Leading US Expert to Address Irish Business Community
- 26 January 2006

Ireland’s top athletes are to be provided with a unique special direct entry route to all Dublin City University degree courses this year.

A new and innovative scheme is now open to those who have played or coached GAA games at county level, soccer or rugby at inter-provincial level, and other games or sport at international level.

Top athletes who wish to apply must also satisfy the university’s minimum entry standards of two honours and four pass grades in the Leaving Certificate, with whatever additional minimum standards are required for the chosen course.

Entry will be decided on the basis of a portfolio on sporting achievement, a short written personal statement, and a faculty interview.

Professor Niall Moyna, Head of the DCU School of Health and Human Performance said: “ This initiative will be extremely competitive for our elite sportspeople. It will recognise the fact that world-class athletes must give up a lot of their time to achieve excellence in sport. But academic standards will also be a priority – we want to ensure that these young men and women, who are our key Olympic and international athletes of the future, can also get top-level degrees.

“ This elite athletes’ entry scheme will simply close the gap for key sportspersons who lose some ground in the points race because of the heavy demands of training – and fall short of the level required for their chosen course,” said Professor Moyna.

“A number of elite athletes are also very high academic performers – they learn excellent time management to fit everything in, from training in the early morning to study at night. They are high achievers who are dedicated to outstanding performance – whether it’s in the classroom or on the field.”

Candidates should file a normal CAO application, and then separately submit a supplementary application form, available from the university, together with a portfolio and a 300 word personal statement, to DCU by 1st of May 2006.

Based on the assessment of these details applicants may then be shortlisted for a mandatory interview.

A briefing note on the scheme from the university stresses that: “under this scheme, applications are NOT assessed solely on the basis of academic performance – that is points attained in school leaving examinations.”

Dublin GAA star Brian Cullen, who is now studying for a Masters at DCU, joined the university as an undergraduate through the elite athlete scheme, then limited to the School of Health and Human Performance.

He said: ”This widened opportunity is great for those who are committed to sport but also want to go on to third level. During my Leaving Cert year sport was my priority and training took up a lot of time - leaving less for studies. I didn’t get the points for Health and Human Performance so I couldn’t have done the course I wanted if DCU hadn’t recognised athletic performance for places at the university. Opening other courses to top athletes is a terrific idea.”

Among the other outstanding athletes who joined DCU through the scheme are Martina McCarthy who represented Ireland at the Sydney Olympics in the 400m relay, boxer Darren Sutherland who finished in the top 8 in the World Championships and Kevin Reilly, Meath County GAA fullback.

ENDS