Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, also known by its alternative spelling of Azerbaidzhan, is a country that occupies an area on the fringes of the Caucasian Mountains’ southern flanks. It is surrounded by Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Turkey with the Caspian Sea at its eastern border. It also borders Iran via the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave; whose history includes an intense conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia due to a territorial dispute. The country’s capital of Baku can be found on the eastern border with the Caspian Sea and is often reputed as having an excellent harbor used for sea travel and trade. The city of Baku itself has a long history of being a popular trade center due to its location. The country’s terrain is mostly mountainous with the Greater and Lesser Caucasian mountains taking up to 40% of the country’s 33 436 square miles.

While Azerbaijan is often visited as an exotic tourist destination, it is also frequently chosen as a location where one can study abroad. This is due to the sovereign state providing excellent quality programs ranging from fields of expertise such as Medicine through Engineering to Pedagogy. Of these, popular ones tend to be Management, IT, Economics, and International Relations. The country also has an impressive list of globally recognized and accredited higher education institutions, with popular ones including the Azerbaijan Technical University, the Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzade Pedagogical Institute for Languages, the Azerbaijan Medical University, the Uzeyir Hajibayov Baku Academy of Music, and the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. The country also provides an opportunity to practice one or more foreign languages as the population speaks Azeri (a language related to Turkish), Russian, Armenian, Kurmanjii, and Talysh. Also, a commonly used language of training in universities is English. One should bear in mind, however, that in order to qualify for the program of choice in any university or institution you will have to receive high scores on a language proficiency test or present a legitimate document that shows that you are proficient at a certain language. Also, one should bear in mind that a student visa is required to enter the country.