The Higher Education Authority (HEA) is pleased to issue the 2021 Call under the Government of Ireland International Education Scholarships Programme. Under the initiative 60 scholarships will be provided for one year study at Bachelor, Masters or PhD levels to successful candidates who have an offer of a place at an eligible Irish higher education institution.
Want More Money?Start An Online Job That Pays You For Doing Simple Tasks, Join Now
The offer is open to students from non-EU/EEA countries and is applicable to all fields of study.
Students who are successful will receive:
- A €10,000 stipend for one year’s study
- A full fee waiver of all tuition and other registration costs at the higher education institution
Details of Scholarship Scheme
The scheme is managed by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), on behalf of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. Following a competitive process based on an annual call for proposals from individual applicants, the HEA will approve a defined number of scholarships under the scheme to successful applicants. Government of Ireland International Education Scholarships will be awarded to high calibre students from non-EU/EEA countries to study full-time in Ireland for a period of one year. The following are the terms and conditions that will apply:
➢ The HEA will award a scholarship fund to the student (through the HEI that the student is attending) amounting to €10,000 for one study year. This fund is directed at covering student costs and living expenses. The scholarship may be for:
the final year of an undergraduate programme;
one year of a taught master’s degree programme or;
one year of a research programme (i.e. one year of a 2-year research masters or a 3-4-year PhD programme).
➢ The scholarship stipend will be transferred to the host higher education institution (HEI) of the successful student in two payments of €5,000. The HEI will then put in place a system to transfer the funds to the scholarship awardee.
➢ The HEI will be required to give a FULL fee waiver to the student for the scholarship year (i.e. tuition fee and registration charge are waived). This is the minimum matching funding requirement that institutions will be required to make to the scholarship scheme.
➢ It is expected that a total of 60 scholarships will be funded by the Government of Ireland International Education Scholarships for the academic year 2021/2022.
➢ Applicants must have a domiciliary of origin1 not equal to the EU/EEA, United Kingdom or Switzerland. Please refer to our FAQ for a further explanation regarding domiciliary of origin.
➢ Scholarships may be approved for study across all disciplines, subject to the availability of places. The HEA will seek to ensure that, overall, there is gender-balance in the cohort of students to whom scholarships are awarded.
➢ Due to the very large number of applications it will not be possible to give feedback to unsuccessful candidates.
➢ Applications are welcome from under-represented cohorts.
➢ Successful Scholars are to commence studies in September/October 2021. Later enrolments will only be considered in relation to PhD awardees.
➢ Students and their host HEIs may be required to attend a welcoming event for GOI-IES awardees around this time. An official awarding event for GOIIES Scholars will be held in April 2022.
Eligible Irish Higher Education Institutions
Applicants will need to apply for admission to a relevant Bachelor, Master or PhD programme offered by an eligible Higher Education Institution (see Appendix 1) as per that HEI’s admission procedures. Applicants are expected to have a conditional or final offer of admission to the HEI at the time of application and will be required to submit a copy of same. Should an applicant be in receipt of more than one offer, separate applications may be submitted for each course offer. Final offers will be subject to admission to the relevant HEI. Applicants should make enquiries directly to the relevant institution prior to submission of an application to the HEA.
Submission of Applications
(1) The Call for Applications will issue 8 February 2021 and the centralised application system (link) is now live and accepting applications.
(2) The closing date for receipt of applicationsis 5pm on Friday 26 March 2021 (Irish Time). Late applications will not be accepted.
(3) The application should be submitted via this link.
(4) Any questions regarding the call for applications should be submitted to GOI-IES@hea.ie no later than 26 March 2021. Telephone queries cannot be accommodated.
(5) The HEA will advise the applicants and the HEIs of the outcome of the evaluation process by 1 June 2021 at the earliest.
