In my opinion: We need to attract more international students
Wednesday June 10 2009
Every year €500m is brought into the Irish economy by international third level students from outside the EU.
But why is New Zealand, a country with a comparable population, much more successful than we are in attracting them.
The difference is that New Zealand has put a clear policy in place and formed an alliance between government, education providers and supporting organisations to deliver stated objectives.
The absence of a government policy here has meant we are not claiming our share of the global market for international education.
In fact, we are losing some of the approximate 1pc share we had as applications to study in Ireland were down 28.5pc from China and 44pc from India between 2007 and 2008. There is a perception amongst international students that Ireland is a difficult country to acquire a study visa for. The view is that the Irish study visa system is inefficient and lacks transparency.
Highly subjective methods of applicant assessment are in place with one of the main reasons given for a visa refusal being that an applicant is 'not believed to be a genuine student' by a visa officer.
This system is primarily responsible for the decline in student visa applications to Ireland.
A consistent transparent system needs to be put in place urgently in order to prevent the defection of potential international students to our competitors in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the US.
Comparing the success rate of study visa applicants to the UK with Ireland in 2007, a much higher proportion of applicants to Ireland were turned away.
Ireland refused 37.9pc of applicants from China while the UK refused only 6.89pc. Ireland refused 46pc of applicants from Turkey while the UK refused 11pc.
Some 46pc of Saudi Arabian applicants were refused Irish study visas while only 7pc were refused UK study visas.
The long term value of international education in creating trade links between countries has been well documented.
Will international students take our jobs? No. Rudimentary mathematics calculates that for every 100 international students in public sector institutions alone, eight jobs are created through providing accommodation, mobile phone and public transport use, food, entertainment and utilities.
Irish education providers are committed to international education. Education was the largest sector represented on the government trade mission to China last October. Why is the political will not there to get behind this potential revenue stream?
In the absence of a national brand for Ireland, supported by a coherent policy across government departments, awareness of Ireland continues to be low and Ireland consistently underperforms in the market.
By taking the best of the New Zealand and UK models, an international education strategy could be developed by the Taoiseach's office, bringing the relevant government departments together to form an alliance with the education providers and supporting organisations such as Enterprise Ireland.
If a realistic target of 3pc of market share was set, this would bring €1.5bn a year into the Irish economy.
- Nicola Carroll National College of Ireland
