The new Citywest Institute of Education is located in Saggart, just off the N7 Naas road, approximately 15km west of Dublin city centre.

The proposal for the development of an International English Language Training College was submitted in January 2009 to the South Dublin County Council Development Plan 2010-2016 by the Mansfield Group.

It was welcomed by the Council at the time and has now come to fruition with the opening of the Institute and the securing of a six and a half year contract with the Ministry of Higher Education, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (MOHE) to tutor Saudi students in English.

The contract is said to be worth €250 million to Citywest and the local community.

The Saudi students – who will arrive at Citywest Institute in April 2010 - will be part of MOHE’s King Abdullah Scholarship programme, which will cover cost of tuition fees and accommodation. 

The students will undertake English language and preparatory third level courses at the Citywest campus for 18 months and will then progress to degree courses at Universities and Institutes in English speaking countries across the world. It is expected that a significant number will apply to third level institutions in Ireland.

Mansfield Group has sub-contracted the delivery of the English language programme to Co Dublin VEC. Sean Whelan, Chief Executive Officer of the Mansfield Group, said:

“This venture is a new departure for the Mansfield Group and brings a new international dimension to Irish Educational services. 

In participating in this project we will create a centre of excellence for education and aim to achieve the Q mark standards required and announced by Mr. Batt O Keeffe, Minister for Education, on Morning Ireland on February 4 last.

By achieving the Q Mark standards we want to give a clear signal and indication that we intend to become a significant provider of English Language training to International students at our Citywest campus. We would like to build on what Ireland has already achieved – education institutions which are widely recognised for the quality of their provision in many disciplines. 

I am confident that this development will have a positive impact for our local area and indeed for Ireland too and I am particularly proud that the English language programmes will be provided by County Dublin VEC, our near neighbours in West County Dublin."

A core target of the Government is to increase the number of foreign students in Ireland. Speaking on Morning Ireland on February 4, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe said:

“International students are an important feature of Education into the future. It is a major market and we hold just 1% of it.  We want to grow 300% over the next fifteen years. Ireland should locate itself as a centre with an international reputation for Education.” 

“I have spoken to the Minister for Justice. We have to have joined up thinking. We have to look at the visa issue and improve it. I have set up a high level group just to look at international students and how we can target bringing in students from various countries abroad.  If we are serious about the international students well then we need to improve the visa situation.”

“I have asked Enterprise Ireland to market Ireland abroad as a centre for international Education.  English language schools are extremely important here in this country. I have asked Failte Ireland to look at the English language side of things. We already have 114,000 students learning English here at the moment.”

Citywest Institute of Education will comprise a 66-classroom college, housed in the original Citywest retail shopping centre built five years ago but which never took off. The Mansfield Group has applied to South Dublin Co Council for permission to change the centre’s use. 

The total capacity of the institute is for 1,500 students. Mansfield has paid €13m to ensure that the Luas will extend to the complex.

The Saudi students – 600 male and 150 female with their chaperones – will be accommodated in apartments and townhouses already built around the Citywest Hotel. 

However, it is reported that Government sources have expressed concern that this arrangement conflicts with integration policy and could lead to ghettoisation. A spokesman for the Department of Education said it was “not involved in bringing this project here”. 
(Sources: Irish Independent, Irish Times and other)