18:15 And that’s a wrap! Delegates are joining Team PIE for a well-deserved drink at this evening’s networking session, so look out for the pictures on one of our famous picture galleries.
Thanks for following along today. In the meantime, it’s sláinte from all of us at The PIE!
Key takeaways from The PIE Live Ireland
- Visas continue to plague stakeholders in international education. It’s not just about visa refusals; it’s also about a lack of transparency over decision making.
- Expect to see far more stories in The PIE about Irish TNE as institutions here increasingly explore opportunities around the world – whether that’s a research partnership or a full-on branch campus.
- Irish institutions are being bold and ambitious with their international recruitment plans. But politicians are being clear that recruitment cannot continue unchecked. Social license is a major factor here – there seems to be an understanding from the powers that be that unchecked growth will undermine the sector’s position in the court of public opinion, rather than bolstering it.
Session updates: Keynote – Bernie Hollywood
18:08 More lovely stuff from Bernie about how the letters of hope he was carrying in his boat as he rowed across the Atlantic kept him going.
18:06 Live intel from Bernie on his next adventure. He’s rowing across another ocean – this time, the Pacific.
18:03 Really inspiring stuff from Bernie. He’s ending on a truly draw-droping tale of how he rowed solo across the Atlantic. All in a day’s work! Well, 109 in the end.
What he didn’t have time to get into was that he broke his leg on day 14 of the journey but carried on regardless. Once he arrived in Florida, medics had to re-break and set his leg.
18:00 Here’s a snap of Bernie commanding the stage.
17:55 Bernie’s PIE Live Europe session was so moving that it had some delegates crying. Tissues at the ready, lads.
17:52 And it’s time for our last session here in Dublin! Servant leader and extreme explorer Bernie Hollywood is treating us to a 15-minute keynote.
Our editor Beth Kennedy interviewed Bernie at The PIE Live London back in March and many delegates said it was their favourite session of the entire two days (no pressure for a repeat, Bernie!). He’ll be telling us what he’s learned across his decades of extraordinary experiences – and putting it all in context to remind us why we all do what we do.
Session updates: Q&A – University of Galway leadership in conversation
17:43 Of course, the visa issue is a headache for Galway, as Ireland grapples with refusals. India is being particularly badly affected, says acting director of internationalisation Catherine-Maria King in conversation with The PIE’s Amy Baker.
But the recruitment team has been literally bashing the phones to get the answers that students need. “We’d be far worse off without the dedication of those members of staff,” she says.
17:41 Recruitment figures are down, King reveals – about 30% year on year. But this offers Galway a chance to diversity its recruitment markes, she says.
And, of course, it’s the perfect time to try its hand at TNE. The University of Galway is going ahead with two partnerships with universities in mainland China.
17:38 Galway was named the most charming city in the world by The New York Times, Catherine-Maria King reveals. How delightful! And she confirms it’s true.
There are lots of links between Galway and the US, she says – and that’s reflected in the uni’s international student body.
17:36 King is a Londoner (although her mother is Irish), with previous experience at London institutions. Key differences between the market involve the sheer scale of them, she tells Baker. There are more unis in London that there are in the entirety of Ireland.
17:34 It’s the penultimate session of the day! Catherine-Maria King, director of internationalisation (acting) at the University of Galway, joins The PIE’s CEO Amy Baker onstage for a Q&A about her role at the university.
17:17 A reminder that delegates at The PIE Live Ireland can take a look at the pictures of them from the event via the app. There’s a swish AI tool that will find the pictures with you in them by using a selfie, so see if you can spot yourself!
Session updates: What are we teaching for? Graduates in the age of AI
17:27 Definite concern around the cognitive offload that AI is causing – and just because we can use AI for some things doesn’t mean we should, panelists argue. “We’re being sold freedom but we’re buying servitude”, says Ciarán Dunne of Dublin City University.
17:06 Yes, AI is useful, acknowledges Peter Wood, co-founder and CEO at Calibr. But it means nothing if a candidate doesn’t have the underlying skills to back up the outputs that AI can generate. Know your input to get the best output, he says.
17:04 AI offers a great way to find out what makes students tick and what skills they have – but also a way to identify where the gaps might be, points out Ciarán Dunne, transversal skills director at Dublin City University.
17:02 The PIE’s CEO Amy Baker is leading a session on AI and what this means for students coming into the workforce.
Session updates: What is social licence? Balancing reputation, trust, and public scrutiny
17:11 Jonny Johnston, policy & research advisor at Trinity Global, pushes back, wondering how much difference there might be in answers from people in different regions of Ireland. The perception of international students may be very different in rural Ireland compared to urban, he suggests.
17: 10 Chris Rawlings, senior partner at Voyage, shows some killer data showing that Ireland’s social license for international education is actually pretty low.
16:57 Celestine Rowland, managing director of Galway Business School & Galway Cultural Institute, says that attitudes towards international education have been slowly changing over the years – and now, due to factors such as housing shortages, international students are becoming scapegoats for wider public frustrations.
16:55 We’ve just had a complex and nuanced discussion on social license. But what do we mean by that? Panelist Jess Lister, director (education) at Public First, defined it as public perception. How much license will the public give you to carry out what you are doing, and how much positivity or hostility do they feel towards it?
Session updates: The invisible shortlist – how AI is changing university choice
14:59 Our delegates are all asking AI tools the same questions in this workshop using the same prompt – “I’m 24 from Hyderabad. Which one year data analytics MSc courses in Ireland would you shortlist if I want to work afterwards?” With additional prompts about fees, what happens next.
The same platforms are recommending totally different universities around the room! This is not the same as search results rankings and there is audible shock as people compare responses.
14:48 In a search exercise of 15 discovery questions about where to study, OpenAI referenced the university website in 61% of searches, Perplexity 39%, and Claude just 23%. Both Perplexity and Claude offer less links as part of the referencing.
Interestingly, these percentages changed when the same research was done just a few days later, highlighting how the systems rarely give the same answer twice.
14:39 Marketing masterclass: Students are asking AI first, but where do the answers come from? EducationCubed, the brains behind the Not-Another-HE-Conference are in full swing mapping some common searches students make using their favourite AI tool.
Session updates: TNE unbound – bold, locally-embedded models for a new era
15:16 A straw poll of delegates shows that over three quarters of institutions in the room have TNE partnerships – and the vast majority are looking at further opportunities.
East Asia domintes as a prospective location, but also exploration across South East Asia, South Asia, North America and MENA. Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe lagging far behind.
15:00 TNE opens up your student body to different demographics, says Pearson’s James Carmichael. Students who the university wouldn’t otherwise enrol are now able to go to that university.
But TNE is not a silver bullet, warn other speakers. It’s a complicated model that shouldn’t be undertaken lightly.
14:58 The nationalism you see in the UK and the US is driving TNE, suggests RSCI Medical University Bahrain’s Stephen Harrison-Mirfield. It puts students off travelling there to study – they want the same education but closer to home.
14:52 While RSCI Medical University Bahrain listened carefully to what the local population needed from it before setting up the campus, its approach is also very Irish. The curriculum it teaches in both countries is identical, says managing director Stephen Harrison-Mirfield.
Meanwhile, interest in TNE continues to grow across the Middle East, he says.
14:50 UCD looking strategically at expanding its Asian presence, says Hughes. “There’s a growing academic appetite” from students, she says – and that’s what must underpin future partnerships.
14:44 UCD has a long and varied TNE history, says Shauna Hughes, from programs split between Malaysia and Dublin to academic partnerships in China.
14:43 Founder and director of Education Insight, Janet Ilieva, hosts the session. She’s joined by Pearson English Language Learning country manager for the UK and Ireland, James Carmichael, director of global partnerships at UCD Global, Shauna Hughes, and managing director of RCSI Medical University of Bahrain, Stephen Harrison-Mirfield.
14:40 We have to think about TNE in a very bold way, says Ilieva.
14:38 Higher education expert and all-round data and insights whizz Janet Ilieva is giving an outlne of where the land lies for TNE globally. She names Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka and other countries as hotspots.
14:33 We’ve been looking forward to this one. As Ireland rises up the ranks as a study destination, all eyes are moving to transnational education (TNE).
Lunchtime update
While our delegates catch up over their lunch, we’re bringing you the key takeaways from the conference so far.
- Visa headaches continue to be a source of frustration for Irish institutions. From long waiting times to refusals, stakeholders have identified study visas as a major pain point.
- Is political opinion of international education changing? Speakers highlight minister James Lawless’s recent u-turn.
- Could TNE fever be coming for Ireland? As other major destinations embrace the offshore model, Irish insitutions are eyeing up their own opportunities
- Today’s graduates need a totally different skillset than they would have even a few years ago. But are universities meeting that change, or could they do more to prepare their students for the world of work?
Session updates: Industrial rollercoaster – what employers really want from graduates and universities in this age of transition
13:08 Most graduates make the mistake of not accurately describing their skills on LinkedIn. The technology behind the hiring process is matching skills to job descriptions and graduates are missing out as a result. Universities need to train graduates to demonstrate their skills on the platform rather than just using it as a digital CV.
13:00 In a snapshot poll of the audience, resilience, critical thinking and adaptability come out as the skills that they believe graduates are lacking when they leave university.
Is that fair? The panel are discussing how life isolates young people in ‘bubbles’ and these skills are not easy to fix.
12:55 What is CQ and why is it strong in international graduates?
Cultural intelligence, known as CQ, is a graduate’s ability to function and communicate effectively in culturally diverse situations. It goes beyond basic awareness to adapt behaviour when working across different national, ethnic, or organisational cultures.
As an inherent skill set developed through study abroad, international graduates are attractive because of their CQ quotient than their IQ.
12:48 Andy Harrison from Languagecert highlights that “the average graduate is expected to have the same skills as a 34 year old” in the current competitive jobs market. They are losing out through a lack of work experience.
12:45 LinkedIn has invested in a “skills taxonomy” – a dynamic, standardised inventory of over 39,000 to 42,000 skills, 374,000 aliases, and 200,000 semantic relationships that all feed into a skills graph. This helps businesses with hiring, internal mobility, and learning.
“What’s best in class today will be different tomorrow,” explains Seamus Clancy, encouraging businesses to use real-time data so they don’t fall behind the curve.
12:38 An update from our employability session. Qualtrics reveal the three core competencies they look for in graduates; intelligence, coachability and resilience. In terms of skills, they value expertise in using AI as desirable, but personal skills are essential.
“It’s artificial intelligence, not artificial empathy,” Gareth Fennel stresses as the human element is becoming more valuable.
12:31 Next up, we are going to hear from industry representatives about what skills they are looking for from the international graduates coming out of Ireland’s universities.
Speakers include Garreth Fennell, head of EMEA corporate sales at Qualitrics and Seamus Clancy, head of public sector and not-for-profit sales at LinkedIn.
Session updates: Braithim sábháilte – how can we magnify a sense of safety in the student experience?
12:56 Accommodation is the main gripe for international students in Ireland, says SETU third-year student Dami. Could there be housing places linked to your place at university, he asks.
12:43 ICOS’s Orla Lehane points out the “structural issues” plaguing international students. Visas, housing and more are all problems they face that affect their sense of safety.
12:41 Live from our student safety session – are we getting to the heart of how students are feeling on campus, asks OnCampus Ireland’s CEO Brian McDonald. Are we asking the right questions and, crucially, are we acting on that information quickly enough?
12:34 And in a breakout session, we’re hearing from universities about what safety means to international students. Panelists include OnCampus Ireland’s Brian McDonald, Irish Council for International Students executive director Orla Lehane, SETU’s international affairs manager Donal McAlister and – importantly – we’ve got a student voice in Oyindamola Olaosun, who’s in his third year studying Software Development at SETU.
12:17 Next stop on The PIE’s European tour is Germany! The PIE Live will take place on October 30 2026 in Berlin, just before the ICEF event.
Find out how Germany has entered in to the top four most popular study destinations in the world. Tickets and agenda here.
Session updates: Strengthening transatlantic ties: North American perspectives on higher education partnerships with Ireland
12:30 Huge shout from the panel for The PIE’s speaker manager Lauren Nunan who has helped curate such a brilliant selection of speakers!
12:11 “Build on what you have” says Ursula Kilkelly from UCC. Her advice to the audience is not to neglect the partners you have in favour of some notion that you are missing out on something elsewhere.
Dolores O’ Riordan, UCD adds that all partnerships should be “reciprocal” with institutions needing to find common ground and shared missions to be successful. TNE strategy cannot be done in isolation.
12:09 Canada needs to flex its muscles more with Ireland and forge stronger ties, says York University Canada’s Douglas Proctor. He’d like to see more work thre – but to many people, ‘transatlantic’ means Europe-US relations, he points out. Don’t forget that Canada’s there too is his closing message.
12:07 There’s been a massive surge in US students coming to Ireland since Donald Trump took the White House for a second time. The unis on the panel have all noticed a big jump.
12:06 The brilliant thing about Ireland is that so many people can trace links back here, says University College Cork’s Ursula Kilkelly. And that includes world leaders! Mark Carney has roots in Mayo – much like Kilkelly herself, she says.
12:04 Education in Ireland has been a key partner in bringing The PIE Live to the Emerald Isle! Also a wide range of supporting sponsors are investing in the market including AscentOne, IELTS, LanguageCert, Pearson, ECCTIS, EducationCubed, Lighthouse Education, Flywire, Huron, Intled.io, OneStep, Pearsana, Twin, UMass Boston, University College Cork, Unibuddy and Uni Life.
12:02 There’s a strong connection between the US and Ireland – but it’s also there in Canada, says York University Canada’s Douglas Proctor. He sees new(ish) Prime Minister Mark Carney as being more outward looking than his predecessor, who “burnt bridges” with China and India.
11:57 Dr Deirdre Giblin, director of development and external engagement at NCI, is hosting our panel on transatlantic ties. She is also the current chairperson of the Ireland Canada Business Association and reveals on stage a new MOU signed between NCI and University of the District of Columbia
1:53 Could the EU-Canadian relationship be even closer with Ireland as the conduit?
In September 2026, the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen invited Canada to become the EU’s first-ever ‘associate member’. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney welcomed the concept as a unique framework. Canada is already part of the Horizon Europe programme, the European Union’s research and innovation program
11:51 The research landscape is a very attractive proposition for North American institutions to partner with Irish institutions. Almost every academic in Ireland will have close ties and personal links to either the US or Canada. The diaspora bring cultural benefits but also academic alliances.
11:49 And we’re back from this morning’s coffee break, freshly caffeinated and ready to jump back into sessions. I’ll be bringing you updates forn a panel on transatlantic ties – North American perspectives on higher education partnerships with Ireland.
Our fabulous panel includes Dolores O’Riordan, vice-president for global engagement at UCD, Douglas Proctor, assistant vice-president, global at York University Canada, Matthew Boyce, vice provost for enrollment management at the University of Massachusetts, ursula Kilkenny, vice president global engagement at University College Cork and Diredre Giblin, director of development and external engagement at National College of Ireland, hosting the session.
Session updates: Policy – Ireland’s position in the global education landscape
11:08 And our policy panel has finished on a positive note. Ireland is OTT, says Paul Johnston. No, not Over The Top, Open To Talent. Appreciative ripple around the room.
11:07 Declan Coogan refers to Trinity College Dublin’s strategic plan for 2025–2030 is titled “Thrive,” a five-year roadmap aimed at fostering a pluralist university education, academic freedom, and institutional growth.
11:06 Question from the floor: “Is there any data on the numbers of visas being rejected?”
The answer seems to be no, with anecdotal evidence by market and institution fuelling speculation. This seems like an obvious gap where the sector needs to pool data to better understand the real-time situation.
11:03 Visas are Ireland’s “biggest pain point”, says Trinity College Dublin’s Declan Coogan. Visa challenges already a major theme of today’s conference.
After a spike in visa refusals from Gaza in the summer of 2026, four students made a legal challenge against the decision to not allow them to study.
3/4 challenges were successful as the court cited of ‘significant’ and ‘out of blue’ change of practice by Minister for Justice in the visa decisions.
IUA has been reminded that visa decisions are individual and therefore the government considers the decisions to be confidential information to that person.
11:00 A reminder that Ireland offers visa-free entry for students from a number of countries, with the biggest markets including EU/EEA/Swiss member states alongside non-EU countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, New Zealand, and Ukraine.
10:52 The population of the Republic of Ireland has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic according to data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The population rose from roughly 4.97 million in 2020 to 5,525,600 by April 2026, with the 12-month period leading up to April 2026 alone, the population increased by 66,900 people. The rising population obviously puts pressure on housing and social services.
10:43 The recent closures of BSC, ILAC and EC English school groups have been “like a tornado” through the sector, says Lorcan O’ Connor, CEO, English Education Ireland.
However he said the warning signs have been there since COVID and the closures in Ireland have been linked to regulatory issues and the sector is still strong. He feels the sector will be more ‘robust and resilient’ in the future.
10:42 QQI’s TrustEd benchmark is close to completion of the implementation period. It is seen as an essential pillar in sustainable internationalisation of the sector.
The next step will be the organisation of a communications strategy to promote the strength of the work as a benchmark of ethical recruitment. China will be a target market for promotion.
10:30 “People are speculating about the direction of travel. Ireland has had a very positive operating system in the past. In an unpredictable world, we have been very predictable.”
Declan Coogan, associate director, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland looks for continued stability and joined-up thinking as a strength of the Irish sector. But the sector is cautious here, he says. Stakeholders have noticed the direction of travel in other major destinations and is preparing itself for similar policy shifts here in Ireland.
10:28 Irish Universities Association (IUA) director general Paul Johnston reminds the audience of his criticism of the government budget 2027 as a “failure to invest in the future” of Ireland’s higher education sector. The sector predicts an annual deficit of €190m. Yes, we need the immigration system to work well, says Johnston – but we can’t let bureaucracy get in the way. Visa processing times are lagging, and international education is suffering because of it.
10:25 Now it’s time for a policy update. Trinity College Dublin’s Declan Coogan, Lorcan O’Connor-Lloyd, Mary Grennan of Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) and director general of the Irish Universities Association Paul Johnston join Amy Baker onstage.
9:58 Times are disrupted for higher education institutions around the world, says Feely. “We are now in a world that is pulling back from those opportunities,” she says of the movement of students as governments crack down on immigration.
9:56 UCD president Orla Feely takes the stage.
9:52 It’s a truly global event here today, says Baker. We’ve welcomed delegates from the US, from Vietnam and elsewhere around the world.
9:50 And we’re about to kick things off here at The PIE Live Ireland with an opening address from The PIE’s CEO Amy Baker.
9:11 Overheard: concern in the room as visa refusal rates are pushing 40% for some institutions, while some students are waiting up to 14 weeks for a visa decision.
9:09 There ain’t no party like a PIE party. Mix that with Temple Bar in Dublin and delegates are in for a treat. Memories of Sushil Sukhwani ‘splitting the G’ last year! Remember to come back later to check in on our infamous picture galleries from the event.
8:56 Here are some snaps from last night’s welcome drinks.
8:52 Remember there are eight traditional universities, five technical universities and two institutes of technology in Ireland, that operate alongside several state-funded specialist colleges and independent institutions and a large language schools sector. We’ve got all of them representing here today.
8:48 Good morning from Dublin! The sun’s shining here on the beautiful University College Dublin campus as delgates make their way here for our second PIE Live event in Ireland.
We’ve got a packed agenda today, covering everything from policy to employability – with much more in between.
This is a live news story. Check back for updates….
