Professor Michael O'Leary:

There are many good models we can consider. In France, anyone who gets the basic minimum qualification at the end of post-primary education is automatically entitled to higher education. Where there is a lot of competition for places, a university may accept people from the area closest to it, or it might hold interviews. We have some concerns about the latter. A student might have to provide additional evidence. In Sweden, for example, there is an assessment called the Swedish scholastic aptitude test, which is completely separate from what happens at post-primary level.

We have models where for the most part, once the student has the basic qualification or certification from post-primary education as regards ability to write in the native language, do mathematics, learn and think critically, most courses are open because they are not highly competitive. The problem happens at the competitive end. That is where the universities need to take some responsibility for the bottleneck and create an alternative to the CAO points system.