Russia allocated more than 5,000 state-funded university spots for African students in 2025, after receiving over 40,000 scholarship applications from across the continent.
That figure represents double the number of applications received in 2024, according to Russia’s cultural diplomacy agency Rossotrudnichestvo, signaling sharp growth in interest.
The highest volumes of applicants came from Sudan, Guinea, Ghana, and Chad, with officials also reporting a surge in enrollment in Russian language courses.
Under President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin has worked to revive Soviet-era relationships with African nations and build new alliances to expand global influence amid deepening confrontation with the West.
“Offering scholarships is the cheapest possible way to get allies. Russia needs allies at the moment,” said Russian historian Irina Filatova, Professor Emeritus at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.
Filatova added that “Russia has created an image that projects it as anti-colonial, and Africans agree with it,” helping explain the country’s growing appeal among prospective students.
Russia has announced plans to expand its network of so-called “Russian Houses” across Africa, with Rossotrudnichestvo head Yevgeny Primakov confirming new centers are planned for Egypt, Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa, and Ethiopia.
Primakov told the Russia-Africa Expo 2025 in Moscow that “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.”
In the Central African Republic, authorities have introduced compulsory Russian language courses for university students, a country where Russian military advisers and private contractors already hold a strong presence.
CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera relies on Russian military support, making the country one of the most advanced examples of Moscow’s deepening footprint on the continent.
Critics have accused Russian Houses of functioning as covert propaganda outposts designed to promote Kremlin narratives, with human rights organizations raising alarms over reported military recruitment pressure on foreign students.
Several students captured by Ukrainian forces claimed they were coerced into signing military contracts under threat of deportation or imprisonment, with others drawn into working at arms and ammunition factories.
“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,” Filatova said, warning that “Russia needs African countries as allies, not enemies.”
Beyond geopolitics, the cost of studying in Russia remains a powerful draw, with annual tuition in medicine and specialized fields ranging from $2,000 to $10,000, compared to $20,000 to $40,000 in Europe or the United States.
“Russian universities are way cheaper than studying in Europe or some African countries,” said Keith Baptist, a Zimbabwean parent with three dependents currently studying in Russia.
Baptist noted that “accommodation and food are also way cheaper in Russia compared to a student learning here in Zimbabwe,” underlining the everyday financial calculus facing African families.
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 that “affordability and the good relations Russia enjoys with African countries are big factors.”
Filatova noted that the Kremlin’s deliberate funding of state universities keeps costs artificially low, saying “fully funded education is rare in the West and even Africa itself.”
Western immigration policy is also accelerating the shift, with the United States suspending visa issuance, including student visas, to several African nations and revoking more than 6,000 student visas over alleged legal violations.
“Western countries are now making it difficult to get a scholarship or even a simple student visa,” Baptist said, noting that America had been his family’s first choice before visa applications were suspended.
