Trinity College's Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast has described how they and other Irish third level institutions are noticing an increase in the amount of applications from non-EU students in the wake of Brexit.
As reported in the Irish Examiner, Dr Prendergast said 'We have seen some evidence of increased numbers of non-EU students applying to Trinity courses and I think other Irish universities are seeing something of an uplift.'
Obviously these students are worried about potential changes to immigration law changes in the UK, as he explained:
So where students might have thought of the UK only, they’re now hedging their bets a bit and applying not just to the UK, but to other English-speaking universities like Trinity College. So, yeah, we have seen some evidence.
While this is a boon for Irish colleges in many ways it could also placed increased pressure on resources which are already strained, such as the shortage in accomodation. In fact Dr Prendergast was speaking at the launch of the National Student Accommodation Strategy, which seeks to provide 21,000 student beds by 2024.
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Of course this will do little to ease the worries of students currently looking for a place to stay in the new term, with Minist of State for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O'Connor saying:
I’d just like a message to be sent out to students, especially if they are finding accommodation difficult — we are funding and helping to fund USI with the website and I’d ask them to contact the USI if they are under extreme pressure for accommodation.
With regard to the increase in the number of applications from non-EU students this will probably be welcome news to UCD, given their President Andrew Deeks already spoke about the possibility that they may need to allocate more places to foreign students in order to increase the amount of fees they receive.
