General Information

The education of foreign citizens in higher educational institutions of the Republic of Azerbaijan is regulated by the "Rules of study of citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan in foreign countries and foreigners and stateless persons in the Republic of Azerbaijan" approved by Resolution No. 125 of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated May 1, 2015.

Foreign citizens, regardless of the subordination and form of ownership of the education, have the right to study at the educational institutions of the Republic of Azerbaijan at all stages and levels of education, as well as at the scientific research institutions at doctoral level of higher education, and to study residency level of medical education at clinical bases. Only some foreign residents study at public expense based on the relevant intergovernmental agreement, but the majority study on a paid basis according to the agreement they signed with the higher educational institutions.

Since the 1960’s, the universities of the Republic of Azerbaijan have taken the first steps in the field of training for different specialties for foreign countries. At that time, foreigners mostly from Asian, African and Latin American countries studied various specialties in a number of educational institutions in Azerbaijan such as Baku State University, Azerbaijan Medical University, Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University, Azerbaijan Technical University, Azerbaijan University of Architecture and Construction, Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Art and Baku Music Academy.

During short period of time, preparatory faculty for foreign students which was established in 1961 under the Azerbaijan Oil and Chemistry Institute won 3rdplace among 55 preparatory faculties in USSR following Lomonosov Moscow State University and Leningrad Polytechnic University. Most of the graduates of this faculty that receives more than 500 foreign students in a year, gained the right to continue their education in various faculties of higher educational institutions in our country. During these years, thousands of foreigners from more than 70 countries of the world carried diplomas of different higher educational institutions of Azerbaijan with honour and worked as high-level specialists in their home countries.

After gaining independence, Azerbaijan was the only country in the post-Soviet space creating an opportunity for foreign students to complete their education on the basis of the commitments that the USSR had undertaken. While analyzing the increasing number of foreign students studying in our country during the late 1990s it became clear that, graduates who studied in our country had an impact and role in engaging some proportion of these students to education in Azerbaijan. While foreign students studying in Azerbaijan during the USSR period only studied in Russian, after gaining independence, many foreign students began to choose Azerbaijani and English as their teaching language. Therefore, preparatory courses by preliminary education bodies of higher educational institutions for foreign citizens are already held in English and Russian languages, along with the Azerbaijani language.

After gaining independence significant increase was observed in the numbers of foreign students. Thus, while in 1998-1999 the number of foreign citizens studying in our country was more than 1500, in 2008-2009 their number exceeded 7000. Since 2015-16 academic year, the number of foreigners studying in Azerbaijan is increasing again.