The government has confirmed that existing fee arrangements will be maintained for Irish students enrolling in UK universities in 2020/21, amid ongoing uncertainty surrounding Brexit’s implications.
UK students studying in Ireland will also continue to pay the current fee of âŹ3,000 for at least another year â the same fee as Irish students.
Irish students enrolling in UK universities will still be able to avail of SUSI grants, the government also announced, as part of an agreement between the UK and Irish governments in order to allow students to move between countries for their education.
Itâs not clear if the arrangement will stretch beyond 2020/21, but itâs likely to provide reassurance to students ahead of the CAO deadline on February 1st.
In a press statement, Minister for Education Joe McHugh said the move âwill give students from Britain and Northern Ireland time to plan their education optionsâ.
âI am determinedâ, he added, âthat this should grow and serve to remind us all of our shared respect and understanding. I can assure prospective students from Britain and Northern Ireland that their contribution to our higher education institutions will always be very welcomeâ.
Minister for Higher Education Mary Mitchell OâConnor said: âStudent grants will be maintained for Irish and EU students heading to the UK to pursue their studies on approved courses for 2020/ 2021.â
âI am also pleased to confirm for British citizens that access to the SUSI scheme will continueâ, she said. âStudents from Britain and Northern Ireland will also continue to avail of access to the free fees initiative subject to compliance with the eligibility criteria.â
The announcement comes amid ongoing uncertainty for students about future arrangements on higher education in the aftermath of Brexit. Irish universities havenât escaped the effects of this instability, with Trinity reporting a 20 per cent drop in CAO applications from students in Northern Ireland in both 2018 and 2019.
In April 2019, speaking at the Scholarsâ Dinner, Provost Patrick Prendergast expressed concerns about Brexit and how it affects Trinityâs relationship with the UK, calling it a âhighly regrettable situationâ.
He added that âuniversities donât operate in isolation and they never did⊠politics has [sic] always affected academiaâ.
In November 2018, Trinity published an open letter in the UKâs Financial Times expressing regret at the potential damage to Irish universities that Brexit could bring, particularly the possibility of a hard border on the island of Ireland.
The letter stated that âeducation and culture are perhaps the most important of all âgoods and servicesâ that a frictionless border enablesâ.