{"id":656898,"date":"2026-10-16T20:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T20:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/656898\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T20:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T20:40:09","slug":"government-visa-policy-costing-university-college-cork-more-than-e3-5m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/656898\/","title":{"rendered":"Government visa policy costing University College Cork more than \u20ac3.5m\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recent government policy affecting visa arrangements has had a \u201cmaterial impact\u201d on international recruitment, costing\u00a0University College Cork<\/a> (UCC) an estimated \u20ac3.7m, according to the chair of its governing authority.<\/p>\n

Sean O\u2019Driscoll, chair of the UCC governing authority, appeared at the Oireachtas committee on further and higher education on Thursday with colleagues from across the university sector to discuss funding.<\/p>\n

The committee heard that student numbers have grown by more than 50% since 2008, but that State funding per student is 34% less now in real terms than in 2008.<\/p>\n

Paul Farrell, chairperson of the board of Trinity College Dublin, said it was “incumbent” on the universities to “point to the very real cliff-edge we are teetering upon” when it comes to State funding.<\/p>\n

\u00a0“Student numbers, inflation and pay awards have outpaced funding, putting pressure on teaching, student support and research,” he said.<\/p>\n

Funding gap<\/p>\n

The Irish University Association (IUA) estimates the gap in funding is now somewhere above \u20ac250 million per annum due to unfunded pay costs and unfunded growth in student numbers. <\/p>\n

UCC is a major national and regional asset, Mr O’Driscoll said. Student numbers at the university have increased by 23.3% over the last eight years to 26,988.<\/p>\n

“However, the funding model has not kept pace with that growth.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The university has become “increasingly reliant” on non-Exchequer income, philanthropy, international student recruitment and commercial income to maintain teaching, research and student services,” Mr O’Driscoll said.<\/p>\n

UCC’s internationalisation strategy has helped diversify its income streams, he added.<\/p>\n

\n “However, recent Government policy developments affecting visa arrangements, while outside the control of the higher education sector, are having a material impact on recruitment from key international markets, with an estimated financial impact of \u20ac3.7 million for UCC for 2026\/27.”\n <\/p>\n

Labour senator and spokesperson on higher education Laura Harmon said: “It’s very worrying about the visa situation, and the lack of information from government in relation to this. \u20ac3.7 m is a big impact on the college.”<\/p>\n

Director of the Irish Universities Association Paul Johnston said government has acknowledged the gap in core funding but “not moved fast enough to address it”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Budget 2027 provided only \u20ac10 million in new core funding, he added. <\/p>\n

UCC business school\u00a0<\/p>\n

She also asked Mr O’Driscoll about the CUBS business school and whether the university has plans to dispose of its original site.<\/p>\n

It emerged last year that UCC scrapped the plans for the off-campus school it initially planned to build on a Cork city centre site that cost \u20ac17m.<\/p>\n

The new school will be developed on the UCC campus instead at a cost of \u20ac60m.<\/p>\n

Mr O’Driscoll confirmed the university plans to dispose of the city centre site. “We’re looking at all options for the site,” he said.<\/p>\n

\n “It will be disposed of. We’re looking at the possibility of student accommodation. Student accommodation is not viable in Cork at the moment.\n <\/p>\n

“The capital costs associated with building it, as against the return, don’t justify the investment, but we do have a plan to increase student accommodation from 1,500 units to 2,000.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recent government policy affecting visa arrangements has had a \u201cmaterial impact\u201d on international recruitment, costing\u00a0University College Cork (UCC)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,41434,79,61,60,24554],"class_list":["post-656898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cork-education","tag-cork-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ucc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}