While Ireland’s higher education minister James Lawless has welcomed international students to Ireland for their economic, cultural and academic contribution, this message can get lost following long wait times to secure student visas, speakers at The PIE Live Ireland said.

University College Dublin (UCD) president Orla Feely pointed out that while Lawless had just delivered “a very positive message, and rightly so” to the conference about the value international students bring to Ireland to the conference, more mind should be paid to the visa process.

“Somehow that message gets a little bit lost in translation when you get over to the Department of Justice that deals with issuing visas. Sometimes the delays and the constraints make it more difficult for us to attract students [we are trying to welcome],” she said.

“It’s not a huge problem for us in Ireland but I think we could do a little better about joining up across the departments to really make sure that the welcome is evident in the practicalities.”

Students from many countries around the world, including the US, Canada, Brazil, Taiwan and South Korea as well as other EU countries, do not require a visa to enter Ireland. Patrick McCole, vice-president international at Maynooth University, suggested that this was “certainly a factor” as to why so many American students study in Ireland.

Sometimes the delays and the constraints make it more difficult for us to attract the students
_{^{Orla Feely, UCD}}

But those from key sending markets, such as India and China, must still secure a visa to enter the country.

Veronica Campbell, President of South East Technological University (SETU), agreed that visa delays were causing “a bottleneck for us”.

She suggested that more consideration be paid to “streamlining the process and perhaps making it a more student-friendly experience overall”

McCole commented that concentrating on alleviating visa challenges should be “front and centre” for the government, adding that a combination of long processing times and rule changes should be addressed.

“If we can maybe do a little more work in terms of visa and immigration policy and so on, that support would be really, really good,” he said.

Director of stakeholder relations at Cambridge University Press & Assessment, Ángel Gurría-Quintana, suggested that immigration policies across the big four study destinations, such as the UK’s dependents ban and concentration of the Graduate Route, meant that international students were “not being made to feel as welcome”.

“Compare that to Ireland, which has world-class universities that are more affordable, international students can come largely without any visas… [and] there are good post-study opportunities,” he said.

“To me, the question is, why aren’t there more people coming to Ireland?”

Another issue Campbell suggested the Irish government needed to “unblock” was student accommodation, which has long been a challenge in the country due to rocketing demand, a lack of supply and the resulting high rental prices.

“That is also something that the government’s support will be very important for,” she said.

The inaugural PIE Live Ireland was held at UCD’s campus yesterday (October 14) bringing together key stakeholders from Ireland’s policy, higher education and English language teaching sectors.