On August 6th, we welcomed international student recruitment professionals to University College Dublin for our first in-person event in Ireland: International Higher Education in Ireland - Trends, Insights and the Road Ahead.
The question on everyone's mind was simple to ask and hard to answer well: why Ireland? As student mobility shifts, new source markets emerge, and competition for international talent intensifies, the institutions that can answer that question clearly will be the best positioned to attract international students.
Here's what we covered during the different sessions in Dublin:
Ireland's momentum is real
The day opened with a data-driven keynote by Patrick Smith, Senior Customer Success Manager at Keystone Education Group, who took stock of where Ireland stands today as an international study destination.
How many international students currently study in Ireland?
In the 2024/2025 academic year, 44,500 international students enrolled in Irish higher education - a 10% year-on-year increase, and a record for the fourth consecutive year. Growth was broad-based, with undergraduate enrolments up 9% and postgraduate enrolments up 11%.
What are Ireland's biggest source markets for international students?
Across Keystone's platforms, search interest in Ireland is rising sharply in nine of its ten largest source markets, led by strong growth from Canada, Malaysia, Spain, and France. India remains the largest source of enrolled students, followed by the US and China.
Which subjects are most popular with international students in Ireland?
According to Keystone search data from across our websites, the most searched subject areas among prospective international students in Ireland are Business & Management, Medicine & Health Sciences, and Creative Arts & Design, each accounting for roughly 7% of all international search activity.
Ireland competes with the UK, the US and Canada
One of the more striking parts of the keynote was how Ireland stacks up against the traditional "Big 4" destinations such as the UK, US and Canada. According to Keystone's Pulse survey data and most recent State of Student Recruitment Report, in terms of pure academic reputation, Ireland holds its own on academic quality (scoring 85/100) and subject offering (scoring 84/100), both within a few points of the UK, Canada and the US.
But where Ireland really pulls ahead is on the factors that matter once academics are considered equal. It scores highest of the four on safety & stability and visas & entry, matches Canada and the UK on culture & leisure, and holds affordability on par with Canada, ahead of both the UK and US.
What are the biggest barriers to studying in Ireland?
That said, the picture isn't without friction. Cost remains the single biggest obstacle for students considering Ireland, cited by 81% of prospective students, in line with Europe and the Big 4 more broadly. More notably, political uncertainty is the fastest-growing barrier, up 13% year-on-year in Ireland (and growing even faster elsewhere: +25% in Europe and +19% across the Big 4). According to our data, recruitment is also taking longer and becoming more competitive across the board: students are applying to more institutions than before, with 31% now submitting 5 or more applications.
Why Ireland? Sector leaders weigh in.
Following Patrick's keynote, Una Watkins, Director of International Student Recruitment at UCD, shared what a sustainable internationalisation strategy looks like in practice — the objectives that shape UCD's approach to global growth, and the practical steps to turn that vision into results on the ground.
After that, the morning closed with a panel discussion that brought together recruitment leaders from across Irish higher education: Niamh Kavanagh (Maynooth University), Donal McAlister (South East Technological University), Mairéad O'Flynn (Cork University Business School - UCC), and Katie Kelly (University College Dublin).
Three themes ran through the discussion and the room more broadly:
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AI in recruitment. The panel shared how their institutions are beginning to integrate AI into recruitment processes and what that entails in terms of planning and readiness.
- Sustainability in scaling international operations. As institutions grow their international footprint, there was a strong consensus that sustainability has to be designed into that growth from the outset, not added on afterwards.
- Student fit. Recruitment success is increasingly being measured by fit, not just volume. Institutions are placing more weight on matching the right students to the right programmes to drive both satisfaction and long-term career outcomes.
What's Next?
This was our first International Higher Education event in Ireland, and it won't be the last. The energy in the room and the quality of the questions made it clear there's an appetite for more focused, practical conversations. We're already planning what comes next, and we hope you'll be part of it.
Thank you to everyone who joined us in Dublin on August 6th, and to Una Watkins, Niamh Kavanagh, Donal McAlister, Mairéad O'Flynn, and Katie Kelly for sharing their expertise.
Heading to EAIE 2026?
Colleagues from across Keystone will be heading to Glasgow in September, and they're ready to chat all things international student recruitment from discovery to enrollment.