Students in both the UK and Ireland regularly receive some or all of their education in either country. This is one of the features of the Common Travel Area that the UK and Ireland enjoy. You can read more about the Common Travel Area here.

Primary & post-primary education that includes cross border travel

Every day, children and young people attend school in either jurisdiction, particularly cross-border on the island of Ireland. This is a matter of choice for families, as to what works best for them, and this choice will continue to be facilitated under the Common Travel Area after the UK leaves the EU.

Higher education

After Brexit, Irish students will continue to be able to study in the UK and British students will be able to study in Ireland.

Applications: For those wanting to study in the UK, applications for higher education places in the UK will continue to be made using current systems.

For those wanting to study in Ireland, the Central Applications Office and State Examinations Commission are working with UK counterparts to ensure smooth continuity of the applications process. Further information will be provided as it becomes available.

Fees: Irish students will still be eligible for the same rate of fees as British students in the UK. British students will still be eligible for the same fee structures as EU students in Ireland.

Student supports: Each year, about 1,500 students from Ireland studying in the UK and circa 200 British citizens studying in Ireland, qualify for Irish Government grant support (SUSI). After Brexit, the usual SUSI grant rules will continue to apply for UK and Irish students.

The Irish Government is introducing legislation to ensure that these arrangements can continue to apply to eligible Irish students studying in the UK, as well as the payment of SUSI grants to UK students in Irish higher education institutions.

Further education

Further education training and opportunities will continue to be available to students and trainees from Ireland going to the UK and vice versa under the Common Travel Area.

Erasmus+

The EU’s Erasmus+ 2014-2020 programme provides funding for a range of international education and training projects, including student and staff mobility and exchanges, job shadowing, teaching assignments, and strategic partnerships between organisations.

The programme will continue to operate fully for Ireland and the other EU Member States. In the event of a no deal Brexit, the EU is preparing legislation to ensure that students who are on mobility schemes in the UK or UK students in EU Member States on the date of 29 March will be allowed to complete them. Further information will be provided as it becomes available.

Professional qualifications

Professional qualifications are specific qualification requirements that a person needs to possess by law in order to access or pursue a regulated profession or to engage in regulated activities in a given country. Qualification requirements vary between professions.

Post-Brexit, there may be implications for individuals working in Ireland or another EU member state who obtained professional qualifications in the UK, or who seek to have a qualification recognised after the UK withdrawal from the EU. However, if you have already had these qualifications recognised by the relevant regulator, there will be no change and you can continue to practise in Ireland or elsewhere in the EU.

The Government has encouraged regulatory authorities in Ireland to engage with their counterparts in the UK to manage the process of continued recognition. This website will be updated with any new information.

If you have a query about your professional qualification, you should contact the relevant regulatory body for your profession.

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