Trinity College Dublin has seen a “huge increase” in the number of US students applying to study at the university since Donald Trump returned to the White House, provost Linda Doyle has said.
Increased interest from US applicants had spanned all courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the past year, she said.
Trinity has seen a 13 per cent increase in undergraduate applications from the US, and 6 per cent increase in acceptances as of the end of August, a spokeswoman for the university said.
The rise has been more pronounced on postgraduate courses, which saw a 36 per cent year-on-year increase in applications and a 40 per cent increase in acceptances.
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International students account for about 30 per cent of Trinity’s numbers, with the spokeswoman saying this will not change despite the increase in interest from US students, who pay far higher fees than their EU counterparts.
Fees for non-EU students can range from about €22,000 to €29,000 for most undergraduate courses, though they can rise as high as €57,000 for degrees such as dental science and medicine.
Speaking on the That Great Business Show podcast, Ms Doyle said there had been a “huge increase” in applications, suggesting the trend was heavily influenced by the US political landscape.
“What’s happening in the US is definitely influencing that,” she said. “You just know by the amount of interest and the rise in it.”
She recalled asking one student from Florida what attracted him to Ireland and Trinity. And he replied that he loves libraries, “and there’s no future for libraries in Florida”.
Pen America, which monitors book withdrawals in the US, documented more than 10,000 book bans in school libraries in the last school year, affecting more than 4,000 titles.
Some 45 per cent of these occurred in Florida, with banned texts commonly including characters of colour, LGBT characters or sex-related themes or depictions, according to Pen America.
Ms Doyle said it is Trinity’s gain to “have these really bright, curious people who want to go out there and challenge things”, saying it is “fantastic to see them coming here”.
However, she said her heart “sinks in the greater sense” when it comes to the United States.
While prestigious US universities such as Yale and Harvard have “huge brands” and are situated within a “powerful country”, Ms Doyle argued Ireland is the country with the “greatest academic freedom at the moment”.
“You won’t go to Yale and Harvard and have the academic freedom you have here, and I think that is hugely important and we should be doing more about that at the moment.”
