Despite difficulties in learning German, foreign students are drawn to Germany
As reported by Deutsche Welle, the largest group are citizens of China (13%), followed by India (6%), and Russia (5%). Germany is considered one of the most attractive countries for foreign students after the USA, UK, Australia, and France.
At the same time, according to the German Ministry of Education, in 2015 nearly 140,000 German students went abroad to pursue higher education. Most of them chose Austria, the Netherlands, the UK, and Switzerland.
Furthermore, in 2015 about 43,000 foreign scholars worked at German universities, including 3,100 professors. Thus, the number of foreign researchers in Germany has increased by 74% over ten years.