Indian Graduates Earn Highest Salaries In Ireland: TUS VP On Employability, Scholarships & Student Life

Indian graduates from the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) receive the highest salaries among all graduates in Ireland, says Donnacha McNamara, Vice President of Internationalisation and Alumni at TUS. In an exclusive conversation with Shiksha, McNamara discusses why Ireland is becoming a preferred study destination for Indian students, the university’s employability focus, research opportunities, cultural integration, and available scholarships.

Q: What makes your university attractive to international students, especially for Indian students?

A: I suppose there's a number of factors, we're a very student-friendly orientated university. We focus very much on work and on employability, we have the highest employability rating of any university in Ireland, so our students tend to get jobs and good jobs when they finish with us. But while they're with us, their student experience is our focus and we try and make sure that the students feel safe and provide the right environment for them to study.

Q: What unique academic programs or research opportunities you are providing to international students?

A: Well, research up to PhD, so masters of research and PhD research. I suppose last year our accounting program was accredited five stars by the QS Ratings Agency, so that's very strong in that area. We also offer engineering, science and other business programs as well.

It is a great experience and we've such a vibrant Indian community at the moment in Limerick and at Lownes, so we're very much enjoying having the students.

Q: And Ireland is getting more popular among Indian students.

A: It is because I think Ireland and India share so much history and we are both ex-colonial countries and I think we're both finding ourselves in our development, so I think there are a lot of similarities between our natures. Our family focus as a culture I think is important.

Q: How do you support international students in terms of cultural, sorry, orientation, and cultural integration and how do you help them in overcoming the barriers of like language and academic barriers?

A: I suppose the first thing to say is that while we have a number of Indian students, they're not the only students we have who are international. I think it's very important for sometimes we can find that some Indian students tend to gravitate towards other Indian students and we kind of want that assimilation with the Irish students and with the African students and the Chinese students and the American students, so it's very important.

So what we do is we host festival days, we celebrate Diwali, Africa Day, Holi and other festivals. We do try and encourage our Indian students to also become part of the Irish festivals that are on and to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and the other events that are on and have that wonderful experience.

Q: Mental health is very important while studying abroad.

A: Very strong. We have two full-time staff who are our student experience officers, so one's based on our Emory campus, one's based on our Elan campus and their mission in their job is to make sure that the students have a good time and what I mean by that is our focus.

They are comfortable. Exactly, yeah, and obviously we have counselling facilities and we have pastoral care if the students need them, but those two jobs, those two people's focus is to ensure that the student is well looked after.

Q: What about scholarships and funding opportunities for international students?

A: We have scholarships for students based on GPA, so they're available and come off the fees, so again it depends on each application, the student fee that's accepted, but it is very accessible and our representative here at ISHID is saying…

Q: And is it for all subjects?

A: Yes all subjects. We have a scholarship attached to them. It's just about, as I say, each individual having their GPA and their application process and Nishita Singh, who's our representative in India, would be more than happy to help with your application.

Q: How do you ensure that they feel valued and included in their social and academic aspects of campus life?

A: One part of my job is I'm vice president for internationalization, but also alumni and a lot of what I do is try and bring the Indian students who have already graduated from us and try and reintroduce them as guest speakers, as mentors, as supporters of the students who are coming over.

Q: But what about in the beginning when they go there, how they will feel like they are also included in their campus life and not feeling isolated?

A: I think one of the first things we did last year was we invested in a new technology going app. It's an app that you get once you get your letter of offer, and that begins to build community. So a lot of our Indian students are talking to other Indian students before they arrive in Ireland. So we try and focus on the student experience before the student even comes there.

Then when they come there, the accommodation is less than a kilometre from our campus, our main campus and then what we do is we have an orientation where everyone gets to meet everyone and there are regular trips at weekends and activities that we put on to make sure the students are having a good time.

Q: What about internship opportunities and work opportunities while they're studying in Ireland?

A: All of the students who complete an undergraduate program with TUS will have an internship as part of their program.

So they'll have a semester where they're working, or they'll have hours within their program where they're working. Our undergraduate students in Ireland can stay back for one year and work, and all of them do. Our employment rate in Ireland is, we have a big demand for talent at the moment, so for opportunities.

And then at the master's level, some of our programs have placement internships on them as part of the master's program. But all of the students who complete master's programs can stay back for two years as part of the Irish government's visa application.

And we've heard an interesting statistic that people might know in India, which is that of our graduates, the highest paid graduates that we have are actually Indian and would you believe that it's even more, that it's Indian women get paid one of the highest graduate fees in all of Ireland.

It's a subsection of the market. That's very great. There are great opportunities.

Q: My next question is on the placement, what they get after completing their course. What is the percentage of placement?

A: So we have a graduate employment office. So we'd have over 20 people who work in our graduate office. They work for careers and they would have, we'd have career days. We just had our open day for careers two weeks ago where companies, I think it was 115 companies came into both campuses.

They're coming to the campus looking for the students. The students come with their CVs and their resumes and meet the company. So there's a lot of this, the work we do in our academic work is linked to industry.

And therefore our links as a university to our industry is very, very important to us. It means that when the graduates are coming out or when the placements, they want to go on placement, we already have friends within the industry who will help them get placed.

Q: What about the exchange programs or dual degree programs? Do you have partnerships with other universities from which international students can get benefit?

A: We do. Indian students who come to Ireland and study with TUS are also eligible to apply for Erasmus funding. Erasmus funding is a European Union funding that allows them to travel. So TUS is a member of the European University Alliance. So we have 11 partners in Holland, in Belgium, in Spain, in Portugal. There are opportunities always available there for students to travel and study with those other colleges.

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