Cyprus was third among EU member states for the number of tertiary students from abroad with almost one in four in the country’s universities being an international student, Eurostat said on Friday.

According to the data published, in 2023 there were 1.76 million students from abroad undertaking tertiary-level studies across the EU, amounting to 8.4 per cent of all students.

Among EU countries, Luxembourg had the highest share of foreign students among tertiary education students with 52.3 per cent, followed at distance by Malta with 29.6 per cent and Cyprus with 22.3 per cent, indicating a turn towards the internationalisation of Cypriot universities and an environment attractive to foreign students.

By contrast, Greece with 3 per cent, Croatia 3.7 per cent and Spain 4.3 per cent recorded the lowest shares.

In 20 EU countries, the largest group of students from abroad came from elsewhere in Europe. This share was highest in Slovakia with 91.3 per cent, followed by Slovenia 89.4 per cent and Croatia 89 per cent.

Students from Asia were the largest group of foreign students in Ireland with 45 per cent, Finland 43.35 per cent, Germany 40.1 per cent and Italy 36 per cent.

In France, more than half, that is 52.3 per cent, of tertiary students from abroad in 2023 were from Africa, which was also the largest group of foreign students in Portugal with 42.1 per cent.

In Spain, most of the foreign tertiary education students – 46.7 per cent – were from the Caribbean, Central and South America.