This trade mission is now over.  For further information on doing business in Japan, Korea or Thailand, please contact your Development Advisor .

31 October-12 November, 2006

These visits are a follow up to those of  2004 and 2005 which helped to introduce  Ireland as a serious successful player in the international education world. We are targeting these markets again this year in order to increase the diversification on Irish campuses and, to some degree, to offset the slow down in the Chinese market. This objective has become even more urgent in the light of the overall decline in Chinese students choosing the traditional English speaking markets.

While the numbers of students from these three markets remain lower than we would like, we are newcomers and need to remain committed if the key agents are to take us seriously. Colleges should also be prepared to commit resources to allow for follow up visits after these Fairs and to involve the Enterprise  Ireland  offices in all their market development activities. All three markets are important to our competitor countries as can be seen by the resources (human and financial) which they have committed to them over the past decades.

Included in your programme for each country are Education Fairs targeting agents and students plus adequate time to hold follow up meetings with new and existing agents and/or to interview prospective students.  We are arranging for Receptions in each location which will be hosted by the respective Ambassador to which you are encouraged to invite your market contacts.

We are working with Failte / Tourism Ireland to include some ACELS approved English Language Schools in our events in Tokyo and Seoul to further increase the interest by agents as these markets are very important and successful for this sector.

In Japan, we are glad to confirm that we will be joined by Colleges from New Zealand which will further increase the importance of  this Fair for students and agents alike.

Please remember that students from Japan and Korea do not require visas to study in Ireland

In Thailand the EU Higher Education Fair (EHEF) and that of the Office of the Civil Service Commission (OCSC) Fairs are being combined which will further increase the relevance of this event to students planning to study overseas.  In mid-June we were honoured by a visit by the Thai Minister and Vice Minister for Education plus a very large Delegation who met with Minister Sile de Valera, HETAC, the NQAI and the HEA and expressed themselves as being very impressed with what they saw and learned. This visit will be followed in early October by  the Minister Counsellor (Education) from their Embassy in London to meet with some of the Colleges participating in the Bangkok Fair. Our objective in arranging these visits is to highlight the relevance of our education system to their Government funded students, some 3000 of which go abroad each year  of which a significant percentage choose British Colleges.

During the past twelve months we received delegations from  the Agent's Associations of both Korea and Thailand and visits by individual Japanese agents which would indicate that they are now beginning to take Ireland seriously as an education location. We need to use our Autumn visit to further emphasise our interest in and commitment to these markets and to appoint sufficient agents to deliver students. Please keep our colleagues fully in the picture regarding which agents you are working with. This will enable them to keep in contact with them and to ensure that they are included in the various Embassy events throughout the year. However, at our early stage of development it is vitally important that at least one follow up visit be made before April/May 2007.

I and my colleagues in each of these markets hope that you will join these Fairs and that they will lead to further increase in student numbers.                    

Programme Overview