Ireland Aims to Attract Global Talent with New International Education Strategy

Anna Varela·14 June 2024·4 min read
Ireland Aims to Attract Global Talent with New International Education Strategy

While countries like Britain, Australia and Canada have been tightening policy settings around international students, Ireland has unveiled an ambitious strategy aimed at attracting global talent to study at its universities.

The plan, announced in January and called Global Citizens 2030, declares that “today’s international learners are tomorrow’s leaders, employees, researchers, social champions, climate advocates, entrepreneurs and investors.”

The initiative insists that “it is essential their learning and living experience in Ireland is inclusive and excellent, fostering enduring relationships that persist long after graduation.”

By 2030, the government hopes to grow the number of international students in Ireland by 10 percent, a substantial increase that could bring an influx of bright young minds from abroad.

To help achieve that goal, education attachés will be posted at Irish embassies to recruit student talent, particularly in regions like the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan.

The effort appears to be paying early dividends.

In a survey of education agents from South Asia, Ireland and Germany emerged as the European study destinations generating the most interest among students in that region.

And a separate poll by IDP, an international education company, showed that while the United States, Australia, Britain and Canada remain the top destinations worldwide, Ireland ranked an impressive sixth among potential students.

ApplyBoard, which helps students navigate the applications process, also reported a notable “shift in interest towards Ireland” compared to just a year ago.

“Over the past year, the near-majority of student interest shifted from negative to positive,” the company said, with 48 percent of surveyed students in spring 2024 saying they were “extremely” or “very” interested in studying in Ireland, up from just over a quarter the previous spring.

The strategy, while warm and welcoming in its language, is also pragmatic.

Recognising the importance of issues like climate change and cybersecurity, it calls for “partnering with industry to recruit hundreds of high-calibre PhD students to tackle national and global challenges.”

The goal, the government says, is not just about bringing in more international students, but about developing research and innovation to solve major world problems.

At the strategy’s launch, Simon Harris, Ireland’s minister for further and higher education, research, innovation and science, underscored that point.

“It is about more than just attracting international students,” he said of the plan. “It is also about partnering with industry to recruit hundreds of high-calibre PhD students to tackle national and global challenges.”

Still, challenges remain for Ireland to overcome including the student housing crisis.

The nation has long grappled with a shortage of reasonably priced accommodation for students, particularly those coming from abroad.

Just last month, in an effort to help alleviate the housing crunch, the government announced funding for more than 1,000 new student beds, with 30 percent mandated to be offered at below-market rates.

It was the latest move in a yearslong effort to expand housing options for students as part of a national accommodation strategy launched in 2017, though that earlier initiative has been criticised for delivering too many beds aimed at the high end of the international student market.

The new strategy sends “a really powerful signal that Ireland has a global perspective,” said one government official involved in devising the plan.

After years of youth flight, with so many Irish leaving to build their futures elsewhere, the island nation seems intent on attracting the world's future leaders to its own prestigious universities and institutions.

If you are interested in letting your property to students, accommodationforstudents.com is the no.1 student accommodation service in the UK.