Mr. Lewis Purser:

The Senator asked about the impact of Brexit in the data I provided which came from the CAO, looking at applications, offers and acceptances by Northern Ireland students through the CAO to higher education here in the Republic. The data shows a slow, steady increase, constant over a reasonable period of time to 2016, which was the year of the UK referendum. After that it has been going downhill quite rapidly. I think it is psychological. There were all sorts of issues around the referendum and politics and perceptions, etc. We had been doing a fair amount of work with the system in terms of second level guidance counsellors and higher education in the North prior to Brexit, with slow burn results, which would lead in to this slow, steady increase. We were up to nearly 2,000 applications. However, since that high point in 2016, we are now down to just over 1,200 applications through the CAO. The whole landscape changed because of that.

Interestingly, the other way around, as Mr. Hannigan mentioned, while the overall numbers have not changed that much, there has been a change in profile of the students travelling from the Republic to Northern Ireland to study. It is an indirect effect of Brexit in my opinion. Partly because the UK’s place in Europe became very unclear for those in other European countries, and therefore students were no longer travelling from mainland Europe to the UK generally and to Northern Ireland as well. Therefore, there was a gap which was filled by students coming from the South.

I have had calls from senior management in Queen’s University in recent years asking, “What is this with all these increased numbers in applications from Republic of Ireland addresses?" They are welcoming this, but at the same time it is unplanned. Part of the reason is there are places available and another part is that accommodation in Belfast is significantly cheaper than in Dublin, Cork or Galway. Also, for first years, in many cases, accommodation is guaranteed by the university, which is very attractive for parents who are wondering where is the best place to go. If you compare that to the accommodation market here, particularly in Dublin but generally around the country, it is quite stark.