Ways in · Usually cheaper than staying home
English-taught degrees across the continent at EU fee rates. A fraction of what the same thing costs in the UK, and sometimes less than Dublin.
You are an Irish citizen, which makes you an EU student, which means you pay what a local pays anywhere in the union. In several countries that figure is small. Hundreds of degrees are taught entirely in English.
The Netherlands is the well-worn route. A large number of English-taught bachelor's degrees, an application system that expects foreigners, and student cities that are used to them. Germany and the Nordics teach in English too, at low or no tuition.
Almost nobody in an Irish school will raise this with you. It is not obscure and it is not difficult. It simply is not on the slides.
Fee arrangements for Irish students in the UK changed after Brexit and vary. Check the current position properly before you assume anything about it. The continent is the reliable value, which is why it is the one written up here.
Many European universities don't run a points race. Some admit anyone who meets a minimum standard, some use a lottery, some choose for themselves. A course that is unreachable on points here may not be unreachable there.
Not fees. Beds. Student accommodation in Dutch cities is genuinely scarce and has to be sorted early. This is the thing that goes wrong for people, and it goes wrong in August.
Some Irish student supports apply to study elsewhere in the EU and some do not. Ask SUSI directly. Do not take the answer from a forum.
Living somewhere else at nineteen changes what you think is available to you, permanently. If you have not travelled much, that is the larger half of the value, and no prospectus will put a number on it.
“I'd need the language.”
Hundreds of degrees are taught in English, particularly in the Netherlands and the Nordics.
“Abroad means expensive.”
EU tuition is often below the Irish student contribution. Living costs are the variable, and not always upward.
“An Irish employer won't take it seriously.”
EU degrees are recognised across the EU. It is a normal qualification from a normal university.
These pages tell you how it works. A person can tell you what it was actually like. Mentor profiles are open to registered schools.
How schools registerInformation checked September 2026. Requirements, fees and deadlines change — always confirm with the official sources linked above before making a decision.