Written answers

Tuesday, 4 November 2014

Department of Education and Skills

International Students

Photo of Brendan  RyanBrendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour)
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884. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the supports and compensation for fees paid that were offered to international students of a language school (details supplied) in Dublin following its closure; the protections that exist to give students reassurance; if none, the protections she will introduce; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41466/14]

Photo of Brendan  RyanBrendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour)
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894. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the supports and compensation for fees paid offered to international students of a language school in Dublin (details supplied) following its closure; the protections that exist to give students reassurance; if none, the protections she plans to introduce; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41512/14]

Photo of Jan O'SullivanJan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 884 and 894 together.

As the Deputy will be aware, a number of private colleges have closed in 2014. The first priority of both the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Justice and Equality has been to find a reasonable accommodation for genuine students affected by those closures. This accommodation must have regard to the fact that these colleges were private bodies with no relationship to the State. The Department of Justice and Equality acted rapidly to bring reassurance to students regarding their immigration status.

On 21 May 2014 the Minister for Education and Skills and the Minister for Justice and Equality announced the establishment of a Task Force on Students Affected by the Closure of Private Colleges. The Task Force worked closely with the representative bodies of the high-quality private sector providers to develop solutions that could provide reasonable accommodation for students impacted by the closures who were not covered by learner protection arrangements.

The Report of the Task Force, which I published together with the Minister for Justice and Equality on 2 September, sets out the arrangements for reasonable accommodation which have been put in place by the high-quality private sector English language and higher education colleges. Those arrangements allow affected students the opportunity to take up an alternative arrangement at significantly discounted rates. In addition to those arrangements, the Task Force also established a website, www.studenttaskforce.ie, which sets out relevant information for students.

In addition, we also announced robust regulatory reforms of the international education sector on that date. The purpose of those reforms is to protect the consumer and educational interests of genuine international students, to tackle abuse of the labour market and the immigration regime, and to safeguard the strong international reputation of high-quality Irish education providers.

Those reforms have three main pillars – (i) a new list of eligible programmes, (ii) an enhanced inspection and compliance regime and (iii) changes to the operation of the work concession. It is expected that these reforms will significantly enhance the overall quality of Ireland's international education offering, reduce the risk to our reputation from the activities of lower quality operators and enhance the net benefits of internationalisation to the labour market and wider economy.

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