The financial crisis is leading many young Greeks to foreign universities to continue their studies, with educational institutes in Romania, Bulgaria and other countries in the region proving particularly popular, according to reports in the Greek media.

In the last decades, especially between 1980 and 1990, many Greek people have chosen foreign universities, but the popularity of Romania and Bulgaria is on the rise. According to the newspaper Imerissia, about 80 percent of the Greece students registered at universities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are trying to transfer to universities in Romania and Bulgaria because of the lower cost of living.

In 2008, at the same time as the onset of the global recession, the number of the Greek students applying to universities in countries such as the UK, Italy, France, Germany and the US decreased in favor of the Balkan countries. In 2011, Bulgarian, Romanian, Czech and Slovakian universities had 2,339 Greek students, well up from 2007, when there were 1,315.

The numbers are expected to increase to around 2,600 due to the five years of recession and two and a half years of tough austerity measures that include drastic budget cuts, including in education.

The statistics show that one of five Greek university graduates tried to obtain a second diploma in another domain. The university courses in the Balkans preferred by the Greek students are degrees in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy (28 percent), education and law (24 percent), engineering (20 percent) and the economy (16 percent).

Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com

photo source: sxc.hu