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.”
HOW TO APPLY
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.”
Among the 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.
