The number of confirmed offers for Upgrade students has grown significantly over the past three years: from 199 in 2023, to 464 in 2024 and 423 in 2025.
Even though 2025 marks a slight decline compared to the previous year, the high acceptance rate at top universities highlights the qualitative progress of the mentored cohorts.
This shift points to more careful selection and stronger preparation among Romanian applicants, who are adapting to an increasingly competitive international educational landscape.
Context of Romanian Universities
More and more Romanian students are strategically choosing to study abroad. This may be driven by the fact that no Romanian university ranks among the global top 500, according to the QS 2026 World Ranking, although we do have 2 universities in the global top 1000 and 10 in the top 1500.
| QS 2026 Ranking | QS 2025 Ranking | Name of the institution |
|---|---|---|
| 761-770 | 781-790 | Babeș-Bolyai University |
| 761-770 | 801-850 | University of Bucharest |
| 1001-1200 | 1201-1400 | "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iași |
| 1201-1400 | 1201-1400 | Technical University of Cluj-Napoca |
| 1201-1400 | 1201-1400 | "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iași |
| 1201-1400 | 1201-1400 | Transilvania University of Brașov |
| 1201-1400 | 1201-1400 | POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest |
| 1201-1400 | 1201-1400 | West University of Timișoara |
| 1401+ | 1401+ | "Ștefan cel Mare" University of Suceava |
| 1401+ | 1401+ | University of Oradea |
Source: https://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings?countries=ro.
The Upgrade Education Story
Upgrade Education was founded on the belief that a Romanian student, with the right support, can compete at the highest international level.
Our model places personalized academic strategy at its core, along with constant mentorship and a deep understanding of each university's requirements.
We aim to prepare students not only for admission, but for a career built on values such as rigor and courage.
General Trends: 2023-2025
In 2023, Upgrade students secured 199 confirmed international offers. In 2024, the figure rose to 464 recorded offers (estimated: 760), and in 2025 to 423 (estimated: 596).
Note: Recorded offers represent the results already communicated and validated by students up to the time the report was written. Estimated offers are extrapolated based on the proportion of students who reported results to the total number of mentored students, excluding offers from the US and those from Cambridge and Oxford, where estimation is not applicable.
The share of offers from universities in the global top 100 was 41.59% in 2024 and rose to 47.04% in 2025, taking into account data from all three regions of interest: Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
In 2024, students mentored by Upgrade Education received on average 2.76 study abroad offers per student, while in 2025 the average dropped to 2.43.
This decrease reflects a strategic shift in applicant behavior: Romanian students are focusing their efforts on a smaller number of universities, which are more selective. Instead of focusing on quantity, they are choosing quality.
This trend is also influenced by recent changes in European education systems that tend to restrict access for international applicants.
For example, the University of Groningen announced that, starting with the 2025-2026 academic year, the bachelor's program in Medicine will be offered exclusively in Dutch, thus eliminating the English-language option.
Likewise, several top Dutch universities, including the University of Amsterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam, intend to discontinue bachelor's programs in Psychology taught in English starting with the 2027-2028 academic year.
These legislative and institutional changes, alongside the post-Brexit effects, are prompting Romanian students to reassess their study abroad options, turning toward educational destinations that are stable and accessible in terms of cost.
US Results
In 2023 there were 32 offers from the US. In 2024, 60 were recorded, and in 2025, 52, with no additional estimates. The share of offers from the top 100 is rising: 46.67% in 2024 and 53.85% in 2025. Ivy League offers remain constant: 3 each year, representing 5-6% of all US offers.
A slight decline can be observed in the average number of offers per student, from 2.86 in 2024 to 1.86 in 2025. This trend can be explained by a greater focus on top universities, where admission rates are significantly lower.
United Kingdom Results
The number of offers from the United Kingdom grew from 60 in 2023 to 124 in 2024 (estimated ~203), followed by a moderate decline to 107 in 2025 (estimated ~151).
Despite the drop in volume, the quality of the offers increased: while in 2024, 69.35% of offers came from universities in the top 100, in 2025 this percentage rose to 75.70%.
As for the prestigious universities Oxford and Cambridge, 9 admissions were recorded in 2023, and in 2025, 5 admissions, of which 3 at bachelor's and 2 at master's level.
The most offers in 2025 came from University College London (UCL), 13 offers, followed by the University of Warwick (12), the University of Bristol (8), the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) (8) and King's College London (8).
In 2024, the five universities that issued the most offers were the University of Manchester (18), King's College London (16), UCL (13), the University of Warwick (12) and Queen Mary University of London (7).
In 2023, the 5 most popular universities among Upgrade students were: the University of Manchester (8 offers), the University of Cambridge (6), the University of Warwick (5), King's College London (5) and Imperial College London (4).
Looking at the 2023-2025 period cumulatively, four universities stand out for the total number of offers issued to students: the University of Manchester: 32 offers; UCL: 29 offers; King's College London: 29 offers; the University of Warwick: 29 offers.
Continental Europe Results
Offers from the EU grew from 105 in 2023 to 277 in 2024 (estimated ~453), remaining high in 2025 at 258 (estimated ~363).
The share of offers from the EU top 100 was 27.80% in 2024 and rose to 33.33% in 2025.
Although the total number of offers fell, the percentage of offers from universities in the global top 100 increased, which supports the hypothesis that Romanian students tend to apply to more selective universities, but in smaller numbers, compared to previous years.
The most popular destinations included: Bocconi University (Italy) for finance and economics, TU Delft and Eindhoven University of Technology (the Netherlands) for engineering, the University of Amsterdam for social sciences, Sciences Po (France) for political science, and IE and Esade (Spain) for business.
Outside Europe and the Americas, offers are rarer: in 2023 there were 2 (NYU Abu Dhabi and Duke Kunshan), in 2024, 3 (2 in Asia, 1 in Canada), and in 2025, 6 (1 in Africa, 1 in Asia, 4 in Canada).
Sociological Profile of the Romanian Student Who Applies Internationally
The Romanian student who applies internationally is, in general, urban, bilingual, highly involved in extracurricular activities and well informed about educational options.
Many come from public high schools with excellent results (such as national colleges) and choose to study abroad for the quality of education, the flexibility of the programs and the career prospects.
Increasingly often, they choose top European universities that offer programs in English at an affordable cost.
Conclusions
The data in this report confirms that Romanian students are defining their educational path with ever greater clarity.
Their preferences for international universities are backed by real performance in the admissions process, as well as by a refined ability to make selections.
For Romania, this wave of educational mobility should be understood not as a loss, but as an opportunity: to bring back the expertise of these young people or to turn local universities into a point of attraction comparable to international ones.
Methodology
All the data in this report comes from the internal Upgrade platform, where mentors recorded the results received by students. The information was validated together with the students. For 2024 and 2025, we applied proportional estimates based on the difference between the students who reported results and the total number of those mentored. The only non-estimated figures are the offers from the US and those from Oxford and Cambridge.