If Irish students are unable to reach the standards required for certain third-level courses in future, they might have to be replaced by foreign students, the president of UCD has said.
Dr Art Cosgrove said that if Irish students did not have the points needed to be successful on some courses, extra foreign students might be needed instead.
However, he said he did not think that this point had been reached yet. Overseas students, who pay high fees to study in Ireland, currently make up nine per cent of UCD's student body. UCD is the State's largest university.
"If Irish students were not reaching a level of points which would give them a reasonable chance of success in the course, maybe then you might revise the numbers of 'domestic' students downwards and increase those from overseas," he said.
"But that is a controversial issue and, thankfully, unlikely to arise in my time."
Dr Cosgrove, whose term of office finishes at the end of next year, made his comments in an interview carried in the college newsletter, UCD News.
His observations follow a decision this week by DCU to reduce the number of places it is offering on its computer applications course. The college said that, if it offered the usual number of places, weaker applicants might not be able to stay the course.
Dr Cosgrove was answering a question about the number of foreign students coming into Irish universities. "At present, we are at around nine per cent, and I think we should be trying to increase that, for both financial and cultural reasons," he said.
"Overseas students bring in a substantial income to the university and also add a certain amount of mix to the culture here," he added.
Irish colleges compete intensively for students from abroad. One of the reasons is that these students pay extremely high fees, whereas Irish students pay no tuition fees. Some colleges charge foreign students over ?10,000 for a place on some of their more prestigious courses.
Dr Cosgrove said that more could be done to bring overseas students to Ireland.
"I believe there is an opportunity for all seven Irish universities in the South to combine in an attempt to attract more overseas students. The attractions of Ireland are, I think, equally as great as those of the UK or Australia, which average about 35 per cent of overseas students," he added.