Foreign student applications to Estonian universities begin to recover

Applications from foreign students to Estonian universities are rising again after declining in recent years, ERR reported. The number of applications is growing at the University of Tartu, TalTech and Tallinn University, while the number of foreign applicants to the Estonian Academy of Arts has remained stable.

Ülle Tensing, an adviser on the internationalisation of studies at the University of Tartu, said the number of foreign students had fallen in recent years. The university had 1,746 foreign students in 2021, compared with 1,435 in 2025, an 18 percent decline over five years.

The sharpest fall was in master’s studies, where the number of foreign students dropped by about 25 percent. The number in doctoral studies remained stable, while the decline was smaller in first-cycle studies.

In 2025, the university decided not to start one English-language master’s programme because of the small number of applicants. This year, two such programmes were not launched.

However, the number of applications from foreign candidates has started to rise. Applications increased by 24 percent in 2025 and by a further 4 percent this year.

“This gives hope that the number of applications from foreign students will no longer fall significantly,” Tensing said.

This year, 380 foreign students are starting studies at the University of Tartu across all three levels of higher education, broadly the same number as in 2025, when 385 began their studies.

Tensing said the decline in foreign students had been influenced by several factors. For citizens of many countries without an Estonian embassy, obtaining a visa to travel to Estonia is not easy, she said.

Estonia also offers significantly fewer scholarships for master’s studies than it did previously. In addition, Estonia is no longer as attractive a destination for applicants who consider a lower cost of living important when choosing where to study, Tensing said.

She said the decline in the number of foreign students appeared to be slowing. Based on application numbers, the university expects the number of foreign students to stabilise in the coming years and possibly begin to grow.

According to the International Student Barometer survey conducted at the end of 2025, foreign students at the University of Tartu rated the living environment in Tartu very highly.

Tensing said finding suitable and affordable accommodation for students was significantly easier in Tartu than in other European university towns. Compared with foreign students at European universities, students at the University of Tartu also more often said their studies and overall university experience were worth the money they had paid.

Estonia’s international reputation and image are important for generating interest and trust among foreign students, Tensing said. A strong reputation for education and digital services helps Estonia become one of the potential study destinations considered by applicants.

Tensing said increasing the number of foreign students was not an end in itself for the University of Tartu. Its priority was to create an international learning environment.

The decline in foreign student numbers has made it clearer which programmes continue to attract strong interest and where there is therefore reason to continue developing international education, she said.