Culture or prestige, reasons why 4,000 foreign students choose UZ

The culture of the city of Zaragoza , its long history, the generosity of the locals and the prestigious university programs are the main attractions that have attracted the more than 4,000 foreign students from the most varied countries who have chosen the University of Zaragoza to continue their studies during this academic year 2024/2025. Dozens of these students have come to the Paraninfo this Monday to receive a warm welcome from the institution.

It is precisely the “ kindness ” of the people of Zaragoza that has most caught the attention of Max Eberding, a German Mathematics student, during his first month in the city. “When I searched for Zaragoza on Google, it seemed like a city with a lot of history, a lot to explore and it seemed very authentic ,” says the German, who says that these were the reasons that led him to choose the Aragonese capital. He says that he is “very happy” in Zaragoza.

Culture also brought here the Chinese Tourism student, Tianchus Shu, who wants to “ be able to travel” around Spain in her free time, since it is a “very touristy” country. However, typical Spanish cuisine such as “paella” is another of her incentives. In addition, after three years studying Spanish in her hometown, she has moved to the Aragonese capital because she believes that the University of Zaragoza can offer her “ a higher education ”.

This is the same case as Yaneris Velázquez, who crossed the pond from Panama to continue her studies in the Master’s in Membrane Engineering for Sustainable Development. The Central American chose this university because “ it is of a high level .” The educational program also brought Micah D’Arcangelo, a student of Mechanical Engineering and Spanish, from the United States, because “there are not many programs like this in the United States, so it is a unique opportunity and I wanted to take advantage of it .” The American is also enrolled in the intensive courses in Spanish as a Foreign Language (ELE) offered by the university in order to “improve my Spanish.”

In addition to these reasons why people usually choose Zaragoza to study, the Vice-Rector for Internationalisation and Cooperation, Francisco Beltrán, adds that affordability , health coverage, Spanish as a global language and the high quality of life  make the city a place with “many advantages”. On the other hand, he highlights that the University of Zaragoza is among the 600 most prestigious universities in the world, which may encourage university students to choose it.

A TOTAL OF 4,230 FOREIGN STUDENTS LAST YEAR

During the last academic year, the University of Zaragoza welcomed 4,320 foreign students from 102 different countries as part of its mobility and cooperation programmes. Since the pandemic, there has been a drop and then a rebound effect that has caused 12% to be students from abroad. “There has been a notable growth of more than 700 students compared to the years before the pandemic, but since then we have been on a plateau, in a rather sustained evolution.”

Most of them came from Romania (454) and Italy (443), the latter being the most numerous, followed by Chinese (339) and French (267) students . Colombia, Germany, Peru, Mexico, Chile and Ecuador complete this list. According to Francisco Beltrán, the vast majority of foreign students study at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters.

As for the main programme that attracts the largest number of students, the Erasmus programme takes the lead with a total of 843 students last year. The predominant nationalities were Italian, French and German. In addition to these international mobility programmes, the Spanish as a Foreign Language Courses attracted a total of 850 students last year (not counting the Erasmus students who also enroll in these courses), in which the most numerous were students from China (179), Algeria (93), Morocco (61) and India (54).