The Irish government may pay for mandatory hotel quarantine for Irish students returning to Ireland Erasmus studies from five EU member states, RTÉ News reported this evening.
From Thursday, around 500 students returning from their Erasmus studies from Belgium, France, Austria, Italy and Luxembourg will have to enter mandatory hotel quarantine upon returning to Ireland.
According to RTÉ News, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris is expected to announce details of the scheme in the coming days, which could cost up to €1 million.
The move comes after third-level institutions voiced their concerns over the potential financial burden of the government’s plan to expand its mandatory quarantine list this week. These measures are set to coincide with the return of many students due from their studies abroad on the Erasmus programme
The mandatory hotel quarantine, which lasts for 12 nights, costs €1,875.
University College Dublin (UCD) told RTÉ News that it currently has approximately 300 students abroad in the EU, while the University of Limerick (UL) said that it “currently has a small number of students studying abroad in institutions in Austria, Belgium, France and Italy through the Erasmus programme”. Both University College Cork (UCC) and NUI Galway (NUIG) said that they have been in contact with affected students and were searching for “various options to address the developing challenges” of the issue.
UCC also noted the potential high cost of the scheme to mobility students, and said they
were “working closely with the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and the wider Higher Education sector in this regard”.
These new rules have also raised concerns about the attractiveness of Ireland as an Erasmus destination for international students in the coming academic year, with exchange schemes serving as an important source of revenue for third-level institutions. The legislation underpinning the scheme is subject to review every three months, so the situation may change before September, when the next academic term is scheduled to begin.
Both UCD and TU Dublin flagged this as a concern to RTÉ News, with the latter stating that an expected 30 per cent of its international students would be required to quarantine under these arrangements.
Trinity’s Provost-Elect Linda Doyle told RTÉ’s News at One today that greater clarity was needed for informing international students on making their choices where to study. Doyle also said that universities should “work with government” to make sure that Ireland remains an option for students seeking to study abroad this coming year.
