The number of foreign students at Ukrainian universities has fallen fivefold due to the war

Ukrainian universities currently enroll around 20,000 foreign students, compared to approximately 100,000 before the full-scale invasion.

This was stated by Deputy Minister of Education and Science Mykola Trofimenko at a meeting with media representatives, according to RBC-Ukraine.

“Before the invasion, we had around 100,000 foreign nationals studying at our higher education institutions. Now we have around 20,000,” Trofimenko said.

According to updated data from the Ministry of Education and Science, Ukrainian universities currently have 19,687 foreign students enrolled.

To ensure security when admitting foreign applicants, Ukraine operates a unified interagency coordination database. The State Migration Service and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) have access to it.

“They vet every applicant from a security standpoint before the invitation is issued, and verify the actual fact of issuing the invitation so that the applicant can use it to visit our consulate abroad,” the deputy minister stressed.

The main logistical route for foreign students remains transit through non-Schengen countries, as EU member states conduct overly thorough checks due to migration risks. Most often, students arrive via Chișinău airport in Moldova, where they are met by specialists from the Ukrainian State Center for International Education or by representatives of the universities themselves.

The Ministry of Education and Science emphasizes that educating foreign nationals brings substantial investment both to the special funds of educational institutions and to the country’s economy as a whole.

“They come, visit our shops and establishments, pay for accommodation, make purchases, and bring money into the economy,” Trofimenko explained.

Despite the overall decline in the number of foreign students, interest is growing in certain areas. In particular, a visit by a Ukrainian delegation to Baku is planned for June: Azerbaijan has historically viewed Ukrainian education as attractive in terms of value for money.