“I think the dip this year for the students starting in September was a lot to do with geopolitical uncertainty… The issues in the Gulf made people obviously a little bit nervous about traveling… I think it was all the level of uncertainty that people were contending with and making decisions to study abroad, not just in Ireland but to study abroad generally,” McHenry said.
Education in Ireland is the Irish government organisation responsible for promoting Ireland as a destination for international education and supporting the internationalisation activities of Irish higher education institutions.
The softer enrolment outlook comes after several years of growth in Ireland’s Indian student cohort. The number of Indian students increased from around 700 in 2013 to 11,000 in 2024 and 13,000 in 2025, according to McHenry. India is currently Ireland’s largest source of international students, accounting for just over a fifth of the country’s international enrolments.
However, enrolments this year have been accompanied by stronger registrations for Education in Ireland’s fairs in India, which are intended to help revive demand by connecting prospective students with Irish universities and providing guidance on courses, admissions and visas. The New Delhi fair held on October 3 brought together 17 institutions and Irish Visa Office officials. Events in Pune, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru are scheduled this month.
McHenry expects demand for Ireland to pick up among Indian students again after these fairs. Ireland has also benefited from tighter immigration policies in traditional study destinations such as the UK, Canada and Australia, she added.
There has been a deterioration in the quality of student visa applications, which visa officers had partly attributed to students using artificial intelligence (AI) to prepare them, McHenry said. Some applications appeared to receive less individual attention than in the past, she said, adding that this had contributed to more rejections.
“Students are maybe using AI… to help with their visa application so the quality of the applications from students across the board is not as high as it used to be… therefore there are more visa applications being rejected,” she noted.
She urged students to read Ireland’s visa requirements carefully and avoid relying on AI-generated material. Visa officers are expected to attend the upcoming fairs to advise applicants.
Indian students are becoming more focused on the employment value of overseas degrees, McHenry said, with strong demand in Ireland for courses in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), cybersecurity, AI, data analytics and healthcare.
She said this focus on job outcomes could also increase demand for Ireland’s five technological universities, which have a stronger emphasis on practical and industry-linked education. While such a shift was not yet pronounced among Indian students, McHenry expected these institutions to attract greater interest as students placed more weight on employability.
The changing nature of jobs is also prompting Irish universities to rethink how they teach students as the use of AI expands across industries, McHenry said. Universities are reviewing course content and teaching methods to account for the rapid adoption of AI, while employers are expected to place greater value on skills such as communication, teamwork and critical thinking alongside technical expertise.
As AI reshapes the skills sought by employers, Irish universities are also likely to see greater demand for interdisciplinary courses, McHenry said. Instead of offering separate courses, institutions are expected to offer programmes blending fields as different as arts and philosophy, with science and technology as AI firms increasingly seek talent with a broader academic background.
“Since AI companies are themselves seeking to recruit people who are educated in philosophy and in the arts, because they want that influence in their AI systems, I think we’ll see more of a blend across different courses to take all of that kind of thing into account,” she said.
