Dr. Greg Foley:

That is the argument, but I believe it is fundamentally wrong. I have studied all the data on this and done large graphs of points requirements versus student intake and so on. University College Dublin, UCD, admits 400 students to its generic-entry science course, which has a requirement of 510 points. UCD has the largest intake of engineering students in the country for its engineering course, which has a requirement of 510 points. The most significant determiner of the amount of points required for admission to a course is the prestige of the institution, in my view. It is nothing to do with the course. Many of the degree programmes with very small intakes have very low points requirements, and the reason there is a low intake is that nobody wants to do the courses. Therefore, we should get rid of them because they are wasteful. The idea that there is an inverse relationship between intake and points is not true. Trinity College could admit a thousand students into, say, Business, Economic and Social Studies, and the points requirement would still be high. It is the prestige of the institution, and it is no coincidence that-----