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A new, streamlined pathway for international students to access Irish Higher Education Institutes (HEI) has been launched by DIFC Ireland, in partnership with a number of Irish HEI’s.

The pathway is specifically designed for international students from countries whose High School Certificate qualification is not sufficient to obtain entry to an undergraduate degree in Ireland. Therefore, to fill this gap, students will study a pathway course through DIFC Ireland to obtain the qualification required to progress to an undergraduate degree in an Irish HEI.

This pathway has been developed in response to an Irish Government policy paper exploring strategies to increase international student (non-EU) numbers in Ireland. One such strategy was the development of educational hubs in Ireland and integrating pathway (foundation) programmes with the promotion of Irish undergraduate programmes to non-EU international students.

Speaking of the partnership, Diarmuid Moroney, CEO of DIFC Ireland said “We are now pleased to announce that 12 Irish HEI’s have joined together with DIFC Ireland to offer a package to international students, which includes pathway courses accredited by NCUK which are accepted for entry to Irish HEI undergraduate and postgraduate courses to a wide range of programmes including Business , Law, Finance, Engineering, Science and Health Science.”

Pathway courses will be delivered in DIFC campuses in Dublin, Cork and Galway – therefore, creating three main educational hubs, where over the next 3 years, it is estimated over 500 international students will join the pathway for 5 years in Ireland; contributing over €60 million to the Irish economy in Dublin, Cork and Galway.

This initiative is being supported by Enterprise Ireland who see the value of such a group increasing the number of international students recruited to Irish HEI’s.

The group of Irish HEI’s and DIFC launched their pathway courses in January 2019 and plan to attract students from the key markets where students require pathway courses e.g. China, Nigeria, GCC countries (Middle East) and South East Asia.

Map of Ireland with University logos

The members of this group are:

University College Cork
Cork Institute of Technology
University of Limerick
Limerick Institute of Technology
Mary Immaculate College Limerick
National University of Ireland Galway
Galway Mayo Institute of Technology
Shannon College of Hotel Management
Griffith College Dublin
Waterford Institute of Technology
Athlone Institute of Technology
Carlow Institute of Technology

DIFC is Ireland’s largest provider of pathway foundation courses and is the exclusive deliver partner of NCUK in Ireland. DIFC has been running the world renowned NCUK pathway courses for NCUK since 2004 – helping international student to study Irish undergraduate and postgraduate courses.”

NCUK is one of the largest providers of pathway courses in the world. They now have 55 centres in 16 countries worldwide and since 1988; over 30,000 international students have completed their courses and transferred to Partner Universities in UK.

For more information on how to apply directly to the above HEI or for pathway courses to above HEI please contact Ray Halpin – ray@difc.ie or phone +353-45-866671

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