About Irish institutions

Tertiary level education is offered at Irish universities, colleges of education, private colleges and at institutes of technology:

Irish universities

There are seven universities in Ireland: University of Limerick, Dublin City University, National University of Ireland Maynooth, University College Cork, National University of Galway, University College Dublin, and Trinity College Dublin - The University of Dublin, which is the oldest university in the country.

Irish universities offer a range of bachelor's, master's, research doctorate courses (PhD) and diploma courses. Most undergraduate courses will involve lectures and tutorials taken at a university campus whereas master's degrees and PhD courses will be more research-based.

Institutes of technology

The Republic of Ireland also has 14 institutes of technology dotted around the country and these offer national diploma, certificate and degree-level courses. The cutting-edge skills taught at these institutes are due in part to the demand for graduates for Ireland's important chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing sector. The institutes of technology offer courses from level 6 to level 10 of the National framework of qualifications.

Independent colleges

In addition to the publicly-funded higher education providers, Ireland has numerous private colleges that offer tertiary-level courses and qualifications. Most of these courses are monitored by the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC).

If you want to apply for a higher education course at an Irish institution, you'll need a good grasp of English. The minimum English proficiency score in TOEFL is 550. If you feel that you need some extra tuition before commencing a tertiary course, Ireland has plenty of English language schools throughout the country that offer both short- and long-term courses.