Despite the economic crisis and high cost of tuition and residence, the United Kingdom still remains the first choice for Greeks who wish to study abroad.
The Greek Parliament has received data from the National Academic Recognition Information Center (Hellenic NARIC) regarding the number of applications for certificate recognition by students who had studied abroad.
The data was provided following a request by Former Parliamentary speaker Apostolos Kaklamanis who sought to highlight the effect that the economic crisis was having on the higher education of young people studying abroad. “The economic crisis and its consequences on the available income of the majority of families has rendered it impossible for the majority of Greeks to stay and continue their studies at higher education institutions in Europe and America… Many of those, even at a very advanced stage, return, following many years of financial losses for their families and with consequent feelings of hopelessness and futility about their future.”
Kaklamanis has proposed the creation of a new mechanism which will facilitate the continuation and completion of studies for students abroad who are truly unable to afford the cost of foreign universities and technical colleges, based on objective academic and socio-economic criteria.
Greek Education Minister Andreas Loverdos provided NARIC’s data to the Parliament, noting, however, that the record only “provides an indirect measure of the proportion of Greek students in different countries, because not all Greek students studying abroad need to apply for official recognition of their degrees in order to be employed. It provides a rough indication of which countries host the most Greek students.”
Here is the list of the top 15 countries that Greeks prefer for their studies, categorized according to the different types of degrees.
Undergraduate degrees
UNITED KINGDOM: 2475 applications
ITALY: 925
CYPRUS: 559
BULGARIA: 392
USA: 389
FRANCE: 256
RUSSIA: 237
GERMANY: 236
ROMANIA: 213
TURKEY: 171
UKRAINE: 151
SERBIA: 120
ALBANIA: 84
CANADA: 69
HUNGARY: 61
Other countries: 884
Total: 6338 applications
Post-graduate degrees
UNITED KINGDOM: 5.758 applications
ITALY: 1014
CYPRUS: 910
USA: 700
FRANCE: 641
BULGARIA: 578
THE NETHERLANDS: 441
GERMANY: 286
SPAIN: 162
BELGIUM: 155
SERBIA: 97
SWEDEN: 74
AUSTRIA: 73
ROMANIA: 61
SWITZERLAND: 40
Other countries: 920
Total: 10.990 applications
Doctorates
UNITED KINGDOM: 762 applications
GERMANY: 188
FRANCE: 163
USA: 149
ROMANIA: 61
ITALY: 44
THE NETHERLANDS: 34
BULGARIA: 33
SPAIN: 33
SWITZERLAND: 26
BELGIUM: 15
AUSTRIA: 14
SWEDEN: 12
CANADA: 11
AUSTRALIA: 10
Other countries: 69
Total: 1555 applications
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