Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) will introduce an international student committee this year, in a bid to better represent Trinity’s international community.
The committee, which was proposed by the union’s International Students’ Officer, Molly McCrory, was approved at tonight’s council meeting.
The committee will have a maximum of 10 members, and efforts will be made to ensure that those selected from the committee consist of representatives from each faculty, from each continent, and from each of the countries with the largest international populations in Trinity, according to most recently available data.
A motion proposing the committee was put forward at council by McCrory, and seconded by Sally Anne McCarthy, the union’s Engineering, Mathematics and Science Faculty Convenor.
Speaking at council tonight, McCrory said: “I do not know what every international student wants. My goal is to have people with as much representation as possible to tell me what to do.”
McCrory explained to council that she wanted representation from “across faculties” and “across continents”.
The last few years have been turbulent for international students in Trinity, with repeated fee hikes and a lack of fee certainty leading to significant difficulties.
Earlier this year, College proposed a five per cent increase in fees for postgraduate students and non-EU students. After widespread student protests, led by Take Back Trinity, College agreed to fee certainty – a system whereby international and postgraduate students would know what they would have to pay each year upon entering Trinity.
While a five per cent increase would apply for incoming first-year non-EU students – with any increases thereafter capped at three per cent per year – it was agreed that continuing students would not face fee rises. In July, College attempted to apply the fee increase to continuing students but backed down after a meeting with representatives from TCDSU and the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU).
