Berlin is one of the most popular cities among international students
As reported by Deutsche Welle, the second place in the latest ranking is held by the United Kingdom, and the third by France. Russia this year overtook Switzerland and ended up in fifth place.
Germany is the leader of the ranking not only in theory; the popularity of German universities is growing: in 2016, the country hosted more than 358,000 international students, although it was planned that only by 2020 their number would reach 350,000.
Cost of study determines the choice
The top 10 list was determined on a 100-point system, and the quality of education was not a decisive factor: in this category, a maximum of 45 points could be obtained. Expenses during study were evaluated at a maximum of 30 points. The lower the cost of educational programs, the more points a country receives in this category.
In the "Quality of life and career prospects" category, the maximum number of points is 25. And although the United Kingdom leads by a large margin in the quality of education, it cannot take first place in the overall ranking due to the high cost of living and studying.
On average, a student at a British university spends 23,000 euros per year. In Poland, these expenses amount to only 7,000 euros. It is due to this indicator and the increase in the number of programs in English that Poland ended up in the top 10. The situation is different in Russia: in terms of education quality, it is in fifth place, but in terms of career prospects, the country did not even make the top ten. Germany is not a leader in this category either, occupying only ninth position.
Safety is a pressing issue
"Which country is best for an international student to choose?" – this is the question experts asked themselves when compiling the ranking. Therefore, since 2018, another important factor for applicants has been taken into account – safety.
According to the head of the online platform Study.EU, Gerrit Bruno Blöss, the situation in the host country is becoming increasingly important when choosing a place of study. But European students should not worry. "According to statistics, the countries in our ranking are safer than the USA," Blöss noted.
The availability of study programs in English is another important factor that helped Germany stay in first place. Today, there are about 1,300 such programs in the country, and soon there will be even more: it is expected that due to Brexit, students will look for an alternative to British universities. Free tuition for international students should increase demand at German universities. The exception is educational institutions in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, where in 2017 a fee of 1,500 euros per semester was introduced for students from non-EU countries.
A mixed bag of rankings
In the ranking of the most attractive countries, analysts of the Study.EU platform take into account the results of several studies at once. For example, they do not assess the quality of education themselves, but rely on existing rankings of the best universities in the world: QS, the international Times Higher Education, and the Shanghai ARWU.
As for the quality of life in European countries, the World Happiness Report ranking, the Social Progress Index, and statistical data on English language proficiency in host countries were taken into account. The top three most promising countries in these indicators were the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Iceland.