Out of about 1,000 students who have made Ireland their home for a couple of years, a majority of them will vouch for the fact that living and learning in this land is worth every cent you spend here. While many of them come after spending a few lakhs of rupees, some have been fortunate to get scholarships such as the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship to stay and continue with their research in Ireland.

Thejesh Bandi, who is currently pursing MSc by research in Quantum Optics since March 2006 at the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) says that the overall approach of the Irish system towards education is quite practical, something that is not seen in India.

This gold medalist from Kuvempu University completed his M.Sc in Physics in India, and was working as a Junior Research Fellow (JRF) in the Physics Department, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Though the exposure to the field of research in IISc was world class, his motivation to get into higher studies in Physics brought him to the Quantum Optics Group in Cork, Ireland. Currently, he is pursuing the project of Laser Cooling and Trapping of Rubidium Atoms. This Chikmagalur lad, recently won an award from the Government of Ireland for his research in Quantum Physics.

“Though this is my first time away from home, I never felt home sick. The Irish are warm, friendly and very accommodating. They are people filled with pride about their own country, but not pompous. They associate equal respect to all cultures,” he says.

Kannika and Nisha, both from middle class families in New Delhi have been in Dublin for more than a year. While Kannika is pursuing her BE in Information and Communication, Nisha is doing her bachelors in Biotechnology. “We both are sure that we will return to our country at some point. We are sure the job market in India is excellent and we want to stay close to our families,” the girls quip. Both of them are working at small establishments to make ends meet. The job scenario in Ireland, according to students, is getting better with time. It is easy to get a part time job although most of the students find their jobs in retail like Penny's, Dunnes, Tesco or the food and service industry like McDonald, Pizza Hut, Super Mac, ESSO and also good opportunities in the IT sector like HP, Dell, Microsoft, INTEL, IBM with competitive packages. Johnson & Johnson has also been approaching colleges and universities offering internships for students across the board.

Most students who find Ireland an attractive destination quote close industry links as the chief reason. Amit Munjal who is pursuing his MSc in International Business Management at Griffith College in Dublin is also working as a Technical Business Analyst at Dell.  

Krishan Kumar Chawla, working as Deputy Manager at Beacon Hotel, and Anshna Chauhan, working as Global Analyst at the Bank of Ireland, are among the very few students who have continued their stay close to a decade in the country. Krishan Kumar has been around for seven years and Anshna, who came to Ireland as a teenager, has made it her home for the past 10 years. She has fallen so much in love with the place that she even recently bought a house for herself!

Keerthiraj Mallegowda and Dhanya Chithambaramkutty, both of who are pursuing courses related to food technology at the University College Cork have been fortunate enough to get scholarships. Keerthiraj, who hails from Mandya, had to convince his parents that ‘food technology’ was an emerging field and Ireland was the place to complete this course. Dhanya says she will terribly miss Cork when she moves to Denmark next year as part of her course.

Festivals like Diwali and even Holi in some cases are celebrated as part of the programmes for international students, to make them feel at home.

However, with all this, there are a few things that these students want the Irish government to consider if they are serious about attracting Indian students onboard. Among those are reducing the air fare for Indian students, offering better scholarships, and decreasing the average fees  an Indian student pays (12,000 Euros) as against the European student (800 Euros). Also, the onus lies on the students travelling to Ireland to find out if the institute they are interested in, is accredited by FETAC, HEA or HETAC to award the particular course. Details of these are available on www.nfq.ie. More details on Irish education can be found on www.education.ie