The Minister for Education and Science, Ms Hanafin, yesterday announced plans to establish a new statutory body, Education Ireland, to help attract overseas students here.
The move follows recommendations contained in an inter-departmental report, revealed in The Irish Times last month, which found there is "significant scope for expansion" of the sector here. It says that up to 15 per cent of the projected 160,000 students in third-level education here could come from overseas by 2010.
Education Ireland will be responsible for the certification of language schools, the operation of a code of conduct for the pastoral care of international students and the award of a "quality mark".
In conjunction with Enterprise Ireland and Fáilte Ireland, it will also oversee the marketing and promotion of Ireland as a centre for educational excellence.
The report, entitled "Internationalisation of Irish Educational Services", was launched by Ms Hanafin at at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dún Laoghaire yesterday.
It makes a number of recommendations, including:
Ms Hanafin said the international educational services sector was one of the "fastest-growing business sectors in the world".
"There are significant opportunities to attract greater numbers of overseas students to our higher-education institutes as part of an overall expansion of student numbers over the coming years."