Fees and Scholarships

Fees and Scholarships

Fee's and Scholarships

Fees

Please follow this link for information that DCU students need to know about the payment of fees for the academic year 2024 - 2025 https://www.dcu.ie/fees/dcu-fees-schedule-2024-2025.

Fees for the International Foundation Programme are listed here.

 

DCU Merit Scholarships

DCU offers partial merit-based scholarships to some international students. When you apply as an international (Non - EU) student to study at DCU, we automatically consider you for a scholarship. We’ll let you know if you have qualified for a scholarship when we contact you to advise if your application to study at DCU has been successful. Certain conditions apply. 

 

DCU Humanities and Social Sciences Bursary

This merit based bursary is available for high achieving Non-EU applicants that have received an offer to study on a postgraduate programme in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Successful recipients will receive a €2000 fee reduction on the full-time 2024–2025 Non-EU Tuition Fees for your postgraduate programme. All Non-EU applications to a postgraduate programme in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences are automatically considered for this bursary. Only successful recipients of the bursary will be notified via email.

 

Faculty of Engineering & Computing International Scholarship

This scholarship is available for Non-EU applicants who have received an offer to study on eligible postgraduate programmes in the Faculty of Engineering and Computing. Successful
recipients will receive a €6,400 fee reduction on the full-time 2024–2025 Non-EU Tuition fee.

Fees for their postgraduate programme. Eligible programmes for 2024-25 are:

  • DC814 - MEng Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
  • DC836 - MSc in Computing
  • DC883 - MSc Electronic and Computer Engineering
  • DC896 - MSc Electronic and Computer Technology

All Non-EU applications to a postgraduate programme in the Faculty of Engineering and
Computing are automatically considered for this bursary.

Successful recipients of the bursary will be notified via email.

 

Irish Government scholarships

As an international applicant, you can also apply for the Government of Ireland International Education Scholarship, which pays fees in full and includes €10,000 for living expenses. Please visit their website for further information on how to apply and the specific requirements of this scholarship.

 

Fee Assessment

The designation of a candidate as EU National or Non-EU National determines the fee levels to which students will be liable. Applicants that do not qualify for the Free Fees Initiative may still qualify for the EU Status Rate of fees. Assessments of Fee Status will only be conducted once a full offer has been issued. Please direct all enquiries to feestatus.assessment@dcu.ie

The criteria for fee assessments are regulated by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and all Universities in Ireland are required to implement these regulations. You can read up more on the HEA by following this link https://hea.ie/funding-governance-performance/funding/student-finance/c…

A candidate will qualify for EU status where they meet one of the following three criteria:

  • they are a national of an EU/EEA member state, Swiss confederation or UK, and will be ordinarily resident in an EU/EEA member state/Swiss confederation or UK for three of the five years prior to the commencement of the programme.

  • they are a national of an EU/EEA member state, Swiss confederation or UK and have received all their post-primary education within an EU/EEA member state, Swiss confederation or UK and have resided in an EU/EEA member state, Swiss confederation or UK for three of the five years prior to the commencement of the programme.

  • they have been in full-time employment in an EU/EEA member state, Swiss confederation or UK for three of the last five years prior to the commencement of the first year of the course. This applies to candidates over the age of 23. 

  • they have been ordinarily resident in an EU/EEA member state, Swiss confederation or UK for three of the five years prior to the commencement of the programme and their parents have been in fulltime employment in an EU/EEA member state, Swiss confederation or UK for three of the five years prior to the commencement of the programme. This applies to candidates under the age of 23.

You will be required to provide supporting documentation to confirm your EU status before a decision on your fee status can be confirmed.

Applicants classified for fee purposes as Non-EU will not be permitted to change their fee status following admission to their programme.

 

Free Fees Initiative:  Full-time Undergraduate Applicants.

 

The Department of Education and Skills sets the regulations for the ‘Free Fees Initiative’, this scheme applies to Higher Education Institutions that offer full-time approved undergraduate degree courses. Under the terms of the Free Fees Initiative, first introduced in 1995, the Irish Exchequer will pay tuition fees to the University on behalf of students registered for the first time on qualifying full-time undergraduate degree programmes. All the criteria for eligibility must be met in full prior to commencing a programme. Once registered the student’s status cannot subsequently be changed.

 

Change of nationality Clause of Free Fees Initiative

Entitlement to free fees for non-EEA nationals who acquire EEA citizenship during the course of their third level studies and issues surrounding fee status of non-EEA nationals.

A ‘Change of Nationality’ clause forms part of the Free Fees Initiative. As is currently the case students, who do not meet the nationality criteria of the schemes, will continue to be ineligible for free fees, however if such students subsequently acquire EEA citizenship during their third level studies they may be entitled to free fees for the remainder of their course of study as follows:

  • Students who acquire EEA citizenship up to 30th of September in an academic year may be entitled to free tuition fees for the full academic year.  

  • Students who acquire EEA citizenship up to 31st January in an academic year may be entitled to free tuition fees from the second half of the academic year.

  • Students who acquire EEA citizenship from 1st February may be entitled to free tuition fees from the commencement of the next academic year.

In order to be eligible under this ‘Change of Nationality’ clause students must have met all other criterion of the Free Fees Initiative, apart from nationality, at date of entry to their course of study.

 

The policy in relation to non-EEA nationals who are not naturalised is

  • that such nationals who have approved residence in the State are not eligible for free fees or grants, however once naturalised such persons are regarded as fully meeting the nationality requirements of the schemes.

  • that non-EEA nationals without permission to remain in the State (including those still in the asylum process) or those with permission to remain on a short-term or temporary basis (such as work permits or study visas) are not eligible for free fees or grants.

Undergraduate Applicants

  • EU fees may apply for EU, EEA , Swiss or UK citizens, who do not meet the normal residency requirements but who completed at least 5 academic years of study in EU/EEA/Swiss Confederation /UK (at either primary or secondary education).  Please note that this relates to students being eligible for the EU fee rate rather than the Non-EU fee rate for their programme.  This does not affect the rules governing entitlement to free fees for undergraduate study

Postgraduate Applicants

  • Students who completed all years of their undergraduate degree programme at Dublin City University paying non-EU fees, and proceed to postgraduate study at DCU on a self-funded basis, may qualify for EU rate fee [following assessment of fee status]

  • If a student holds EU/ EEA/ Swiss or UK Nationality or official Irish refugee status, and has received ALL of his/her full-time post-primary education in the EU / EEA / UK/ Switzerland (whilst parents were resident as tax payers), they are eligible for the EU rate of fees. This applies even if the student has not been resident in the EU for three of the five years immediately prior to university entry.

Special Categories:

  • Minor and dependent adult children who are in full time post-primary education, the spouse/the civil partner of Irish State Officials, and comparable EU/EEA/Swiss State officials, who reside with that State official while posted outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland on diplomatic or consular missions, shall be deemed to be resident in their home EU/EEA/Swiss State for the purposes of the residency clause of the Free Fees Initiative.

  • A child of an Irish Semi-State Agency Official, Irish volunteer development workers or UN Officials who reside in non-EU countries as a result of their appointments should be aware that from September 2013, the exemption from meeting normal EU residency requirements ceased. The Department of Education and Skills withdrew this concession for legal reasons (Jan2013).

  • Article 9 of Decision 1/80 of the Association Council made pursuant to the Ankara Agreement 1963

A child of a Turkish national in respect of whom the Minister of Justice has granted a permission to reside and who, in accordance with Article 9 of Decision 1/80 of the Association Council made pursuant to the Ankara Agreement 1963, is residing with their parents, who are or have been legally employed within the State and can satisfy the conditions relating to employment laid down in Articles 6 and 7 of Decision 1/80

 

Applicants who wish to have an assessment of their fees conducted must:

 1.          Have a Full Offer from Dublin City University.

 2.          Fully complete the Fee Status Assessment Form.

 

The form can be accessed here.

Once you have completed the form you must send it to feestatus.assessment@dcu.ie along with all supporting evidence for your application.

Applications will be processed within 2 weeks of receipt of the documentation and applicants will be notified of the outcome by email.  This email should be retained and presented to the Registry at the time of registration.  Incomplete applications cannot be processed and applicants will be contacted with a request for any additional documentation if required.