Bilateral Agreements and Worldwide Co-operation

Bilateral Agreements

A mutual agreement on recognition of qualifications in higher education was agreed between Ireland and China in 2006.

Cooperation and participation in worldwide programmes and organisations

The Government of Ireland Scholarships programme is an international scholarship scheme aimed at attracting top students from priority and emerging markets to study in higher education colleges in Ireland. Under the scheme students have all fees and registration charges waived and also receive €10,000 to cover living expenses for one year of study in Ireland. The scheme is open to all disciplines for all postgraduate and final-year undergraduate students, and allows high-quality students from any non-EEA country the opportunity to spend one year of their studies in Ireland. It is administered by the Higher Education Authority.

A total of 27 Irish Higher Education Institutions are currently participating in the Brazilian student mobility programme - Science without Borders.  Ireland's participation in the programme is co-ordinated by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) in partnership with the Department of Education and Skills, Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Universities Association (IUA), Institutes of Technology Ireland (IOTI), Higher Education Colleges Association (HECA) and the higher education institutions.

The initiative is a large scale nationwide scholarship programme primarily funded by the Brazilian federal government. The programme seeks to strengthen and expand the initiatives of science and technology, innovation and competitiveness through international mobility of undergraduate and graduate students and researchers.  It is planned to support the mobility of 101,000 Brazilian students over the duration of the initiative from 2012-2016.

Ireland participates in OECD and UNESCO fora on education. In addition there are a range of initiatives on volunteering which encourage co-operation with under- developed countries.