Why study in Romania?

If you're interested in finding out about university study in Romania, we hope this page will help.  Choosing university study in Romania would be quite a distinctive choice, unless your mother tongue is Romanian, or you wish to study the language.  Romanian is the official language of this country and of neighbouring Moldova.  If you're not from Romania or Moldova, you might want simply to try something different and to discover more about one of Europe’s fascinating, less well-known, but very attractive countries.  

In Romania you will find a country with a long-standing tradition of education, but whose public institutions have not always been at the forefront of developments since the fall of communism at the end of the 1980s.  Years of communism in the second half of the last century meant that whilst a tradition of academic rigour was upheld in many subjects, the general standard of research and innovation in universities tended to lag behind that in more democratic countries.  Post-communism, the country’s private sector is vigorous, forward-looking and successful, and universities are fast becoming part of that momentum in one of Europe's fastest-growing economies.

Romania’s public universities now offer English-language courses to foreigners in niche areas such as medicine, and these courses constitute good value for money and reveal that Romania’s university sector is emerging as a player in the international university marketplace.  This, combined with excellent value for money in terms of living costs, means that Romania offers a credible alternative for students looking for an engaging and distinctive university experience at a very competitive cost.

Cultural snapshots

The language - whilst the Slavic languages dominate in this part of the world, Romanian is an exotic outlier, a romance language, derived from Latin, and thus similar to French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan and others.  If you know any of the other romance languages, you will find Romanian intelligible and relatively easy to learn.  It’s the official language of the country, spoken as mother-tongue by the majority of the population, and one of three main de facto languages of the country, the other two being Hungarian and German, spoken by significant minorities in Transylvania (the President of the country, Klaus Iohannis, is a Transylvanian German-speaker).

Romanians celebrate greatly their cultural links to the ancient Roman conquerors of this part of Europe.  The Roman poet Ovid, exiled to the Black Sea, where he died, is remembered in the widespread first name, Ovidiu, as is the conquering Roman emperor Trajan in the Romanian name Traian.

A selection of courses which might be of particular interest to international students wishing to study in English at an Romanian university

Medicine

Dentistry

Pharmacy

Computer Sciences at Babeş-Bolyai University * in Cluj-Napoca.  This course focuses on various aspects of computer science, including algorithms, programming languages, software development, databases, AI, and computer networks.  

The university is based in Romania’s second city, the principal town of Transylvania, and home to a dynamic and flourishing IT sector. 

Useful websites & links

An article * introducing the country and its top universities.

Follow this link * for Times Higher Education World University rankings for Romania.

Studying in Romania website *

A general introduction to university study.

To find out more - go to your Unifrog account, and log in.  

Then search for these pages (for British School students with Unifrog access):

Why study in Romania?

Preparing to apply

Making an application

Student life in Romania

Cost of studying