Tallinn University Rector Tõnu Viik highlighted in an ERR news article a calculation suggesting that attracting more fee-paying international talents would be an overly ambitious and challenging goal for Estonian universities. "To generate an annual profit of €10 million, universities would need to achieve a turnover of approximately €50 million. This would require, for example, 10,000 international students paying €5,000 in tuition or 5,000 students paying €10,000 each. Reaching these enrollment levels would take decades and necessitate a long-term political agreement on talent policy and educational immigration," said Viik.

I beg to differ with my colleague on this matter. Increasing the number of international students is not an impossible task; rather, it is a realistic goal, provided Estonia can resolve obstacles related to visa policies and rigid regulations.

Ten thousand international students in Estonian universities could already be a reality if the COVID-19 pandemic had not temporarily shut down the world. Between 2008 and 2019, the number of foreign students in Estonia's higher education institutions grew from 908 to 5,528. The average annual growth during this period was 18 percent, never falling below 10 percent.

If this trend had continued, Estonia could already have around 11,000 students from abroad. Even more rapid growth was observed at the Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences (EEUAS), where we managed to increase the number of international students from zero to nearly 500 in just five years.

The COVID-19 crisis, which emerged in early 2020, dealt a severe blow to international student mobility worldwide. However, with the spread of vaccines and the removal of pandemic restrictions, students have resumed moving between countries.

While international student mobility has recovered or even increased in most other countries, this has not been the case in Estonia. Today, Estonia is among a handful of countries – alongside Portugal, Sweden, Luxembourg and New Zealand – where the number of international students has not yet returned to pre-2019 levels.

At the same time, competition between countries in economics, science, education and talent migration has grown increasingly fierce. Losing international students has a direct impact on Estonia's higher education, economic development and tax revenue.

The €5,000 tuition fee mentioned by Tõnu Viik might seem high, but in an international context, it is highly competitive. In Finland, annual tuition fees for students from outside the EU range from approximately €8,000 to €20,000, depending on the university and program. At EUAS, international students pay an average of €7,000-€8,000 annually. Setting a goal of attracting 11,000 international students to Estonia would mean an additional €82.5 million per year for the higher education system, assuming an average annual tuition fee of €7,500.

The economic impact would extend even further, as the competitiveness of the economy is directly linked to the education environment. In his opinion piece on the ERR portal, Rector Tõnu Viik pointed out that Estonia, for geopolitical reasons, is forced to increase defense spending, while an aging population leads to higher costs for pensions, healthcare and other services.

Addressing these challenges is only possible with a robust economy and the tax revenue it generates. International students play a significant role in this regard, both as taxpayers and as a workforce contributing value.

In 2023, international students contributed €23 million in tax revenue to the state. This sum alone could cover the monthly salaries of 10,431 teachers. Moreover, a significant proportion of international students work alongside their studies, often in high-value fields such as ICT, engineering, production, business, administration and law. The share of international graduates who stay in Estonia to work and continue contributing to the economy is also increasing every year.

Estonia's business sector and startup ecosystem, particularly in the burgeoning deep-tech industries, also require international students. These sectors need top specialists from fields beyond programming, such as engineering and technology. Training such talent solely from Estonia's student pool is unrealistic, as evidenced by the long-standing shortage of good programmers and the pressing demand for engineers. Estonia's startup sector can sustain its success only with the support of international talent.

Given these considerations, it is high time for Estonia to take the recruitment of international talent seriously. The often-cited reasons for the decline in international students – such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine – are no longer valid arguments. If these factors were still decisive, Finland would not be breaking records in talent migration today. Nor would Latvia and Lithuania be seeing growth in international student numbers, yet they are.

Rather, Estonia's current situation reflects a broader trend of hesitancy and lack of ambition, characterized by a preference for restrictions over opportunities. This hesitancy is most evident in the rejection of visa applications for international students already accepted to Estonian universities, a phenomenon widely covered in the media. It is important to note that the number of direct rejections does not provide a full picture of Estonia's position or the long-term impact of these decisions.

Prospective students share information in social media groups and forums, and it is now well known that applying for a visa to Estonia often ends in rejection. As a result, many do not even bother to spend the time or money applying for an Estonian visa. This contributes to Estonia's reputation as a country unwelcoming to young and ambitious talents. If this impression becomes entrenched globally, it will be very difficult to change.

I agree with Tõnu Viik that Estonia's higher education system needs a long-term plan and strategic decisions, including a political agreement on talent policy and educational immigration. However, the absence of a plan does not mean we should avoid setting goals or lack ambition. On the contrary, with clear goals, the path to achieving them becomes much easier to define.

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