In 2025, Russia allocated more than 5,000 state-funded university places for African students, after receiving more than 40,000 applications. This is double the number of applications received in 2024, according to Rossotrudnichestvo, Russia’s cultural diplomacy agency. The largest number of applicants came from Sudan, Guinea, Ghana and Chad. Officials also report growing interest in Russian language courses.
Observers say it is not surprising that African students are turning to Russian universities for higher education. Under President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin has sought to revive Soviet-era relationships and build new alliances across Africa to boost its global influence amid confrontation with the West.
Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has increasingly turned to countries in the Global South to counter international isolation. Russia has offered education, energy and military cooperation as tools of engagement.
“Offering scholarships is the cheapest way to get allies. Russia needs allies at this time,” Russian historian Irina Filatova, emeritus professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, told DW. “Russia has created an image that presents it as anti-colonialist, and Africans agree with that.”
Currently, the number of African students studying in the European Union or the United States is less than the number of African students studying in Russia. A 2013 study estimated More than 92,000 African students were studying in France alone.
Expanding cultural footprint
Russia has announced plans to expand its network of cultural and education centers across Africa in a program called “Russian Houses” to strengthen its educational and cultural footprint on the continent.
Rosotrudnichestvo head Yevgeny Primakov told the Russia-Africa Expo 2025 in Moscow in October that new hubs are planned for Egypt, Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa and Ethiopia.
“Russian language courses are now offered in many African countries, and attending them opens up access to Russian scholarships, universities, career opportunities and a new way of life,” he said.
The growing presence of Russian Houses, coupled with language programs and state-funded study grants, helps explain the increase in scholarship applications. In the Central African Republic, authorities have introduced mandatory Russian language courses for university students. Russian military advisers and private contractors have already established a strong presence in the CAR, whose President Faustin-Archange Touadera is dependent on Russian military support.
Promotion and recruitment concerns
However, critics accuse Russian chambers of serving as covert propaganda outposts that promote Kremlin narratives abroad.
Human rights organizations have also expressed concern over reports that some foreign students have been pressured to join the Russian military in exchange for visa extensions or legal status.
Many students captured by Ukrainian forces claimed that they were forced to sign military contracts under threat of deportation or imprisonment. Others have been lured to work in other aspects of Russia’s war effort, such as in factories producing arms and ammunition. Analysts warn that such practices could undermine Russia’s soft power ambitions.
“Inviting people to study at this time and paying for their studies if they do something different is very bad for the Russian image,” Filatova said. “Russia needs African countries as allies, not enemies,” he said.
Echoes of the Soviet past
During the Soviet era, Moscow positioned itself as a partner to newly independent states in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Thousands of students from non-aligned countries, many of whom later became political or business leaders, received education in the Soviet Union.
One symbol of this was Russia’s Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University, established in 1960, which trained students from the developing world in furtherance of Soviet foreign policy objectives.
Affordable education for African students
Beyond geopolitics, tuition and living expenses in Russia are significantly lower than Western or even some African universities.
“Russian universities are far cheaper than studying in Europe or some African countries,” said Keith Baptist, a Zimbabwean parent who has three dependents studying in Russia.
“Accommodation and food are also much cheaper in Russia than for a student studying in Zimbabwe,” he said.
Annual tuition fees for medicine and other specialized fields in Russia range between $2,000 (€1,719) and $10,000 (€8,596), compared to $20,000 and $40,000 in Europe or the United States.
Jeffrey Makumbe, a Zimbabwean graduate who earned a Bachelor of Arts Honors in Radio and Television Journalism from Voronezh University in 2008, said affordability and cordial relationships play a major role.
“Russia’s affordability and good relations with African countries are big factors. Many young people in Africa would love to study in Russia,” Makumbe told DW.
Filatova says the Kremlin’s deliberate funding of state universities keeps costs low.
He said, “If the scholarship is paid in full, it is a good opportunity for African students who cannot afford education. Fully funded education is rare in the West and even in Africa.”
Western countries are driving away students
Analysts also point to increasingly restrictive immigration and visa policies in Western countries as another driver of the shift toward Russia.
In June, the United States suspended the issuance of visas, including student visas, for several African countries.
Washington canceled more than 6,000 student visas over alleged violations of United States law, including overstaying and what it called “support for terrorism.”
“Western countries are now making it difficult to even get scholarships or ordinary student visas,” Baptiste said.
“In our case, the US was the first option, then we learned that visa applications had been suspended.”
Edited by Cai Nebe