New measures are to be introduced to speed up visas for Chinese students coming to Ireland.
The Minister for Education and Science, Dr Woods, revealed last night that a visa unit was "imminent" at the Irish Embassy in Beijing.
The new unit will ease the logjam where applications are taking four months to process, the Minister said during his official visit to China.
The number of Chinese students studying in Irish third-level institutions and English-language schools has increased dramatically from 1,000 in 1997 to 10,000 last year.
Dr Woods told The Irish Times it was expected that the new visa unit would have three Department of Justice staff from Dublin. "That means the applications can be processed from start to finish in Beijing," he added. A new building is to be constructed on the embassy site to accommodate the visa office.
Dr Woods will today visit an international higher education fair attended by representatives from 19 Irish third-level institutions, colleges and language schools.
At a reception in the Irish Embassy hosted by the Irish Ambassador to China, Mr Declan Connolly, last night, Dr Woods announced that on Monday he would sign a bilateral agreement on education with his Chinese counterpart, Ms Chen Zhili.
"I intend to stress to her the quality of the Irish education system and the fact that the excellent standards of Irish education underpin the economic boom we are experiencing," he said.