IUA report on international students in the Irish universities

The Irish Universities Association (IUA) has published a report profiling international students and examines the key differences between Irish, European and Non-European students in areas such as demographics, personal well-being and study interest, financial situation, earning expectations and further study intentions.

The key findings from the report are as follows:

• 14.7% of respondents from this were from outside of Ireland, eight per cent were from European countries and the remaining 6.7?% were from Non-European countries. The most frequent nationalities within Europe are: UK at 34.8?% of the total European cohort, Germany at 10.7?% and Croatia at 9.2 %. The most frequent nationalities outside Europe are: US at 30.3 per cent of the total Non-European cohort, Malaysia at 13.6 %and China at 11.4 %.
  
• European students are the oldest cohort with a median age of 25 compared to 24 for Non-Europeans and 21 for Irish students. All nationalities reported high study interest levels and over three-quarters of each group stated that they? were either 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with their course
  
• One area of concern is the measure of psychological well-being (WHO-5) used in the survey. On the WHO-5 scale, scores below 13% of Irish and European students fall into this category and 23% of Non-Europeans.
  
• The parents of Irish students, have considerably lower levels of education than their international peers. However, they come from significantly better off households with 25% of Irish students reporting family incomes over €71,000 compared to 10%of European students and 16 per cent of Non-European students.

To read the full report click here