Students who appeal results of the Leaving Cert will from next year be informed of the outcome of their appeal three weeks earlier than in previous years.
It means that for students who have applied for third-level courses through the Central Application Office they will, in most cases, be able to take up a higher course preference if their appeal results in them being eligible for the course.
The Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) will also strengthen the structured supports provided for those appeal students who begin a higher education course shortly after their first year has begun, to ensure that they are not disadvantaged.
The institutions have said that in 2019 no first year undergraduate academic classes in their facilities will start earlier than the second week of September.
In 2019, provisional results of the Leaving Certificate will be issued to students on Tuesday 13 August, while CAO Round 1 offers will be issued to students by Friday 16 August.
The results of the Leaving Certificate appeals will be released to students in the week beginning 16 September, rather than in early October, as has been the case.
The Department of Education has said the change means exam results will be issued one day earlier than previous years.
The current appeals process takes around eight weeks. The changes announced will reduce that process to five weeks.
The department has said the "fundamental re-engineering of the appeals process" includes a combination of earlier releases of provisional results of the Leaving Certificate and of CAO Round 1 offers to students.
This means having appeals examiners mark scripts on a full-time basis rather than only at evenings and weekends, and a streamlining of the overall appeals logistics, the department said.
In the longer term, it is anticipated that the planned movement of the examinations marking system from a paper-based to an online model over the next three years could further improve the appeals timeframe, according to the department.
The 18-year-old was in danger of losing her university place to study veterinary medicine after the marks on one of her Leaving Certificate papers were added up wrongly.
Ms Carter repeated her Leaving Cert and was just six marks short of the points needed to study veterinary medicine in UCD, and just one point short when second round offers were made.
However, when her papers were reviewed, it was found that the examiner had wrongly added up her marks in her business paper.
If the mistake had not been made, she would have received a higher grade and would have had more than enough points for the course.
Ms Carter took the case to the High Court and was successful in her appeal.
She was offered a place in Veterinary Medicine in UCD, which she took up on 1 October.
In his judgement, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said the appeals process was highly unfair and caused untold stress to Leaving Cert students waiting to hear if they have won a place in university.
Minister for Education Joe McHugh today said that while the measures announced are a recognition of the need for improvements in the Leaving Certificate appeals process and subsequent entry to higher education, the department will be appealing certain broad Constitutional and legal issues raised by the judgment and findings relating to aspects of the examinations system.
He said that these appeals will in no way affect Ms Carter.
