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Cyprus is one of the European Union nations attracting the highest proportion of international students in higher education, Eurostat reported.
In 2023, roughly 1.76 million students from abroad were enrolled in tertiary studies across the EU, representing 8.4% of the total student population. Cyprus stood out with 22.3% of its higher education students coming from other countries, placing it third in the EU behind Luxembourg (52.3%) and Malta (29.6%).
Countries with the smallest shares of foreign students included Greece (3.0%), Croatia (3.7%) and Spain (4.3%).
Eurostat also detailed the regional origins of international students. In 20 EU countries, most foreign students came from within Europe, with Slovakia (91.3%), Slovenia (89.4%) and Croatia (89.0%) reporting the highest shares.
Asian students made up the largest group of international enrollees in Ireland (45.0%), Finland (43.3%), Germany (40.1%) and Italy (36%). In France, more than half of foreign university students were from Africa (52.3%), a trend also seen in Portugal (42.1%). Meanwhile, in Spain, nearly half of foreign students (46.7%) hailed from the Caribbean, Central and South America.
