On July 11, academic Jaak Aaviksoo presented a report on Estonia's education costs which states that the contribution of foreign students and organizations is remarkably small – constituting 1.3 percent of the total revenue of the Estonian education sector in 2022.

Estonian-language higher education is free for students, and there are tuition-free English-language programs as well. English-language programs that are free for Estonian citizens must as a rule be free for EU citizens as well. For citizens of third countries, all majors are tuition-based at most universities.

In order to increase foreign students' contribution to educational revenues, Estonia's education minister believes that the number of third-country students studying at Estonian universities needs to go up.

"We have indeed discussed with universities that we need to come up with a long-term plan regarding higher education this fall, because in 2025 we need to sign new administrative contracts with the universities," Kallas explained. "In our view, and my view, this would mean that we will grant universities the opportunity after all to increase their number of foreign students. Not by reducing free Estonian-language study spots, but by increasing the number of foreign students and the number of foreign students studying on tuition at universities."

Where the state intends to get tuition-paying students from, she noted, will depend on talent policy.

"This is also very much related to reaching an agreement regarding the state's general talent policy," the minister explained. "With the new supplementary [coalition] agreement, we agreed now within the coalition that we need a very clearly worded state talent policy. And we have to work on determining what our primary interests are in terms of both foreign students and foreign talents – from which countries, from which regions Estonia should be attracting them."

According to figures from the Ministry of Education and Research, as of the end of the past academic year, there were 4,340 foreign students studying in Estonia, the majority of whom were enrolled in English-language programs. Of these, 5 percent were studying at the bachelor's and master's level in Estonian.

The majority of Estonia's foreign students are from Finland (749), followed by Ukraine (497), Russia (295) and India (187).

The three most popular fields among foreign students are business, administration and law (1,143 foreign students); arts and humanities (796); and information and communication technologies (621). The majority of foreign students – 1,700, or 39 percent thereof – are studying at the master's level.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!