Quality mark will regulate language schools

An educational quality mark to be in place by the end of the year should ensure below-standard colleges for international students can no longer stay in business, the Dáil has been told.

As the fallout continues for thousands of foreign students affected by the closures of five colleges since mid-April, a task force set up by the departments of education and justice is due to deliver an interim report today. It should tell Education Minister Ruairi Quinn and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald the numbers involved and progress on finding them places at other colleges on English language or other courses like those in which they were participating.

Mr Quinn has previously warned that there could be other colleges in danger of closing, in addition to Kavanagh College, Eden College, Irish Business School, Millennium College in Dublin, and Allied Irish College in Cork, which was the latest to close last week.

As some of their ex-students protested in Dublin yesterday, Irish Council for International Students director Sheila Power said many students are six weeks out of class and most have no clear path forward for their studies.

“Although positive developments have begun to emerge from the Government task force, there remains a lack of visible progress for students,” said Ms Power.

Ciarán Cannon, minister of state at the Department of Education, said visa statuses are unaffected and students can still work to support themselves while remaining in Ireland. Although the colleges are private institutions, he said the establishment of an education quality mark for the sector is under way.

“At the end of this year, we will have a quality mark we can stand over, and under which an institution will have that credibility and build themselves a very, very strong reputation for the provision of exceptionally high quality education,” said Mr Cannon.

“Over time, I’m very confident we will be able to build that brand internationally so that every single educational support and educational opportunity that’s offered to young people entering this country will be of that exceptionally high standard; and that over time, those that can’t operate to those high standards will simply be pushed out of business.”

He said the plan is that anyone considering studying in Ireland would protect themselves by ensuring they do not attend an institution which does not have the quality mark.

A public consultation by Quality and Qualifications Ireland on requirements to be allowed use the planned International Education Mark remains open until late July. It is also working on a code of practice for providing programmes to international learners.

QQI will give initial priority to quality mark applications from course providers recognised under the Accreditation and Coordination of English Language Services scheme. The sequencing of applications for other providers will be informed by the Government’s international education strategy.

Fianna Fáil education spokesman Charlie McConalogue said there are serious questions about how the situation was allowed to happen, with many students now stranded in Ireland.

“A lot of them are in financial difficulty because they have paid money for those courses and now find themselves out of those courses,” he said.