Annual Report 2010
FOREWORD
Nicola Carroll, ICOS Chairperson
In my capacity of Chair of the Irish Council for International Students (ICOS), I am pleased to share details of our activities and achievements in 2010 in the broad context of ICOS’ overall aim to make Ireland a welcoming place where international students will enjoy a quality educational experience.
An important development in that context was the release in September 2010 of “Ireland’s International Education Strategy 2010-15, Investing in Global Relationships”. While the strategy focused strongly on growing the numbers of international students who would chose Ireland as a study destination, there was also a significant emphasis on measures to protect students and on enhancing the quality of the student experience.
These were issues on which ICOS had strongly campaigned throughout the year. The publication of the Government’s long awaited “New Immigration Regime for full-time non EEA Students”, also in September, meant that ICOS was busy as it responded to questions from member institutions, students and the media on the implications of the new measures.
As always, ICOS hopes it has stuck the right balance in its representation, working with the Government and its agencies but at the same time ensuring that the students’ voice is heard. The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) and international students were strongly represented in ICOS’ Annual Seminar in June on the theme, “What do Students Really Need?”, and at the USI-ICOS regional students’ forum in Dublin in January. The forum provided an opportunity for international students from different colleges to meet and express their views on their experience of Irish higher education and was generously hosted by the Lord Mayor of Dublin in the Mansion House.
2010 was a good year for the Irish Aid Fellowship Training Programme which ICOS is contracted to manage. The number of fellowships increased with continuing positive indicators of success in relation to academic achievements of study fellows as well as significant contributions on return to their home countries. The achievements of the fellowship programme are captured not just in the tracking research reports completed by ICOS as part of its service contract with Irish Aid but also in the very human and uplifting stories of the fellows themselves who are featured in the case studies compiled by ICOS and now available on our website.
ICOS remains committed to providing relevant and up-to-date training and information support to its members and, despite resource limitations in 2010 which are likely to continue as the recession bites deeper, we managed to deliver nine training courses and three information workshops over the year. ICOS’ regular e-bulletins, website and Facebook page are the main vehicles for information dissemination and our audience shows steady growth.
ICOS continues to attract new institutional members who bring new insights and talent to the organisation and we are also fortunate to have a hardworking staff team that is flexible and open to change.
It is on this foundation that we look forward to building on our achievements into the future.