Study in Romania vs Lithuania from Pakistan

Every year, thousands of Pakistani students look toward Europe for an affordable degree, a Schengen-linked lifestyle, and a realistic path to post-study work. Two names keep coming up in every consultancy office in Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad: Romania and Lithuania. Both are European Union members, both teach hundreds of programs in English, and both are far cheaper than the UK, USA, or Canada. But they are not the same, and picking the wrong one can cost you a year and a lot of money.

This guide breaks down everything a Pakistani student needs before applying — tuition fees, living costs, scholarships, the exact visa application process, embassy interview difficulty, English test rules, work rights, and the real visa success ratio for both countries. If you are searching for study in Romania or study in Lithuania, read this before you shortlist a single university.

Why Pakistani Students Are Choosing Europe Over Traditional Destinations

The UK and USA still top the wish list for many families, but tuition and living costs there have climbed far beyond what an average Pakistani household can sustain without heavy loans. Romania and Lithuania solve that problem. Both offer EU-recognized degrees, both accept students without years of English-medium schooling, and both allow legal part-time work that helps cover living expenses. For a student who wants a Bologna-system degree without a six-figure budget, these two countries are now the most searched alternatives on every Pakistani study-abroad forum.

Study in Romania from Pakistan: Universities, Programs and Culture

If you decide to study in Romania, you are choosing the largest country in Eastern Europe, with a mature higher-education system built on the Bologna framework that European employers instantly recognize. Romania is well known among Pakistani applicants for one thing in particular: Medicine. MBBS programs at Romanian medical universities are among the most sought-after routes into European healthcare education, alongside strong engineering, IT, business, and dentistry faculties.

Public universities such as the University of Bucharest, Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Politehnica University of Bucharest, and Transilvania University of Brașov all run English-taught tracks for international students. There is no single centralized application portal in Romania — each university runs its own admissions cycle, so a Pakistani applicant typically applies directly to two or three universities to maximize the chance of an offer. The academic year runs from October 1 to September 30, with the main intake in September/October and a smaller winter intake in some faculties around January–February.

Anyone planning to study in Romania from Pakistan should also know that classes are frequently offered in English, French, and German, so the pool of programs available to non-Romanian speakers is genuinely wide — not a handful of token courses, but hundreds of full degree tracks.

Romania’s biggest draw for Pakistani families is cost. Tuition rarely feels like the Western European price tag families fear, and the lifestyle — cafés, old towns, castles, and a large existing South Asian student community in cities like Cluj-Napoca, Iași, and Târgu Mureș — makes the transition easier for first-time travelers.

Study in Lithuania from Pakistan: Universities, Programs and Lifestyle

Choosing to study in Lithuania puts you in the Baltic region — smaller than Romania, but arguably more efficient and predictable for international applicants. Lithuania offers over 600 Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD programs taught entirely in English, and Lithuanian degrees are automatically recognized across the European Union under the same Bologna structure. Vilnius University (the country’s top-ranked institution), Kaunas University of Technology, Vytautas Magnus University, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Mykolas Romeris University, and Klaipėda University all run dedicated international admissions offices.

Applications go through a single online system called DreamApply for most universities, which is far easier to manage than juggling separate portals — a real advantage for a Pakistani applicant handling everything remotely. Lithuania is particularly strong in Engineering, IT, Business, Life Sciences, and increasingly Medicine, with Lithuanian University of Health Sciences drawing growing interest from Pakistani MBBS applicants.

One detail matters a lot for anyone comparing options to study in Lithuania from Pakistan: the country already has an established Pakistani student community, with government migration data showing more than 700 Pakistani nationals holding study-related residence permits. That means better peer support, existing halal food options, and word-of-mouth guidance once you land.

Lithuania also markets itself heavily on safety and quality of life — it consistently ranks among the safer, cleaner, and more orderly countries in the EU, with widespread English fluency among the local population, which reduces the culture-shock factor for new arrivals.

Universities and Programs: Side-by-Side Comparison

Tuition Fees, Scholarships and Living Costs

Cost is usually the deciding factor for Pakistani families, and both countries are genuinely affordable by European standards — but the numbers differ enough to matter. When you compare offers to study in Romania against those to study in Lithuania, tuition, scholarships, and monthly budget all need to go into the same spreadsheet before you commit.

In Romania, average public university tuition runs from roughly €1,500 to €4,000 per year for most Bachelor’s and Master’s programs, while Medicine and Dentistry can climb to €4,000–€6,300 per year. Romania also offers several dedicated funding routes: the Romanian Government Scholarship (fully funded, covering tuition, accommodation, and a monthly stipend for non-EU citizens), the ARICE Scholarship focused on language and culture, and university-specific awards such as the Transilvania University Scholarship, which can cover tuition, accommodation, and living expenses for high-achieving applicants.

In Lithuania, Bachelor’s tuition typically runs from about €950 to €5,250 per year, and Master’s programs from roughly €2,100 to €6,200 per year, with Medicine and specialized health programs going above €10,000 at some institutions. Lithuania’s scholarship landscape is smaller and more competitive than Romania’s — mostly merit-based university awards offering partial tuition reductions rather than full-ride government scholarships — so most Pakistani students plan to self-fund tuition while saving on living costs.

Monthly living expenses are close in both countries: Romania averages €300–€600 per month depending on the city, while Lithuania averages €300–€750 per month, with Vilnius costing more than smaller cities like Kaunas or Klaipėda. Both are dramatically cheaper than London, Toronto, or Sydney.

Visa Application Process: Romania vs Lithuania

This is where the two paths genuinely diverge, and it’s the part most blogs gloss over. To study in Romania, a Pakistani student applies to the Romanian Embassy in Islamabad. After receiving your Letter of Acceptance from the Romanian Ministry of Education, you submit your passport, acceptance letter, proof of funds, accommodation proof, medical certificate, and police clearance certificate directly at the embassy, followed by biometric data collection. The embassy visa fee is roughly $150, and processing typically moves at a steady pace once documents are complete.

Lithuania works differently, and it’s a detail that catches many applicants off guard. There is no Lithuanian embassy in Pakistan, so visa and residence permit applications are routed through Lithuania’s diplomatic channels in Bangkok (Thailand) or Baku (Azerbaijan), which handle Pakistani applications and forward the file for processing. After acceptance, students register electronically for a Temporary Residence Permit (TRP) through Lithuania’s MIGRIS system, then attend an in-person biometrics appointment at the VFS center. Interviews, where required, are often conducted online rather than face-to-face. The visa fee is around €120 plus an additional €120 for the residence permit itself.

Because there’s no embassy on the ground for Lithuania, document turnaround and legalization steps can take slightly longer than Romania’s in-country process — so anyone planning to study in Lithuania from Pakistan should apply at least two to three months before the semester starts, earlier than the typical Romania timeline.

Embassy Interviews: Which Is Tougher?

Romania’s Islamabad embassy conducts interviews that focus heavily on genuine intent — why this university, why this subject, and how you’ll fund the full duration of your degree, not just year one. It is considered a moderately strict but fair interview, and well-prepared students with a clear Statement of Purpose rarely struggle. Lithuania’s process, run through VFS with limited or online interviews, is generally seen as more document-driven than interview-driven — meaning your paperwork accuracy matters more than performing well in a face-to-face conversation. For students who get nervous in interviews, Lithuania’s format tends to feel less intimidating.

English Language Test Requirements

Neither country makes IELTS mandatory across the board, which is a major relief for Pakistani applicants. For Romania, some universities accept a Medium of Instruction certificate instead of IELTS, though certain programs — particularly Medicine — still ask for a minimum IELTS band of 6.5. For Lithuania, many universities admit students without IELTS entirely, relying on your previous English-medium education, and a growing number now accept the Duolingo English Test as a cheaper, fully online alternative. If you want to avoid a language test altogether, Lithuania currently has more no-IELTS pathways than Romania.

Work Opportunities: During and After Your Degree

Financing a European degree gets easier when part-time work is legally allowed, and both countries permit it. In Romania, non-EU students can work up to 4 hours per day without a separate work permit, with common roles in retail, hospitality, call centers, and tutoring, plus growing demand in IT and data-related student jobs. After graduation, Romania grants a 1-year work permit that lets students search for jobs and transition a study visa into an employment visa.

Lithuania is more generous on hours: international students can work up to 20 hours per week during term time and full-time during semester breaks, with in-demand roles in hospitality, food delivery, retail, tutoring, and web development. After finishing your degree, Lithuania issues a temporary residence permit for job search valid up to 12 months, during which you can also switch into self-employment or a work-based permit once you secure an offer. Neither country requires a separate work permit alongside your study or post-study residence documents — the right to work is built into the permit itself.

Which Country Should You Choose?

If your priority is Medicine or Dentistry, a wider network of fully funded government scholarships, and an established South Asian community in specific university towns, Romania is the stronger pick, and it remains the more searched option for Pakistani MBBS applicants. If your priority is a near-guaranteed visa outcome, more no-IELTS pathways, a single streamlined application system, and slightly more weekly work hours, Lithuania edges ahead. Many consultants recommend applying to both in parallel — a Romanian medical or engineering program as your primary target, and a Lithuanian business or IT program as a high-probability backup — since the two visa processes don’t compete for the same embassy slots or timeline.

• Choose Romania if you want Medicine/Dentistry options and stronger scholarship coverage.
• Choose Lithuania if you want a higher visa success ratio and a smoother no-IELTS application.
• Apply early either way — Romania needs 6–8 weeks lead time, Lithuania needs 10–12 weeks.
• Get your academic documents attested by IBCC, HEC, and MOFA before applying to either country.

Frequently Asked Questions