Founder member of English UK NI, Paul McMullan, principal of International House (IH) Belfast, commented, “It made sense to form English UK NI as it gives us much more power as an active body in approaching and working with our tourist and other organisations.”

The group comprises IH Belfast, Foyle Language School, North West Academy, Queens INTO, the University of Ulster and Belfast Metropolitan College.

“What we’re trying to do is pull together not only the English UK NI members but the many other bodies, government and otherwise, involved with tourism and inward investment. We want to be working together to put NI on the map,” said McMullan.

He claimed comparatively low costs, safety, and the fact that Northern Ireland does not have high numbers of international students already were all good incentives to studying in the country.

“It’s a very exciting time to come to Northern Ireland as it’s really going from strength to strength,” he said. “Last year we had the MTV awards, this year there’s the opening of the new MAC arts centre and the Titanic exhibition.”

The group plans to create a website as soon as possible as well as working together to organise inbound familiarisation trips for agents. It also intends to invite tourism and investment groups to its regular meetings.