A record-high number of foreign students studied at Czech universities last year

A record-high number of foreign students studied at Czech universities in 2021, the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) said in a new report issued this week.

The data showed the most represented student nationalities in Czechia and their preferred fields of study, as well as Czech universities with the highest enrollment of foreign students.

Slovaks, followed by Russians and Ukrainians make up the largest share of the more than 52,000 university students from abroad who studied in Czechia last year, while the numbers of students from India and Belarus are gradually increasing, CSZO reports.

Last year, Russians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Indians, and Belarusians comprised 71.5 percent of the overall number of third-country foreigners studying at Czech universities.

The number of students from EU countries has considerably shrunk in the past decade, falling to 26,221 students, down from 68.8 percent in 2012 to 50.3 percent last year.

The decline is attributed to the decreasing number of students from Slovakia, who represent the largest group of foreign students at Czech universities (21,913 in 2021). The number of students from each of the other EU states remained below 1,000, with the exception of Germany (1,041).

Foreigners made up 30.9 percent of students in the field of information and communication technologies last year.

"However the most preferred fields of study for foreign students were health and social care, environmental studies, and then business, administration, and law," said Jarmila Marešová from the CZSO.

Over 90 percent of foreign students in Czechia study at its public universities with almost 18 percent of the overall number of foreign students paying for their education. Last year, tuition was most often paid by Indian students (57.8 percent) while in comparison only 0.7 percent of Slovak students paid for their studies at Czech universities.

In 2021, the highest number of foreigners studied at Prague's Charles University, representing 50.9 percent of the overall number of foreign students at Czech universities. Brno's Masaryk University followed, with the universities of Olomouc and Ostrava accounting for a sizeable share of foreign students as well.