Madam, – Congratulations to Gráinne Faller for being one of the few journalists to tackle the area of international education in Ireland (Education Today, January 26th). This article covered many of the pertinent issues that affect the sector.
However, international students should not be seen simply as an income generator for the economy or indeed for colleges drowning in debt.
The biggest endorsement for Ireland is to have international students who enjoy studying here, who have a positive experience here and who will recommend Ireland to friends in their home country.
This cannot be achieved if higher education institutes and Government departments continue to see dollar signs when creating policy.
Policy should and must be student centred if we have any hope of creating a sustainable international education system which can compete with other countries.
Unfortunately this is not happening and is exemplified perfectly in this article when you take into account how much text is devoted to analysing the finances involved rather than the student experience. – Yours, etc,