Medicine remains the top field of study for foreign students in Russia

Medicine was chosen by 23% of surveyed international students, down from 27% a year earlier, according to a study by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) and the Neindifferent Person platform.

The survey included 13,326 international students. Education and teacher training ranked next, followed by social sciences, engineering and the humanities. The share studying education-related subjects rose from 10% to 14% over the year.

Students’ choices also varied by region of origin. Medicine was selected by 79% of respondents from South Asia and 42% from the Middle East. Students from CIS and other post-Soviet countries more often studied education and teacher training, at 22%, or social sciences, at 17%. Among students from sub-Saharan Africa, social sciences led at 23%, followed by engineering at 19%.

Russian universities enrolled 414,700 international students in 2025, compared with 355,765 in the 2023–2024 academic year. The government’s target is to reach 500,000 by 2030. Russian was the sole language of instruction for 56% of respondents, while another 32% studied in both Russian and English.

Eighty-seven percent said the language of instruction was comfortable, and the same share were satisfied with their teachers’ professional skills. Eighty percent described the university environment as safe, 77% as friendly and 76% as tolerant. Seventy-two percent had not lived in Russia before starting their studies.

For 24%, the main first-year challenges were the unfamiliar climate, and the same share cited limited Russian skills. Another 24% said they had faced no problems. A separate study of Russian university applicants found engineering and technical fields drew the most applicants in 2026. Education Minister Sergey Kravtsov has said advanced mathematics was the most popular Unified State Exam subject.