In 2025, Russia allocated more than 5,000 state-funded university spots for African students after receiving more than 40,000 applications. According to Russia's cultural diplomacy agency Rossotrudnichestvo, that's double the applications they received in 2024. The highest number of applicants came from Sudan, Guinea, Ghana and Chad. Officials also report a growing interest in Russian language courses.
Observers say it is unsurprising 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 grow its global influence amid confrontation with the West.
Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has increasingly turned toward countries in the Global South to counter international isolation. Russia has touted education, energy, and military cooperation as tools of engagement.
"Offering scholarships is the cheapest possible way to get allies. Russia needs allies at the moment," Russian historian Irina Filatova, Professor Emeritus at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, told DW. "Russia has created an image that projects it as anti-colonial, and Africans agree with it."
Currently, the number of African students studying in the European Union or United States dwarfs that of African students studying in Russia, with a study estimating there were more than 92,000 African students studying in France alone.
Expanding a cultural footprint
Russia has announced plans to expand its network of cultural and education centers across Africa in a program known as "Russian Houses" to strengthen its academic and cultural footprint on the continent.
Yevgeny Primakov, head of Rossotrudnichestvo, told the Russia-Africa Expo 2025 held in Moscow in October that new centers are planned for Egypt, Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa and Ethiopia.
"Russian language courses are now offered in many African countries, and attending them opens the door 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 rise in scholarship applications. In the Central African Republic, authorities have introduced compulsory 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 relies on Russian military support.
Propaganda and recruitment concerns
Critics, however, accuse Russian Houses of serving as covert propaganda outposts that promote Kremlin narratives abroad.
Human rights organizations have also raised alarm over reports that some foreign students have been pressured into joining the Russian military in exchange for visa extensions or legal status.
Several students captured by Ukrainian forces claimed they were coerced into signing military contracts under threat of deportation or imprisonment. Others have been lured into other aspects of Russia's war effort, such as working in factories making arms and ammunition. Analysts warn such practices could undermine Russia's soft power ambitions.
"It is very bad for the Russian image at the moment to invite people to study and pay for their studies if they end up doing something different," said Filatova, adding, "Russia needs African countries as allies, not enemies."
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 an education in the Soviet Union.
A symbol of this was the Patrice Lumumba People's Friendship University of Russia, established in 1960, which trained students from the developing world while advancing Soviet foreign policy objectives.
Affordable education for African students
Beyond geopolitics, tuition and living expenses in Russia are significantly lower than in Western or even some African universities.
"Russian universities are way cheaper than studying in Europe or some African countries," said Keith Baptist, a Zimbabwean parent with three dependents studying in Russia.
"Accommodation and food are also way cheaper in Russia compared to a student learning here in Zimbabwe," he added.
Annual tuition fees for medicine and other specialized fields in Russia range between $2,000 (€1,719) and $10,000 (€8,596), compared to between $20,000 and $40,000 in Europe or the United States.
Jefry Makumbe, a Zimbabwean graduate who earned a Bachelor of Arts Honors in Radio and Television Journalism from the University of Voronezh in 2008, said affordability and cordial relations play a major role.
"Affordability and the good relations Russia enjoys with African countries are big factors. Many young people in Africa would prefer to study in Russia," Makumbe told DW.
Filatova says the Kremlin's deliberate funding for state universities keeps costs low.
"If the scholarships are fully paid for, it's a good opportunity for African students who cannot afford education. Fully funded education is rare in the West and even Africa itself," she said.
Western nations driving students away
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 visa issuance including student visas to several African nations.
Washington also revoked more than 6,000 student visas over alleged violations of United States law, including overstays and what it termed "support for terrorism."
"Western countries are now making it difficult to get a scholarship or even a simple student visa," said Baptist.
"In our case, America was the first option, only for us to find out that visa applications had been suspended."
Edited by Cai Nebe
