Govt indicates college fees for Ukrainians will be waived

The Department of Further and Higher Education has indicated that university fees will be waived again this year for Leaving Certificate students from Ukraine.

It said Minister for Further and Higher Education Patrick O’Donovan is “minded to continue” with arrangements that were in place last year which provided those fleeing from the war with free access to third level education.

Data from the State Examinations Commission suggests at least 550 students from Ukraine sat Leaving Certificate exams this year.

The data shows a more than doubling of numbers sitting the Russian exam this year compared to two years ago.

In 2022, 432 candidates applied to sit the Russian exam, last year that rose to 548 and this year numbers have jumped to 889.

Many Ukrainians speak Russian, so the sudden and strong rise is likely attributable to the presence of large numbers of Ukrainian students in their final year of schooling here.

However, there are likely to also be refugee students from Ukraine sitting the exams who did not opt to register for the Russian exam.

Overall, there are just over 18,000 children and teenagers from Ukraine registered in Irish schools.

Students, their teachers, and others had feared that amid a rolling back of other provisions for refugees from the war in Ukraine last year’s waiving of fees might not be renewed.

General Secretary of the Irish Universities Association Jim Miley has welcomed the news.

“It gives certainty to a significant cohort of students this year,” he said.

The EU temporary protection directive which governs provisions for refugees from the war in Ukraine states that countries must provide education up to the age of 18 years old, but it does not require a country to provide access beyond that.

This year’s Leaving Certificate exams end today, with exams in Religious Education, Applied Maths, and a number of other subjects.

RTÉ News spoke to students who sat the Russian exam yesterday at their school, Mount Seskin Community College in Dublin’s Jobstown.

Around 40% of this small school’s students are from Ukraine and this month12 Ukrainian refugees sat their Leaving Certificate.

There were more, but some returned home during the year.

The schools says all of their Ukrainian students arrived here within the past two years, some with no English, others with some that they had learned in school.

But two years on all of these 12 students have completed their Leaving Cert and applied via the CAO to go on to third level.

Vasyl Pidjurchemngi sat eight Leaving Certificate subjects, including English, Maths, Physics, Business, and Geography.

“I want to do Physics,” he said.

“I’m really interested in research, maybe developing something new,” he added.

Speaking in the dappled sunshine of the school courtyard after what was his final exam Vasyl said the exams had been “very hard”.

“But I hope I did well,” he said.

Herman Serhiienko did seven subjects and now wants to study medicine and become a surgeon, preferably a neurosurgeon.

“My family are doctors, my grandfather was a surgeon. I want to help people,” he said.

Mariia Kalush sat eight subjects and has applied to Trinity College and to UCD for courses in Psychology and Biology.

She said Psychology is “my goal and my dream”.

On the Leaving Certificate exams, she said: “It was very hard to get through”.

“With subjects like History and Geography you need to write a lot and you need vocabulary,” she said.

A fourth student, Nikita Sozanskyi has applied to NCAD.

These students have high praise for the Irish education system, and especially for Irish teachers.

Like other Ukrainian students who have spoken to RTÉ News over the past year, they say the Irish education system is much less formal and more student-focused.

“I’m really grateful for this opportunity,” Mariia said.

She said: “The teachers are amazing. They are different to Ukraine. They are friendly and helpful. In Ukraine teachers are more strict and formal.

“Here they are open to students.”

Guidance Counsellor at Mount Seskin Community College Fíona Ryan describes a challenging but rewarding two years.

There was a lot of translation to be done and the school was glad to be able to employ one teacher from Ukraine.

An Irish student whose mother is from Ukraine also provided invaluable translation help, she said.

“These Ukrainian students were fabulous. We treated them the same as our Irish students and they really got involved in everything,” she said.

“They are all very hard workers, very future focused,” she added.

The students all live together in a nearby refugee centre.

The school was worried because living together meant they did not have much exposure to English.

“We put a lot of pressure on them to ‘please, speak English,’” Ms Ryan said.

Welcoming the confirmation that they will now be able to progress to third level – none of them would have been able to pay the exorbitant fees required of non-EU students – Ms Ryan said the students richly deserved this future.

“This has been a really, really big undertaking for them,” she said.

Speaking to RTÉ News these students were giddy, happy and clearly relieved to have finished their exams.

Like tens of thousands of others, they now have a long summer wait ahead of them.

They will spend it in part-time jobs in restaurants and garden centres, waiting for August’s Leaving Certificate results and what the CAO might bring.