Higher Education in Ireland: Opportunities and Scholarships

Ireland or officially known as the Republic of Ireland is a sovereign country located in the north-western part of Europe. Along with other four constituent countries of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales), it forms English-speaking region in Europe. Having Dublin as its capital, it occupies more than eighty percent land area of the Ireland Island and shares a border only with the United Kingdom or more specifically with Northern Ireland. Higher Education System in Ireland is organized into seven universities and some tertiary level institutes for technology and business. Currently Ireland is going through a massive economic boom which eventually motivated its think tanks to open the door of higher education to the international students. In recent days, Irish government under the National Development Plan is providing huge scholarships and grants for international students in science, engineering, technology, humanities and social science subjects.

Irish Universities

The University of Dublin, Trinity College is the oldest university in Ireland. Established in 1592 by the Queen Elizabeth I, this 400 years old university is counted as one of the seven prestigious ancient universities in the English-speaking world where other institutions are Oxford (1167) and Cambridge (1209) from England and St. Andrews (1413), Glasgow (1451), Aberdeen (1495) and Edinburgh (1583) from Scotland. In October 2007, Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) ranked Trinity 53^rd in the world, 13^th in Europe and 1^st in Ireland. The Financial Times, in their latest MBA-ranking ranked this university 70^th in the world and top in Ireland. The Sunday Times in their regional ranking for Irish universities also ranked Trinity as the best university in Ireland. Though Trinity is quite strong in the area of Science and Engineering, but its main strength lies in Humanities and Arts. Its alumni list counts some prestigious and world famous names such as Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, Samuel Beckett and Ernest Walton.

University College Dublin (UCD) – also known as the National University of Ireland, Dublin is the largest university in Ireland. Founded in 1854, UCD is one of the oldest universities in this region and one of the four constituent universities that form the National University of Ireland system in the manner of famous University of California System in the US. THES ranked this university 177^th in the world and 2^nd in Ireland whereas The Financial Times ranked it 98^th globally and 2^nd in Ireland for MBA. In The Economist MBA ranking, UCD is globally placed at 38^th position which also made them top business school in the country. UCD’s main strength lies in business and engineering related subjects with a diverse range of programs that no other university in Ireland is providing right now.

Founded in 1845, University College Cork (UCC) or National University of Ireland, Cork, is another oldest university in Ireland. In THES latest ranking it jumped 100 places from its previous position and ranked 286^th globally. The Sunday Times placed this university 2^nd in Ireland just after Trinity and commented that UCC will be the next Irish university that will start beating Trinity in different league tables.

Dublin City University (DCU), established in 1975, is the youngest university in the country. In spite of being a new university, compare to other giant competitors like – Trinity, UCD or UCC – DCU is doing very well in research based subjects. It is considered as the most modern university in the country and also the leading institution to attract international students. University of Limerick, National University of Ireland, Galway and National University of Ireland, Maynooth are other three universities located in Ireland. Besides, Dublin Institute of Technology, Cork Institute of Technology , Galway – Mayo Institute of Technology and Griffith College Dublin are some other tertiary institutions that are doing well in recent years.

Irish Higher Education System

Irish higher degrees are mainly of two types: Degree by course work or sometime referred as Taught Degree and Degree by research work and thesis or also called Research Degree. It takes one year to complete a taught degree at master’s level whereas research degrees are extendable up to two years depending on the depth of the thesis. But in most of the cases it becomes extremely difficult to extend a scholarship for a master’s degree.

Completion of a PhD degree from an Irish university takes at least three years. But this duration can be extended (with scholarship) up to one or two years depending on the type of research and funding authority. Though duration of a post-doctoral degree varies from institution to institution, but usually it takes around two years.

Like the United Kingdom, scholarships for a taught degree are extremely rare in Ireland. Maximum funding opportunities and scholarships either from government or from the industry are provided for research degrees. A person interested to study in Ireland should focus his concentration on research oriented subjects which will smoother his way to get a suitable funding.

Government Scholarships

In recent days, Irish government is subsidizing massively research oriented projects and studies in different universities and institutes in Ireland. It has been five years since they introduced two different scholarship schemes, one for Science/Engineering and another for Humanities/Social Science based studies. Under the National Development Plan and through Irish Research Council for Science Engineering and Technology (IRCSET) they provide IRCSET Embark Initiative Scholarship for science background students. A similar sister scheme called IRCHSS Postgraduate Scholarship is offered through Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Science (IRCHSS) for arts and social science based students. Both the schemes are considered as the most prestigious scholarships in Ireland in terms of status and funding level and the receiver is officially called “Government of Ireland Scholar”. These schemes cover full tuition fees at international rate (such as at Trinity: €14,000) and also provide a maintenance grant of €16,000 per annum. In addition, it also provides research and travel expense and other miscellaneous costs including conference fess and so on. For a master level degree it covers one year funding whereas a PhD degree receives three years funding with an assurance that it can be extended further in case it is really needed.

Call for the application for IRCSET Embark Initiative Scholarship scheme usually gets open twice a year, once in January to start in April and on another occasion in July to start in October. In 2007, 50 students were awarded this scholarship at each call (i.e. 100 in total) where around 20 scholarships were allocated for international students. This year the number of scholarship is increased drastically from 50 to 165 in its first call. Closing date for first call is 20 February 2008 and this deadline is hard. Application has to be submitted through online at IRCSET official site – www.ircset.ie. IRCHSS Postgraduate Scholarship scheme asks for application once a year on second week of January. Detail information about this scheme can be found on IRCHSS official site – www.irchss.ie.

In order to apply for IRCSET’s scholarship, an applicant doesn’t require an offer from a university in advance. But he must find his suitable university and supervisor prior to submitting his application. Students who have already enrolled in a course are not eligible to apply for this scheme. Interestingly IRCHSS’s scholarship differs at this point with IRCSET as only enrolled students can apply for this scheme. Other requirements are almost same for both the scholarships.

Best way to find a suitable supervisor is through visiting research groups listed in the official university websites. Most of the time academic stuffs or faculty members are listed in a special section called “People” at the group page. Faculty names are usually found hyperlinked to their personal page through which one can get to know their research areas and interests. Their contact information including email address, phone and/or fax numbers can also be found on their personal pages.

These two schemes separately evaluate four segments from an application: Academic Records, Personal Statements, Research Proposal and References. A first class honours degree (preferable) or at least an upper second class is required to apply. Two references, one from the proposed supervisor and another from a local guardian, preferably a faculty member of the latest degree awarding institution are required.

As an applicant has nothing to do with his academic record further and doesn’t have any access to his references, the only area where he can put his maximum effort is to prepare personal statement and research proposal. Usually proposed supervisor helps massively in writing a suitable research proposal. It’s a good practice to write a proposal by exchanging it couple of times over the email between applicant and his supervisor. It fine tunes core matters and prunes unwanted errors from the proposal. A personal statement must focus applicant’s desire to achieve a degree by research. In addition, it should illustrate his research background, publications (if any) and other achievements. IRCSET usually expects few questions (listed on the application form) to be answered in the personal statement whereas IRCHSS clearly mentions different criteria (listed on the call for application) that has to be explained in the personal statement.

Both IRCSET and IRCHSS have some attractive schemes for Post-doctoral students which can be found on the respective official sites.

University Scholarships and Industry Funding

University of Dublin, Trinity College is providing substantial funding for its international research students. Ussher Fellowship Award is the most prestigious award in Trinity for entrance MSc by research and PhD students. It covers full tuition fees at international rate which is extremely high in Trinity (€14,000 per year). In addition it provides a yearly maintenance grant of €16,000. TCD Postgraduate Research Studentship is another scholarship for international student that covers full tuitions (at int. rate) with a maintenance grant of €8,000 per annum. Both the awards cover two years for an MSc and three years for a PhD degree. These schemes are given once a year during July/Aug for both the starts; in October of that year or April of next year. There is a combine application form available on the web through which one can apply for these awards while making general admission application to the university. It is strongly recommended that students should find their proposed supervisor in advance which maximises the chance of getting selected.

Other universities, though not as massive as Trinity, are also providing different schemes but they strongly encourage their prospective students to go for either IRCSET/IRCHSS scholarships or industry funding.

Industry scholarships come from different local and global enterprises. Availability of such scholarships can be found from a special section called “Vacancy” at each research group page. Respective enterprises initiate projects under the supervision of a particular professor of a university who eventually selects candidates for that scholarship. These opportunities are usually given to PhD and Post-doctoral students mainly and most of the time MSc students are not considered eligible to apply.

Few concluding words

For the last five years Irish government is trying hard to attract international students in Ireland to make it a global village for international researchers by providing attractive scholarships and funding opportunities. Students from other EU nations, China, India and the Middle East are mainly taking this advantage. It doesn’t mean that they are more talented or capable than us. In most of the cases Bangladeshi students are not getting the right information on right time. Besides in fulfilling some of the requirements such as finding a suitable supervisor and group in advance or writing a proper personal statement or research proposal, Bangladeshi students are facing difficulties. I strongly believe that these problems are pretty easy to overcome. If we start expressing ourselves and face those realities stalwartly, that day won’t be too far when Irish will care us not only in cricket but also in academic activities.

A summarized version of this article was published on Star Campus magazine (Volume 2 Issue 54 | February 03, 2008|)
Web-link: http://www.thedailystar.net/campus/2008/02/01/feature_ireland.htm