At most universities, being an international student means being the exception. You are the one explaining your grading scale, your visa, your accent. At a small number of universities, that flips. The locals are the minority, and everyone else is from somewhere else.
We went looking for those universities. The rule was simple: the university has to publish its own share of international students, that share has to be at least half, and it has to teach full bachelor's degrees in English and take applications directly from abroad. Rankings from third parties did not count. Only the university's own numbers did.
Ten well-known universities cleared the bar. Here they are, ranked by share, with what each one costs, what aid exists for students from abroad, and when to apply for fall 2027. A note on the numbers: most universities publish the share for the whole student body, and a few publish it for undergraduates only. We say which in each entry.
1. Constructor University, Bremen, Germany: 93% international
Constructor University, which most people still know by its old name, Jacobs University, is as close as it gets to a campus with no home country. Its 2024 annual report puts the student body at 93 percent international, drawn from 119 countries, and the university describes itself as the third most international in the world. Everything is taught in English on a residential campus in Bremen, with Computer Science, Industrial Engineering and Biochemistry among the biggest majors.
Tim from Syria ended up here after two years of trying to learn enough German for a public university. He gave up on the language and went looking for English-taught programs instead, and Constructor was the answer. Borderless has six stories from Constructor students, including two from Romania.
Tuition is €23,850 a year for 2027/28, the same for EU and non-EU students, plus up to about €1,400 a year in fees. Every applicant is automatically considered for the GPA-based Academic Achievement Scholarship, a Talent Scholarship worth €10,000 a year is available for students who submit the SAT, and a Tuition Deferral Program lets you pay part of your tuition after you start earning. You apply through Constructor's own portal or the Common App. Early Action runs from October 1, 2026 to February 1, 2027, then rolling admission until July 15, 2027.
2. Minerva University, San Francisco, USA: 85% international
Minerva has no campus in the usual sense. Students spend year one in San Francisco, then move together through cities like Tokyo, Buenos Aires and a European city for the rest of the degree. Minerva says 85 percent of its students come from outside the United States, from more than 100 countries, and it has been named the most innovative university in the world five years in a row.
Borderless has sixteen stories from Minerva students, more than from any other university on this list except NYU Abu Dhabi. Rafael from Colombia got a full-tuition scholarship there, and Tigran from Armenia landed at Minerva after 23 rejections elsewhere.
Tuition is $31,300 for 2027/28, with a total cost of attendance of about $59,600 once housing and fees are added. Need-based aid, loans and work-study are open to students of any citizenship, though Minerva says it does not offer full-ride packages. You apply through Minerva's own application or the Common App, with Early Action on November 1, 2026, Regular Decision I on January 5, 2027 and Regular Decision II on March 2, 2027. The CSS Profile has to be filed before your admission decision if you want aid.
3. IE University, Segovia and Madrid, Spain: 75% international
IE University runs its bachelor's degrees across two campuses: a UNESCO World Heritage town in Segovia for the first two years of most programs, then the IE Tower in Madrid. Its main page lists 75 percent international students and more than 130 nationalities, and the university says a quarter of its alumni go on to found their own companies.
It is not cheap. The Bachelor in Business Administration is €29,880 for 2027/28. IE says it awarded more than €8 million to incoming undergraduates in 2025/26, and that 35 percent of students receive some funding. Merit-based Direct Awards are decided automatically during admission; need-based awards take a separate application. You apply through IE's own application in rounds. For fall 2027, the Early Round closes September 18, 2026, Round 1 on November 6, 2026, Round 2 on January 15, 2027 and Round 3 on March 5, 2027.
4. NYU Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE: 74% international
NYU Abu Dhabi publishes the figure the other way round: 26 percent of its undergraduates are Emirati, which puts the rest, from more than 115 countries, at 74 percent for the 2025-26 academic year. It has four Nobel laureates on the faculty and a 96 percent six-year graduation rate. It is also one of the most-written-about universities on Borderless, with 40 student stories.
The reason is money. NYUAD's sticker tuition is $68,574 for 2026-27, but its financial aid is entirely need-based and open to every applicant regardless of citizenship, filed through the CSS Profile. Simon from Kenya went to a public school in Nairobi, took a gap year, applied Early Decision I and got full financial aid. Khoder from Syria got a 97 percent scholarship on his second attempt after 18 rejections in his first cycle.
You apply through the Common App, selecting NYU and then the Abu Dhabi campus, and finalists are invited to a Candidate Weekend. Early Decision I closes November 1, Early Decision II on January 1 and Regular Decision on January 5.
5. American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE: 74% non-Emirati
Twenty minutes from Dubai, the American University of Sharjah is an American-accredited university where, according to its own Fall 2025 fast facts, only 26 percent of students hold UAE nationality. The other 74 percent come from 103 countries, with India, Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan the largest groups. One thing to know: many of those students grew up in the UAE as residents, so "international" here means passport rather than where someone lives.
Tuition is AED 110,876 a year (about $30,000) for 2026-27, the same for every major and every nationality. The President's Scholarship covers full tuition plus a stipend, housing, travel and insurance, and it is reserved for students who finished secondary school outside the UAE. Merit scholarships of 10 to 20 percent and need-based grants sit below that. You apply through AUS's own portal; applications for fall 2027 open on October 19, 2026, and the university's own dates are marked tentative, so check before you plan around them.
6. London School of Economics, London, UK: 72% international
LSE's own 2025 student data puts international students at 72 percent of the full-time student body and, more relevant to you, at 52 percent of full-time bachelor's students. Students come from more than 140 countries, and 40 percent of staff are from outside the UK. It is a specialist social-science university, so the roughly 45 bachelor's programs run through economics, politics, law, sociology, data science and the like.
Overseas fees for 2027/28 run from £30,400 for BA History to £41,900 for BSc Economics, fixed at your year of entry for the length of the degree. LSE's scholarships for overseas undergraduates are awarded on financial need first, then merit, with one form covering all of them; the Uggla Family Scholars Programme is worth over £32,000 a year. Arianna from Malaysia funded LSE through a national scholarship from home, which is the other common route. LSE takes applications through UCAS only, with a deadline of January 13, 2027 for September 2027 entry.
7. Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands: 61% international
Maastricht sits where the Netherlands meets Belgium and Germany, and its facts and figures show 61 percent foreign students in 2025, from 128 nationalities, across 26 bachelor's programs. Every program uses Problem-Based Learning, meaning small groups working through cases rather than lectures. Jiline from Germany wrote about the application and orientation from the inside.
For non-EU students, tuition for 2026/27 is €13,200 to €18,400 a year depending on the program, or €20,109 for University College Maastricht and the Maastricht Science Programme; EU students pay the Dutch statutory fee of €2,694. Scholarships for bachelor's students are thin: the UM NL Global Studies Scholarship is one full award a year for a non-EU student in Global Studies. You apply through Studielink, the Dutch national portal, then Maastricht's own application system. Deadlines are set per program; selective programs like International Business closed on January 15 in the 2026 cycle.
8. University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg: 57% international
The University of Luxembourg is the cheapest degree on this list by a wide margin. Its facts and figures list 57 percent international students and people from 148 countries, and tuition is €400 a semester, or €800 a year, for everyone. It ranked fourth in the world for international outlook in the 2023 Times Higher Education rankings.
The catch is language. The university teaches in four languages and most of its 26 bachelor's programs are bilingual or trilingual. Only a handful, such as the Bachelor in Computer Science, run fully in English, so check the teaching language of the exact program before you apply. Applications go through the university's own portal. For 2026 entry the non-EU window ran from February 1 to March 24, and the 2027 dates had not been published when we checked.
9. Bocconi University, Milan, Italy: 53% international in English-taught programs
Bocconi's overall student body is about a third international, but on its community page it publishes a second figure that matters more if you are applying from abroad: 53 percent of students in the English-taught bachelor's class groups are international, from more than 100 countries. Bocconi is Italy's leading business and economics university, with 288 partner universities and 37 double degrees. Aliya from Kazakhstan and Leonard from Armenia both wrote about getting in and living in Milan.
Tuition is €17,000 a year for 2026-27, the same for EU and non-EU students, and Bocconi's need-based waivers cut that by 20 to 100 percent depending on family income. You apply through Bocconi's Apply2B portal with a €100 fee, and admission is scored 55 percent on the Bocconi online test, SAT or ACT and 45 percent on your GPA. For fall 2027, the Early Session runs September 2 to 29, 2026 and the Winter Session from November 25, 2026 to January 26, 2027.
10. University College London, London, UK: 52% international
UCL is the biggest university on this list, with more than 25,000 undergraduates and 400 bachelor's programs across 11 faculties. Its student body page puts overseas students at 52 percent of all students in 2024/25, from more than 150 nationalities. Taira from Kazakhstan got into Biomedical Sciences there despite what she called a thin extracurricular record.
Overseas fees are set per program and published in UCL's annual fee schedule, and UCL guarantees that your fee will not rise during your course except in Medicine. Scholarships for international undergraduates are searchable through UCL's scholarships finder. Like LSE, UCL takes applications only through UCAS, with the January equal-consideration deadline for September 2027 entry.
Smaller universities that are also majority international
A few universities publish shares as high as the top of this list but are smaller or newer, so we kept them out of the ranking. They are worth a look if cost matters more than name recognition.
- LCC International University, Klaipeda, Lithuania: about 80 percent international from around 60 countries, per its own brochure. Tuition is €4,290 a year for all nationalities, and it says nine out of ten applicants receive need-based aid.
- Anglo-American University, Prague: 80 percent non-Czech, the only Czech university with US accreditation, about €11,900 a year for non-EU students, rolling admission through its own portal or the Common App.
- Regent's University London: 70 percent international, one fee for all nationalities (£24,500 to £27,750 a year), applications direct or through UCAS.
- Whitecliffe University of Applied Sciences, Berlin: 68 percent international, English-taught, €9,280 a year for non-EU students.
- John Cabot University, Rome: 51 percent of degree-seeking undergraduates are from outside Italy, US-accredited, €23,700 a year.
Two more sit exactly at the line. NYU Shanghai is built as a 50/50 split between Chinese and international students by design, and Sciences Po's Undergraduate College reports 50 percent international students across its seven campuses.
Start your own journey
Being surrounded by people from a hundred countries changes what university feels like. It also changes what the application looks like: a Common App here, a UCAS form there, a Dutch national portal, a Spanish admissions round, and a different aid process at every one.
Kai, the Borderless AI college counselor, keeps that straight for you. Tell Kai your budget, your grades and where you want to be, and it builds a college list that puts these universities next to your other options, turns every deadline above into tasks, and works through each application and essay with you. It is free to use.
Start with Kai, and read the stories from students who did it.
