Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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203. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 18 of 10 June 2015 and her stated priorities to introduce reforms in international education to protect the students who come to study here and to protect our national reputation for offering high-quality education, the measures her Department has taken, including those in conjunction with other Departments, to protect the 600 students of the recently closed Medgar Evers College, including those who have paid for courses and are still in Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela, those who have arrived here to find a closed school and no support, and those who are here having just paid for new courses in a school now closed and who do not have the relevant documents to renew their visas; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24090/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Deputy will be aware that MEC (Modern Educational Centre) ceased trading with effect from 1st May 2015. A number of measures have been implemented to assist genuine students affected by the closure. The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of the Department of Justice and Equality acted swiftly to assure the immigration status of affected students. All current immigration permissions are being fully honoured by the immigration service.

In addition, any student who arrives at a port of entry with a valid visa or letter of enrolment for MEC issued prior to 1st May 2015 is being permitted to land. This is to allow students to pursue the college for any refund owing to them and to allow them to make alternative arrangements to continue their studies as soon as they can. For students who have not yet registered with the Garda National Immigration Bureau, INIS is allowing those students up to the end of June 2015 to make alternative arrangements for study.

While I have every sympathy for the genuine affected students who have lost money when this college closed, the relationship between students and private colleges is based on a private contract between the student and the provider. However, it should be noted that the Task Force which I established jointly with the Minister for Justice and Equality to assist affected students has worked closely with the representative bodies of the high-quality private sector providers to develop solutions that could provide alternative courses at a significantly discounted rate for students impacted by the private college closures, including MEC, who were not covered by learner protection arrangements. Other individual colleges and representative groups, such as the recently-formed Private College Network, have also made offers to accommodate impacted students.

The new package of reforms to the student immigration system for international education being introduced by my Department and the Department of Justice and Equality includes a number of specific measures to protect international students including compulsory learner protection arrangements and a separate account facility to safeguard student advance payments.