Education body denies low take-up of work and study places abroad

THE HIGHER Education Authority has rejected claims by the European Commission that there is a low take-up of Erasmus exchange programme places by Irish students.

Head of European programmes authority Gerry O’Sullivan said the number of third-level students availing of EU-funded study visits or work placements abroad as part of their degree was between 1.5 per cent and 2 per cent, which was in line with the European average.

He said the number of students availing of Erasmus programmes had climbed from 1,523 in 2007 to a projected 2,476 this year, and was on course to meeting the agency’s target of 3,000 by 2013.

While acknowledging the uptake of such schemes was particularly high in countries like Spain and Italy, Mr O’Sullivan said in comparison to other countries of a similar size, and bearing in mind our island status, Ireland’s uptake was not “exceptionally” low.

Erasmus is an EU student exchange programme established in 1987. Last week the European Commission claimed a relatively low number of Irish students were availing of the opportunities afforded to them under the programme because of a reluctance to study in non-English speaking countries.

Mr O’Sullivan accepted there was a “language problem” in Ireland in that the drive to acquire a second language was not as strong as it was in other countries.

He said the difficulty was that English – as the language of international commerce – had been “sufficiently good enough” to allow Irish students to move around the globe and find positions of employment with relative ease. This had bred a “certain amount of complacency”.

Another factor had been the strength of the Irish economy which up until recently had afforded students many job opportunities at home. “The imperative of needing mobility, in terms of a second language, to help them get a job here or abroad wasn’t as strong as it is now.”

However, in the current economic climate, he said Irish students were taking a much closer look at the mobility option.