error in the system used to calculate Leaving Cert grades that may have impacted around 6,500 candidates, leaving them with lower grades than they should have received.
The Central Applications Office (CAO), who process all applications to Irish higher education institutions, said that “If an applicant is deemed entitled to a place on a course based on upgraded Leaving Certificate results, they will receive either an offer or a deferral of the offer for the following academic year if all of the places for that course have already been allocated”.
“The decision to offer a place is made by the [higher education institution] in question and not the CAO”, the statement read.
This morning Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Dail that “two errors” had been identified in the system used to calculate grades, adding that the errors were related to “coding”.
President of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), Lorna Fitzpatrick, has said that “the mistake shouldn’t have happened and is now leaving students in a really confused and concerned state”.
She added that “the rug has been pulled from under [Leaving Cert] students so many times this year”.
