I received this question today from an American student hoping to spend a couple of years in Ireland pursing her post-graduate degree. While the information I shared back to her was specific to post-grad work, there are also scholarships available for undergraduate courses.

It appears each college administers their own scholarship program separate to the other colleges and universities. I’m hopeful that that means you can apply to more than one scholarship program at any one time. (if someone knows otherwise please let us know). 

What are the scholarships worth?

Undergrad college tuition in Ireland is not very expensive for EU students. As an example a Business degree at Trinity in 2021 will run you approx €3,000 per year. That number quickly rockets up for non-EU students. You’re looking at a number in the €20,000 range.  For post-grad, that number does not change a whole lot for non-EU students, but in most cases is far higher for EU students. I’ll link to the location of this info below.

Depending on the scholarship you apply to (and if lucky enough to win), your fees could be much lower. I’ve browsed through many on Trinity’s website (link below), and many fall in the 5 - 10k category, but some will cover the entirety of your costs, even including health insurance and a return flight ticket. That'd be a sweet deal!

How many scholarships are awarded

This again depends on the college and the scholarship program. UCC claims to award “1,000 scholarships and bursaries annually to domestic and international students, across all areas of study.” I found a program for international students at Trinity offering 40. That was for just that one program, of which there are many, however most programs don’t say how many are available. 

How do I qualify

Each program and college is different. For some of you have to be a citizen of a specific country. For example, you’ll find some that American students are only eligible for, some for Chinese students, etc. There are other requirements of course, and almost always you have to submit a cover letter of some kind. Check with the ones that are of interest to you for specifics.

Timing

The closing dates for a lot of the applications seem to fall in Spring time (March/April timeframe). This just seems to be a trend, but don’t take my word for that. Just like the qualification guidelines, be sure to check on the specific scholarships you’re interested in.