Foreign students will no longer be accepted at Georgia’s state universities starting next academic year, leaving private universities as their only option to study in the country. During a TV interview on Wednesday, Education Minister Givi Mikanadze said that ‘state universities must be oriented toward state interests’.
The Georgian government first said it wanted to restrict the admission of foreign students to state universities in October while unveiling its controversial higher education reform.
Mikanadze announced this would take effect as of the next academic year in an interview with pro-government TV Rustavi 2.
Speaking about the number of foreign students in state universities, Mikanadze cited Tbilisi State Medical University (TSMU) as an example, where, according to him, 45% of its students are foreigners, while 55% are Georgian citizens.
‘We are telling representatives of private [universities] that foreign students are right here, and you can focus on them. Of course, they are not prohibited from having Georgian students as well’, he said, also adding that foreign students pay ‘several times higher fees’ than those set for Georgian students.
Announcing their higher education reforms in October, the government said that ‘excessive attention’ was given to attracting foreign students in ‘some state universities’. They argued this reduced the resources a university had to allocate to preparing Georgian students. Their concept document, however, stipulated that foreign students may only be admitted in ‘exceptional cases provided for by law’. Mikanadze did not discuss the nature of these exceptions in his Wednesday interview.
The topic of foreign students was also raised on 26 November, when Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze appeared before parliament in a Q&A session.
