In recent days, Northern Ireland has emerged as a unique destination for Indian students who wish to do their higher education abroad. Beyond the fact that the world’s most popular show “Game of Thrones? was shot in the country’s capital Belfast, it serves as a great study destination for several other reasons as follows:
Academic Excellence in the fields of STEM
World renowned study programs
Remarkable Hospitality
History and Natural landscapes
As an English-speaking country in Europe, Northern Ireland should be considered by the Indian Students for pursuing their higher education for the below reasons:
Immigration Policies:
Studying in Northern Ireland for more than three months requires UK student visa and NOT AN IRISH VISA. As UK has always been welcoming more international students, the new immigration rules have increased the number of student visa issued to Indian students by 42% when compared with 2020.
Another major reason is, GRE / GMAT is not mandatory for all the Irish universities. Applications are assessed based on previous academic records and English scores like IELTS, PTE, etc.
In addition to this the British Council can provide Certificate of Sponsorship for international graduates in STEM courses, who have been provided UK based work opportunities to support their Tier-5 visa applications.
Growth in Technology:
Northern Ireland has drawn a significant attention from tech and management companies across the world. The skilled workforce of this place has led many companies like Proof-Point, WhiteHat, Deloitte, IBM, etc to invest and make Belfast as their primary location.
Many universities here take this advantage and work with large companies and help their students to get trained with the required industry knowledge and skills. Hence the tech sector provides more employment opportunities with workers asking for £10,000 more in wages.
In addition to technology sector, others like healthcare, nursing, accounting and finance also have a large number of vacancies.
Research-led Universities:
Northern Ireland is known for its thriving technology industry. No wonder that it has been considered one of the top 10 Digital Economies of the future.
The universities here are well known for their excellence in research and innovation across global issues and themes. The research activity of these universities is considered world-class and internationally matchless.
World class Campus facilities & Safer student environment:
Alongside their world class education system, universities in Northern Ireland are known for their safe and state of the art facilities. The universities have best facilities on campus across business, science laboratories, computing, etc. Along with award winning libraries that blend traditional features with latest technologies.
As most of the universities are located in the midst of local communities, international students have the opportunity to blend naturally to the community and contribute towards the social, economic and cultural development.
In Northern Ireland, South Belfast was the constituency judged to benefit most as the highest number of international students lived there. The report estimates they brought a net benefit of £29m into the area's economy.
International students are worth £170m to the Northern Ireland economy, according to a report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI).
For the Indian students who are looking to study abroad should consider Northern Ireland as one of the key destinations. With a thriving community, internationally recognised education system, safe and reliable infrastructure provide unparalleled advantage to the international students.
Along with this, the open immigration policies of Ireland have made it as an emerging unique country from which to launch a global career.