By Lily Joyce and Emily Hull
US students make up the largest number of non-Irish nationals to study in third level education in Ireland.
Statistics from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) from the academic year 2014/2015 have shown that Ireland accommodates 3,419 US citizens studying in the country’s universities, colleges and institutes of technology.
There is a surprisingly large difference between the number of US male and female students studying here with female students totaling 2,462, and male just 957.
Other countries with a high number of students studying in third level education here are China, Malaysia, UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Brazil.
The trend in the gender divide shows there is a greater number of female than male students from Europe and North and South America.
However, more men from the Middle East have come to study here than women from the same countries.
Globally, more women attend third level education than men, and this is shown here too, with more Irish women attending colleges, universities, and ITs than Irish men.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) website, Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin says: “On average there are more women than men, irrespective of age, in both general higher education and higher technical education in OECD member countries.”
Despite the gender divide elsewhere, countries such as Poland, Belgium, Italy, the UK, and Nigeria, have nearly an equal number of students enrolled in Irish third level institutes.