Students continue to study in Ireland despite fears that the closure of 16 schools over the past year could tarnish the country’s reputation as an ELT destination.

“The decrease in 2014 was almost exclusively due to the absence in Venezuela”

Still, sector-wide regulation promised by the government after its crackdown on bogus providers has been delayed from its original October 1 deadline with no new date set.

“We won’t have concrete figures for this year until the end of January, but the summer was good and anecdotally people are happy that numbers went up,” CEO at MEI, David O’Grady, told The PIE News.

“Member schools who have operations in the UK said UK operations were down about 18% whereas the Irish operations were up about that. A lot of those programmes would be junior programmes.”

Figures last year showed a 3% drop in overall numbers mostly as the result of a 15% decrease in the adult market. “The decrease in 2014 was almost exclusively due to the absence in Venezuela,” O’Grady commented.

After the government crackdown on bogus providers, students from Venezuela were required to enter Ireland on a student visa.

European students account for 80% of Ireland’s students, led by junior groups from Italy and Spain. However, numbers up until Q3 2015 show student numbers from Turkey have risen from 377 students in 2014 to 702 students so far thanks to a visa facilitation scheme targeting the country.

Izett Aslantatr, director of Turkish agency Alternatif said he has seen a jump in students interested in Ireland. “It all triggered from that [the visa scheme]. Just that in itself raised awareness toward the country and because they had some students through that programme,” he told The PIE News.

“Turkey is an agency-driven market but also word of mouth works quite well here. People who went there earlier were happy, came back and that produced more students.”

“The status quo for now for long-term visas is 25 weeks of class and 27 weeks of holidays”

O’Grady said he is hopeful the sector will see a 5-6% increase for 2015, especially as the strength of the pound against the euro shows no signs of weakening.

“While you’re always happy to get business, it’s never ideal to benefit from the misfortunes of others in terms of the sterling because these things are cyclical,” he added.

MEI has 54 members schools, and they are, however, preparing for another bumper summer next year.

“There is every indication that the same situation will still maintain next summer. Even if we were a 5% or 10% increase, the challenge will be to maintain quality at that level of intensity in terms of host families and staff,” said O’Grady.

Meanwhile, providers are awaiting reforms to regulations that will establish a list of approved education providers across all sectors by the Department of Immigration. English language centres will have to prove a standard of quality in order to appear on the list.

The reforms will also reduce the length of visa for long-term 25-week courses. O’Grady said the delay has left schools in the lurch when planning for the upcoming  year.

“Until the new system starts, the status quo prevails and the status quo for now for long-term visas is 25 weeks of class and 27 weeks of holidays,” he said. “So that is what still applies until whenever it doesn’t, but schools are worried of what to sell.”

He said he expects the government to release the reforms by the beginning of next year. The Department of Immigration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.