Post-Brexit, millions of young Europeans want an English-taught degree. Central and Eastern Europe’s universities have been slow to compete.
In the often fierce but ultimately fatuous argument over just what university degrees are ‘worthy’ (usually restricted to science and maths subjects) and those which are not (anything else, particularly the humanities, especially anything that ends in ‘-ology’), what often gets forgotten is that for millions of young people the subject of study is not the sole arbiter of whether or not a degree is ‘worthy’. There’s far more to it, and as many of the students who begin their degrees next month will tell you, the desire to move as far away as possible from their parents and live independently (often in a foreign country) is as important as the course on which they have enrolled.
Britain, for a long time, was a beneficiary of such cosmopolitan attitudes. Prior to Brexit, tens of thousands of students from across the European Union would enrol in the UK’s universities, attracted by (unsurprisingly) an unrivalled selection of courses taught in English, relatively low tuition fees (and access to student finance to pay them). Brexit changed all of that, as it left EU students facing ‘international fees’ (which can top 30,000 UK pounds for each year of study) as opposed to the ‘home fees’ (under 10,000 UK pounds) they had been eligible for prior to 2021. With no student finance available either, Brexit effectively closed the UK’s universities off to all but the wealthiest EU students. It is no surprise that applications from EU students for UK universities fell by 58 per cent between 2021 and 2024.
Filling the breach, primarily, has been the Netherlands, whose universities offer a decent range of courses taught in English and low tuition fees (generally around 3,000 euros). This has created problems of its own, however, notably a drastic shortage of student accommodation. So serious has the problem become that most Dutch universities now ask potential foreign students to demonstrate that they have guaranteed digs before they are allowed to enrol on their courses.
It is therefore somewhat surprising that so few other countries have had the vision to expand their English-taught programmes to make the most of what is clearly a huge potential market. Most universities in Sweden (where there are no tuition fees at all) offer some English-taught courses, as do some universities in Norway (not an EU member, but part of the European Economic Area and bound by Single Market rules). Elsewhere, while enrolment in local universities for EU students can be done on the same terms as for local students, English-taught programmes are few on the ground meaning that foreign students usually need to spend at least a year learning the local language before starting their actual degrees. In some other countries (such as Poland and Estonia) where there is a decent range of English-taught courses, these command higher fees than their local language equivalents (which are often free).
Who will have the vision to move first?
Several countries in Central and Eastern Europe have traditionally welcomed international students, mainly in medicine, from Africa and the Middle East. The practice began (at scale at least) in the early 1970s, with Romania, keen to bolster its credentials as a champion of the developing world, opening its medical schools to students from political allies, such as Zaire (today the Democratic Republic of Congo). Courses were taught in Romanian, however, and the new students were expected to learn it before commencing study. Today, there are 12 medical degrees taught in English in the country (and nine in dentistry), and with fees at around 12,000 euros per year, the cost is significantly lower than in Western Europe (and, indeed, in Poland, where there are also now several medical degrees taught in English). Beyond medicine, however, the region still fails to offer a wide enough selection of English-taught courses appealing to students from elsewhere from within the European Union.
This appears to be both a major oversight and a huge missed opportunity, not least as few places have more to gain from hosting EU students than its central and eastern members, which are largely haemorrhaging people. Students often stay after completing their studies, and spend money (and even take part-time jobs) while studying. And the market might soon be even larger. The Netherlands, partly in response to its problems accommodating students from elsewhere in the EU, has introduced new rules which mean that any new programmes taught in a foreign language must relate to a sector with labour shortages, be taught in a region with a declining population, or be ‘inherently international’ in nature. (The new rules are in fact a watered-down version of an original proposal which could have led to a reduction in the existing number of foreign-language courses).
The desire of Europe’s young people to study in another EU member state is greater than ever. Erasmus, which offers placements of a few months at foreign universities, only meets a small part of that demand. Across Central and Eastern Europe, there is huge scope for expansion of reasonably-priced (or entirely free) English-taught courses at every university in the region. Who will have the vision to move first?
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