Within the run as much as an election that have to be referred to as earlier than March 2025, ICOS is urging all political events to decide to its proposals on housing, immigration, racism and employment, with a view to enhancing worldwide college students’ expertise in Eire.
“Worldwide college students play a vital function in Eire’s tutorial, social and financial panorama; but they proceed to face vital challenges, lots of which go unnoticed,” stated Brian Hearne, coverage and communications supervisor at ICOS.
A lot of ICOS’s manifesto calls for relate to Eire’s acute pupil housing scarcity, calling on the subsequent authorities to extend funding for extra purpose-built pupil lodging (PBSA) and to attract up a brand new nationwide technique with revised targets on reasonably priced pupil housing.
After a 2023 survey discovered that 5% of worldwide college students had both acquired a proposal or seen an advert to lease a room in change for intercourse, ICOS is demanding the federal government go pressing laws prohibiting intercourse for lease exploitation.
ICOS, which advocates for worldwide college students in Eire and represents 27 Irish member establishments, additionally emphasised the necessity to strengthen tenants’ rights towards “unscrupulous landlords”, after 2023 native authority information revealed that 67% of personal properties didn’t meet minimal requirements.
“Worldwide college students are a low political precedence and haven’t any voting rights, aside from the native elections. ICOS believes that everybody residing in Eire must be handled equally in relation to their financial, social and human rights,” the manifesto said.
In keeping with the Council, worldwide college students contribute greater than €2 billion to the Irish financial system, and work in key areas resembling healthcare, the service business, enterprise and know-how.
In 2022, an annual deficit of €307m was recognized throughout Irish greater schooling, which, regardless of successive authorities commitments, has not been addressed. ICOS is looking for higher funding to satisfy the rising calls for positioned on HEIs.
ICOS believes that everybody residing in Eire must be handled equally in relation to their financial, social and human rights
Irish Council for Worldwide College students
As conventional research locations resembling Australia and Canada grapple with worldwide pupil restrictions, an rising variety of college students want to rising host international locations resembling Eire and Germany.
With the launch of Eire’s new globalisation technique this 12 months, ICOS has welcomed modernisation efforts to the immigration system together with a brand new web site and the extension of on-line visa companies.
Nevertheless, it believes that funding should go additional to make sure that all non-EEA worldwide college students residing in Cork and Limerick can register with immigration from their space of research.
The manifesto additionally requires a rise in working hours from 20 to 30 hours every week for non-EEA worldwide college students, and higher measures to deal with hate speech and discrimination.
“A big proportion of meals supply drivers working in Eire by way of platforms resembling Deliveroo and Simply East are English language college students working to fund their research,” the manifesto said, calling for the institution of a staff’ directive to reinforce their employment rights.
