Azerbaijan is a country on the Caspian Sea’s west coast. The country has been a member of the Council of Europe since 2001. Sometimes Azerbaijan is considered as a part of Europe, although according to the UN it is part of South-Western Asia because of its geographical location. The capital and largest city is Baku.
2016 stats show that Azerbaijan’s population is 9 705 643 people. The official language is Azerbaijani.
Azerbaijan has a mostly petrol-based economy. The large petrol deposits are the main factor for the country’s economy. The national currency is stable, and has since 2000 devalued just 3,8% to US Dollar.
An oil pipeline opened in 2005 and a gas pipeline opened in 2006 gave a boost to Azerbaijan’s economy. In 2014 the GDP was 75 billion dollars. There is a local joke that when you land in Baku, the first thing you sense is the smell of gas and money.
There are 49 higher education institutions in Azerbaijan – 38 are state and 11 are private which have programs in Azerbaijani, Russian and English.
Tuition fees for Bachelor degrees start from $1000, whilst Master and Ph.D degrees start from $1500.
Bachelor degree – 4 years
Master degree – 1,5-2 years
Ph.D degree – 2-3 years
After the financial boom in 2005 and 2006 Azerbaijan began renewing its institutions, including universities. The modernization of universities consists not only of building more and newer classrooms, but also improving the teaching methods. The old black chalk boards are replaced with newer interactive boards and lectures are replaced with more practice orientated ones.
In Azerbaijan there are only 4000 international students. That may not seem like a big number, but it’s reasonable considering that it borders Turkey, where the tuition fees are much lower than in Azerbaijan.
The most desired programmes at the universities are the petrol or other engineering which is due to the fact that 80% of the the GDP of the country comes from the petrol and related industries.
Out of 49 universities in Azerbaijan 9 have found their way to the 2019 Times Higher Education ranking. Here is a list of the best universities of Azerbaijan:
