The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD., who is currently on a trade and education mission to India and Saudi Arabia, has announced the launch of a new trusted agents programme to promote Irish higher-level education in India.
The programme will be supported with a marketing and communications fund of 4 million rupees (€63,000) funded equally by Enterprise Ireland, the Department of Education & Skills and the Irish higher education sector.
The programme
According to the Department of Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation the funding will be used to create high quality marketing collateral, targeted media editorials, advertising and e-marketing to promote of Irish higher-level education in India. Enterprise Ireland/Education in Ireland will also undertake a wider programme of direct visits to schools, meetings with school councils and associations and a range of other initiatives. Indian education agents match the requirements of the Indian students with the offerings of overseas education service providers. The agents earn placement fees from the overseas education service provider. In order to offer a range of choices to students, an agent will initially represent 10 to 20 overseas colleges from the main supplier countries, North America, Europe, Australia, Australia, Netherlands and Singapore.
“Investing in Global Relationships”
India sends more than 100,000 students abroad each year to study, 1,000 of which come to Ireland. The programme is a key measure in Ireland’s international education strategy “Investing in Global Relationships” to drive up the number of international students undertaking higher-level education in Ireland and is in line with Irelands plan to double the number of international students in Ireland by 2016.