Romania has a lot to offer: seven UNESCO Heritage Sites, majestic mountains, ancient forests, cool beaches, and great university cities. If you are into vampires, then Transylvania, home to the fictional Count Dracula, deserves a visit, too. Couple all this with a low cost of living and low tuition fees for high-quality teaching, and it’s easy to see why Romania should be on any international student’s radar.

Universities

Through the Bologna Process, degrees in Romania are recognised everywhere in the EU. Romania’s international outlook can be spotted straight away in the large number of languages offered at university, not only as a subject to study but as a medium of instruction. Beyond Romanian, students can have access to a variety of degree courses taught in English, French, Hungarian and German.

Tuition fees are reasonably low, also for non-EU students. A typical MSc taught in English will cost around €1,000 a year for EU students and €2,000 a year for non-EU students.

The highest-ranked universities in the country are the Bucharest Universities of Economic Studies and the Babeş-Bolyai University. While the first is located in the capital Bucharest, the second is in the city of Cluj-Napoca, in Western Romania. They both have around 5% of international students in their student body.

Student life

Beyond the capital Bucharest (once nicknamed the Paris of the East), Romania has loads of other lovely cities to visit – or to choose as your home while you study. One of these is Timisoara, a university city with over 30,000 students from all over the world.

Non-EU students can work up to four hours a day without a work permit, while EU students don’t have restrictions. Romania is part of the EU and Schengen, but it does not use the Euro: its currency is the Romanian leu (RON).

Meanwhile, the cost of living is low compared to other European destinations: Romania is a country where you can find on-campus accommodation for less than €100 a month.