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Dublin: 3 °C Saturday 25 May, 2013

College will waive fees for those who host foreign students

Irish students at Griffith College in Dublin, Cork and Limerick can secure a fee waiver for one year if their family provides accommodation and board for an international student.

Image: Griffith College

GRIFFITH COLLEGE HAS offered students the chance to offset their tuition fees for one year if their family provides accommodation and board to an international student studying at the third level institution.

The initiative has been opened up to students at all three of the Griffith College campuses in Dublin, Cork and Limerick with families who offer accommodation and board to an international student able to secure a waiver for fees of around €5,000 for an Irish student attending the college.

Immediate family or relatives of a student attending Griffith can act as hosts for an international student and the option can also be delayed for up to three years after the family provides accommodation for an international student.

“We are conscious that these are difficult economic times for Irish families,” Griffith College president Diarmuid Hegarty said.

“The objective of this scheme is to provide more opportunity for Irish students to attend college by eliminating the fees while offering international students a unique living experience during their time in Ireland.”

Griffith said in a statement that the initiative has been put in place in response to market needs and recognising that families are being forced to forgo fees for third level education in order to satisfy more pressing household expenditure.

It said that the programme will make third level education more accessible to undergraduate and post-graduate students and will also promote a language and culture transfer between Irish and international students.

Those who wish to apply can find out more by contacting the Griffith College admissions team on 01 415 0415 or emailing admissions@gcd.ie

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Comments (24 Comments)

  • People seem to be getting very off track here. Griffith is a fee paying private college in Dublin, that charges Irish students 5,000 euro a year to attend. They are simply offering their students a chance to not pay that 5,000 if they agree to house and board an international student. It would also mean the international student, who is paying a far greater sum than the Irish student, would avail of free meals and accommodation for a year in someone’s house

    That’s all there is to it. No ‘not looking after our own first’ or ‘why don’t all Irish students get grants’ or any of that. Griffith are private and therefore entitled to do what they wish in this regard, this doesn’t effect anyone in state run colleges like UCD or the likes.

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  • Excellent idea. Of course we have the usual inane comments from the usual brain dead half wits.

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  • This is a positive innovation and great to see some fresh ingenuity in the Third Level Education sector. However one would become depressed reading the comments of a handful of people who it seems spend their days seeking out even remotely negative aspects in an overall positive news story.

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  • While it’s a good start, the point is missing that students who need accommodation pay more than those who commute from home, meaning students who are in accommodation near their college pay more than those who stay at home. This scheme reduces fees of those at home, who in general pay less.

    I have to say it is a good thought though, and I can’t think of something which would benefit Irish students who need accommodation though.

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    • I travelled in and out of college using public transport as well ss working 39hours a week yet people I know lived on campus and never worked a single minute. Just because our outlay is slightly less doesn’t mean we don’t the help.

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  • Fantastic innovation. If it works don’t knock it. Fair play to the College for promoting this scheme. It’s far too easy to criticise. Everyone’s a winner here!

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  • Bottom line : they will pay you 5000 to take in a foreign student, this 5000 can only be used in payment against fees at Griffith College.

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  • Wonderful, lets look after the foreign students, lets ignore our own again.
    Still trying to get a grant to keep my own IRISH daughter in college. Why not waver the cost of accommodation for IRISH students first, students of families who have paid IRISH tax all there lives!

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    • This is getting rid of fees for irish students, presumably foreign students pay for accomodation but to griffith and this compensates for lost fees fron said orish students as a result of this scheme?

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    • Ignorant, uninformed, xenophobic, half-witted comment Michael. If you knew anything about this subject, you would know that non-EU students pay in the order of thousands more than their fellow EU and Irish students simply because the colleges can get away with charging non-EU students more. With this scheme in place, the Irish student gets a free ride while the non-EU student staying with the Irish student pays thousands.

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    • You’re not the sharpest tool in the box, are you Michael? This scheme is designed to help Irish students secure free tuition fees in lieu of their family providing accommodation to international students. Effectively what is happening here is that the international student is paying the Irish students fees for them in an exchange for accomodation. It’s a clever idea and Griffith College should be commended for it.

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  • I disagree this is a black and white issue

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  • Waste of time most college students have to move near college in rented accommodation I doubt a student from another country wants to live in a house and have to travel maybe 100miles to the college they want to go to

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  • So the Irish pay to host foreigners to enrich the owners of a private college? Who do you think is paying for these waived fees?

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    • You’d swear the irish students werent getting anything in return like 5k off their fees! Overall its probably more cost effective for all, foreign students get off college accomodation sorted with a family instead of on their own(house hunting is enough of a nightnare for students) and a lot of parents would prefer their 18 yr old in digs instead of on their own, griffith attracts more foreign students without large additional investment into providing campus accomodation and irish students get fees waived. Seems like a cost effecrive measure for all!

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