Quality education and safety in Czechia draw in foreign students

Quantity of foreign students in the Czech Republic has grown seven times over the last 15 years. How many of them are currently studying here and which study programmes and cities do they usually choose?

Around 300 000 students attend state and private universities, more than 43 000 of them are foreigners. The vast majority attends universities that teach in the Czech language, meaning free of charge. They’re mostly Slovak students, approximately 20 000 of them; however, students from Russia and Ukraine also choose Czech study programmes quite often.

The second group of foreign students, who attend lectures in English and therefore pay tuition, usually come from Britain and Germany, around 7 000. Lately, there’s been an increase in the number of students coming from India and Portugal, around 700.

Foreign students choose the Czech Republic mainly because of economic reasons—living expenses are much lower compared to the rest of the Western Europe. They also feel safe here and appreciate high quality of Czech universities.

Foreigners are becoming interested in technical study programmes

Foreigners used to come to the Czech Republic mainly to study medicine. Although this trend didn’t change much, students become gradually interested in other study programmes as well. For example, Czech Technical University in Prague currently has 600 foreign students who pay tuition. They go for general engineering, electrical engineering and IT.

Tuition is the same for all faculties—128 000 CZK a year for bachelor programmes, 132 000 CZK a year for master programmes and 138 000 CZK a year for PhD programmes. The university focuses on both groups (paying and non-paying ones) because its reputation and the development of international relations primarily depend on the number of foreign students accepted.

Foreign students don’t go just for Prague anymore

Foreigners apply also for universities outside the capital city. The Technical University of Liberec, Palacký University Olomouc and University of Ostrava have recorded an increased interest of foreign students. “For the last five years we’ve been taking notice of a growing trend—the number of students paying tuition went 43% up, foreign students 27% up. We expect this trend to continue in upcoming years,” said Ivana Adamíková, the leader of the Centre for International Relations at the University of Ostrava, for the website universitas.cz.