I'll be moving to Ireland next year and I'm really considering doing my PhD instead of working. I'm interested in doing work on an Education degree. I complete my MA in Ed. next April.

From the few posts about Ireland that I've read on the forum, I'm getting the impression that Ireland (Republic) is not well-regarded as a destination for post-grad studies. From the weather, to the cost, to how it stacks up against the UK, for example...

Does anyone have insight about the funding opportunities and the university culture in Ireland? Do they "advertise" positions? During my research I seem to remember seeing positions at some European universities advertised. I don't quite understand how that works, because I've never seen these adverts in Canada.

I should probably also mention that I'm not an EU citizen (so I'll be international), but I don't need a visa to enter Ireland.

Your best choices, I reckon, for that particular area are: Trinity College Dublin (The University of Dublin) and St. Patrick's College (Dublin City University). I would check the websites and inquire directly to the pertinent academic department.

If you want to check out other cities (towns)/universities I'd recommend The National University of Ireland (Maynooth and Galway), University of Limerick, University College Cork and University College Dublin. I do not know if these ones actually have an academic department dedicated to education though.

Noel_lee - I'm a Paddy so no bothers to answer some of the questions, but it would be from my perspective. I won't get defensive and say we are well-regarded because we are not, but we do have potential.

Ireland is probably seen as a bad destination mainly due to bad or no PR. True, the weather is dire, but considering we are essentially a mossy rock in the middle of the Atlantic, we haven't done too bad.

College-wise, I would say that there is no difference between the college experience between here and the continent, although campuses tend to be smaller here. Colleges tend only to advertise in Irish papers (Times, Independent or Examiner) or their own websites. Generally, most research posts come about from word of mouth so don't be afraid to get the hands dirty and write a few emails. Check up the websites of the colleges you would think would be applicable. The college I am in has a good education dept. and a few links to other like-minded colleges. Funding is generally hit-and-miss depending on the specific departments (with the credit crunch, its more miss these days)

If you want to send a private message, I can answer specific questions as best as I can.

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Yeah the weather sucks right enough... and I think fees can be high for international students. I don't know when you say 'well-regarded' do you mean in terms of academic standards and so on... I couldn't say for sure because I've never had an international perspective on it, but maybe there is some snobbery there, who knows! Within the country there is some snobbery when it comes to Universities vs. IoTs (Institutes of Technology), with people thinking that a degree from a uni is better than one from an IoT. The standards for degrees, Masters, PhDs are set at a national (and international!) level here like they are anywhere else, so in fact a PhD from a IoT would have to comply to all the same standards as one from a uni.


The only thing is that Universities may have bigger education departments than some IoTs would and therefore more educational research going on. As for funding, there are good opportunities - I have funding from the Irish Research Council but I don't know whether international students can apply for that. Your best bet is to try looking on individual websites for funding opportunities.