Turks spend $4 billion a year on education abroad

The nearly 100,000 Turkish students who study abroad each year spend some $4 billion to do so, according to new data from UNESCO. These students choose foreign schools mostly for their undergraduate and graduate studies as well as for language courses. Students with limited financial resources opt for work-and-travel or internship programs. "Most students studying abroad come from the largest three cities [Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir], but there is a growing interest in studying abroad in provinces such as Gaziantep, Konya, Kayseri, Eskisehir and Bursa in recent years. The subjects Turkish students prefer to study include business management, marketing, finance, medicine and engineering. Eastern European and Scandinavian countries are often the destination of those who cannot enter medicine, dentistry and engineering programs in Turkey," said Deniz Akar, the general manager of IEFT Fairs Turkey, in a press release. The countries Turkish students most often choose to study in are Britain with 30,000 Turkish students, the U.S. (25,000), Germany (10,000), Fransa (4,000), Australia (3,500), Canada (3,000), Russia  (1,500), China(1,000), Ukraine(1,000) and Italy (800).