CAO Scoring and NARIC Ireland: Document Recognition for Ireland

Fee figures: catalogue of 6 October 2026.

Ireland has no office that must approve your school certificate before you apply. The universities themselves decide whether it gives access to a degree and, for applicants through CAO, how many points it is worth. NARIC Ireland gives free advice on what a qualification is comparable to, but its statement is not a condition of entry.

EU, EFTA and UK certificates: points through CAO

The universities publish a shared document, Entry requirements criteria for EU/EFTA/UK applicants, on the CAO website. For each country it sets out:

the minimum result for entry, called matriculation
the minimum English result
a table that turns your grades into an Indicative Points Score, so that you compete with Irish students on the 625-point scale

The universities split the work: one may assess all French applicants, another all German ones. The document is revised every year, so the edition for 2026 entry is a guide only for 2027. Points are normally based on one sitting of your exams, although minimum requirements can be met over several sittings.

IB and European Baccalaureate

Both have their own pages in the CAO guidelines. For 2026 entry:

Requirement	IB Diploma	European Baccalaureate
Minimum for an honours degree	Diploma with 24 points	Award of the Diploma
Top conversion	44 or 45 points = 600	95% or more = 600
Lowest conversion	24 points = 350	50% = 350

EB students with grade 6 or better in five-hour mathematics get 25 bonus points. May IB candidates should ask their IB coordinator to add the Central Applications Office to the institutions allowed to see their results. Some courses ask for particular subjects at a set level; the guidelines include tables that compare IB and EB grades with Leaving Certificate grades.

Certificates from outside Europe

An appendix to the same document gives broad guidance for common non-EU qualifications, but these conversions are indicative and each university decides. Some qualifications reach only part of the scale: the South African National Senior Certificate and Brazil's Ensino Médio, for example, score at most 525 points unless you add a first university examination. The West African Senior School Certificate is not enough without further study.

If your nationality or country of birth is outside the EU, EFTA and UK, or you have lived outside that region for three of the last five years, check your application route and fee status with each university. Some ask applicants with non-EU qualifications to apply directly instead of through CAO, and their international office then assesses the certificate under its own rules.

What to send

A copy of your official results. Predicted grades and personal statements are not accepted. Some countries also require the final school report.
An English translation of any document not issued in English or Irish. CAO defines an official translation as one done by a professional translation service provider. See sworn translations.
Results you already have must reach CAO within 10 days of applying; this year's results as soon as they are issued and, for the first round of offers, by 1 August.

Keep your originals. The university will ask to see them at registration, offers stay provisional until it has, and it may check details with the body that issued them. The CAO documents do not ask for an apostille; if a university or the visa office asks for one, see apostille and legalisation.

Applicants born and fully educated outside Ireland are automatically exempt from the Irish language requirement of the National University of Ireland colleges.

NARIC Ireland

NARIC Ireland, part of Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), keeps a free online database of more than 2,000 qualifications from over 160 countries. For each one you can download a comparability statement that places it on Ireland's National Framework of Qualifications.

The statement is advice, not a legal decision. Universities make their own decisions on entry.
It is useful for understanding what your certificate is equivalent to, and later for jobs and employment permits.
If your qualification is not listed, you can request advice through an online form. QQI warns that new statements may take several weeks.

A realistic order of steps

Find your country in the CAO guidelines, or in the entry requirements of each university if you apply directly.
Check the minimum result, English level and subject requirements of each course.
Order professional translations of your results.
Apply through CAO, or to the university, and upload your documents within 10 days.
With an offer, apply for your visa if you need one: see student visa for Ireland.

Where to look next

Official sources

Always check current information on the official website of the university before you apply.