Higher education in Bulgaria is highly appreciated on an international level. This is after all students look elsewhere option as Brexit makes the UK too expensive.
According to the BBC, Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania have attracted students. A “substantial number” of British nationals interested in pursuing a medical degree since the mid-2010s. Study Medicine Europe is a dream for many. Just one of several student recruitment agencies set up in the region helped them. Now over 1,500 British and Irish citizens to enrol at Bulgarian and Romanian universities in 2016.
Nanu Danie, originally from Edinburgh, has been studying at the Medical University of Varna in Bulgaria since 2018.
She tells Emerging Europe. “Starting 2021 I had to get a temporary ID that allows me to stay in Bulgaria as a British citizen. Getting the ID was not a difficult process because our university helped us and explained the process. Otherwise, Brexit has not made a big difference to my future plans as my degree (Medicine) is approved by the GMC (the UK’s General Medical Council). I can still return back home to the UK and practice as a doctor.”
While many of the appealing aspects of studying medicine in some emerging European countries, such as the affordable fees, cost of living and GMC-approved degrees, are still available to British students, British education has become significantly less accessible to the average student from emerging Europe.
Universities UK chief executive Alistair Jarvis says,
“The UK government and universities must continue to demonstrate how much they value European students by working together to promote the UK as a high-quality destination for study and by offering new forms of financial support.”
Meanwhile, Vivienne Stern, director of Universities UK International, finds it unlikely that the UK government will invest in a scholarship scheme targeting European students.
“Perhaps this is something the sector could do itself,” she suggests.