7th Oct 2016

The Irish Times has reported that Irish education authorities will today announce plans attract 37,000 additional international students to Irish colleges and universities by 2020. This push has been raised by the UK’s Brexit vote, leaving Ireland as the only English-speaking member of the European Union.

The plan aims to increase the economic value of international education to €2.1 billion by 2020, an increase of 33%.

Efforts will be focused at promotional and marketing campaigns in countries such as the US, China, India, Brazil, Malaysia and the Middle East. It will also put a greater focus on market opportunities in countries such as Canada, South Korea, Vietnam, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Nigeria.

Minister for education Richard Bruton said:

There will be strong opportunities for Ireland in the area of international education when Ireland becomes the only English-speaking member of the EU.

Only about 1/3 of the additional students are envisioned to study in Ireland at third-level. The remaining majority will be attending English language schools. Overall this increase would bring the number  of international students in Ireland to more than 175,000.

As well as attracting international students, part of the plans are to bring world-class researchers to Irish institutions and to build research capacity and commercialise research.

A project delivery group, which will be led by a senior official in the Department of Education, will be established to oversee the implementation of the strategy.

Full story here.