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The number of foreign students has increased by nearly 50% in five years

News
Posted on 5 April 2011, 11:00
According to Statistics Estonia, at the beginning of the academic year of 2010/2011, 69,113 students were enrolled in higher education in Estonia, 128 students more than in the previous year. 1,282 foreign students from 62 countries are studying in Estonian universities. The number of foreign students has increased by 388 students compared to 2005.

Most foreign students are from Finland (570), Russia (108), Latvia (103) and China (70). In addition, exotic countries like Cuba, Guatemala, Botswana, the South African Republic, Indonesia and Trinidad and Tobago are represented. 233 foreign students study at integrated Bachelor's/Master's level, 25 at applied higher education level, 487 at Bachelor's level, 367 at Master’s level and 170 Doctoral level. Most interesting fields of study for foreign students are the humanities, arts, business and management and law. 746 foreign students are studying in English, 41 in Russian and 495 in Estonian.

Foreign students in Estonia
  2005 2010
Countries of Africa 4 30
Countries of Asia 136 202
Countries of Europe (except Estonia) 742 990
Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean area 2 26
Countries of Northern America 10 32
Countries of Australia and Oceania 0 1
Undetermined territories   1
TOTAL 894 1282

While the number of doctoral students has increased by 36 students in 2010, the number of admitted students to other higher educational level categories has decreased compared to the previous year. The number of graduates and students has increased at Master and Doctorate level.

Admittance, enrolment and graduates by educational level categories
Educational level category Admittance Enrolment Graduates
2009 2010 2009 2010 2009 2010
Applied higher educationa 5 812 5 463 22 544 21 970 4136 3 895
Bachelor courses 7 842 7 518 27 531 27 461 4533 4 368
Integrated bachelor and master courses 796 755 4 160 4 122 393 469
Master courses 4 179 4 094 12 097 12 632 2 267 2 543
Doctor courses 538 574 2 653 2 928 160 175
TOTAL 19 167 18 404 68 985 69 113 11 489 11 450

a Incl. diploma and professional higher education courses (no admittance any more since 2003).

*In the case of graduates, the year stands for the end of the academic year, in other cases – the beginning of the academic year.

For many years now, business and management has been the most popular field of study among both, men and women – 21% of Estonian students have chosen this field of study. As expected, men’s preferences also include engineering, computer science, architecture and construction. Women, however, are more interested in teacher training and education science, humanities and health. Likewise, more students study business and management at Bachelor’s and Master’s level, whereas there are more doctoral students in the humanities, social and behavioural sciences and life sciences.

In the academic year of 2010/2011 a programme “TULE“ was implemented, which enabled the people who had once dropped out of university to continue their studies free of charge. Last autumn 457 people went back to school to finish their in the framework of this programme. The programme “TULE“ is carried out by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and funded by the European Social Fund and the State of Estonia.

The data are based on the Estonian Education Information System administered by the Ministry of Education and Research.