Private colleges see growth continue

Private third level colleges can make up to €60m a year in profit according to Diarmuid Hegarty, chairman of Ireland's biggest fee-paying college, Griffith College.

He said that said that continuing growth in the sector was being fuelled by overseas students.

Mr Hegarty claimed that his college expects to make around €20m this year.

The average price of sending a student to a fee-paying college for a year is around €4,500.

Griffith College has just taken over the Mid-West Business Institute in Limerick, and also opened a campus in Cork last year.