Students under the age of 23 with QQI awards must apply through CAO. Information on CAO and how to submit an application, is available from the CAO website.

CAO Minimum Entry Requirements

For entry to all courses, applicants must hold a full award at QQI level 5 or 6. A Component Certificate is not sufficient.

Applicants presenting full QQI Level 5/6 awards will not be required to meet minimum entry requirements based on Leaving Certificate results. The QQI award is accepted in its own right.

Due to high demand for places on NC010 BA (Honours) Psychology, a limited number of places are reserved for QQI applicants. The number of reserved places will be dependent on supply. Places will be offered in order of merit ranking based upon QQI results. Please note that should a number of applicants receive the same score, random selection will apply. CAO offers for reserved places will be issued in Round 0.

For all other programmes, QQI scores are included in the order of merit list of all applicants presenting school leaving examinations. Applicants must meet the minimum CAO points (alongside all other entry requirements) to receive a CAO offer. Initial offers for all programmes (with the exception of NC010), will be issued in Round 1.

Please click here for information on the scoring system employed for QQI awards. The Careers Portal website features an easy to use calculator which can be used to calculate your CAO score.

Mature applicants (those 23 years of age on or before the 1st of January) can apply directly to the college. Applications will be accepted up until 31st July. For further information contact admissions@ncirl.ie.

Mature applicants should not apply through CAO.

To learn more about the Advanced Entry route available to Further Education College students, please see Advanced Entry.

Advanced entry applicants to the BSc (Hons) in Data Science must have a minimum of grade Pass in a QQI level 5/6 Maths module (6N3395 or 5N0556 or 5N18396), or a minimum of grade O4/H7 in Leaving Certificate Maths.