Student Housing & Exchange in Romania

Romania almost never tops anyone's list, ECAM students openly call it their fourth or fifth choice, yet the alumni verdict across more than thirty reports is unanimous: zero regrets. Bucharest gives you a two million strong Erasmus hub with a huge international student scene, direct flights and cheap trains to the Balkans, Turkey and Central Europe, and a course load light enough to compress into two days and travel the rest of the week. Timisoara offers the same value in a walkable, pedestrian friendly package. Neither city is conventionally pretty, Bucharest's communist blocks and cracked balconies are real, but both are alive, cheap and full of hidden corners once you start exploring.

The Erasmus scene is enormous and organised: ESN Poli and Happy Erasmus run buddy programmes and monthly events, including the four day Vama Veche beach weekend on the Black Sea that pulls in four hundred exchange students from across Romania. In Bucharest, nightlife centres on the Old Town around Piata Unirii, with bars and clubs open until six or seven in the morning, house and techno DJs, and student favourites like Mojo and Control Club. Timisoara's whole student life runs through the aleea studentilor, a pedestrian strip of dorms, bars and cheap eats next to the Bega river, though bars close earlier and the vibe is calmer than the capital.

Romania used to be the country where everything cost four times less, that gap has narrowed. Supermarket shopping at Carrefour or Auchan now sits close to French prices, while Lidl and Kaufland stay genuinely cheap. What is still a bargain: rent, transport, going out and eating at local spots. University residence halls run from 40 to 120 euros a month depending on the city, a pint costs 1.5 to 3 euros, a full restaurant meal is 5 to 15 euros, and a Bolt ride across town rarely tops 5 euros. Bring some cash: many landlords and market stalls still expect leu in hand, not card.

Two clear paths. University residences are cheap, 100 to 120 euros a month in Bucharest, 50 to 60 euros in Timisoara, and put you right in the middle of the Erasmus crowd, though rooms are shared doubles with basic kitchens and occasional hot water cuts. Flat shares in Bucharest run 240 to 450 euros a month depending on standing, found through sites like Imobiliare.ro, Erasmus Facebook groups or word of mouth, expect cash deposits and always get the earthquake risk sticker and bedbug situation checked before signing. In Timisoara, ticking a box on the enrolment form gets you assigned a dorm automatically, no separate housing search needed.

The single biggest transport win of an exchange in Romania: a Romanian student card unlocks a 90 percent discount on trains, meaning you can cross the country for a couple of euros. Bucharest has a modern metro, last train around 11pm, plus a separate bus and tram network on its own ticketing app, Timisoara is compact enough to walk everywhere in 15 to 20 minutes. Bolt and Uber run 24/7 in both cities for 2 to 5 euros a ride and are the safer choice after dark over the yellow cabs, which are known to overcharge tourists. Trains themselves are slow, with no high speed line anywhere in the country.

Both host universities, Politehnica Bucharest (UPB) and Politehnica Timisoara (UPT), are engineering focused with genuinely relaxed grading for exchange students. Building your own timetable is the one universally dreaded task, expect two to three weeks of phantom courses, wrong rooms and rewritten learning agreements before things settle, so plan on grouping classes over two or three days. In Timisoara specifically, some faculties, mechanical and power engineering have been reported, end up teaching partly or fully in Romanian despite being listed as Erasmus courses, so it is worth confirming the teaching language directly with past exchange students, not just the course catalogue.

As an EU country, Romania asks nothing of EU or EEA passport holders beyond the paperwork every exchange student already carries. There is no visa process, no residence permit and no border check to worry about.

• European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) plus a complementary travel insurance policy required by most schools, from around 20 to 50 euros a month.
• Register your stay on France Diplomatie's Ariane platform before leaving.
• Romania is in the EU but not the eurozone: bring a fee free card like Revolut and use ING or Banca Transilvania ATMs for the best exchange rates.
• Grab a local Vodafone or Telekom SIM once you land, from 5 to 7 euros for close to unlimited data, and skip the airport kiosks.

Expect hearty, meat heavy plates: pork and chicken, polenta, ciorba soups, sarmale cabbage rolls, mici grilled sausages, covrigi pretzels and the papanasi dessert, vegetarians will need to search harder. Romania's communist past still shapes daily life, from grey block architecture to a notably rigid administration outside the international offices, but the reported first impression of coldness gives way fast to real warmth once you get talking. Around 89 percent of the country is Orthodox, and religious holidays are widely observed. Tap water is best avoided, especially in Timisoara, and restaurants routinely charge for bread and water, so factor that into the bill.

On Studcasa, Romania mostly means a choice between two very different Politehnica campuses.

• Bucharest: a two million strong capital and the biggest, most international Erasmus hub in the country, with nightlife, parks and a compressed class schedule built for weekend trips.
• Timisoara: nicknamed the little Vienna, a pedestrian, river side city with the cheapest student housing in the corpus and Serbia and Hungary just across the border.

Inside Romania, the near free student train pass opens up Brasov, Sinaia, Sibiu, Sighisoara, Cluj-Napoca and the Black Sea coast, while the Transfagarasan mountain road and the Danube Delta boat trip are described again and again as unmissable. From Bucharest, overnight buses reach Istanbul, with a Cappadocia extension, and Sofia in around seven to eleven hours, and direct flights on Wizz Air or Ryanair connect to the rest of Europe. From Timisoara, Budapest is a 19 euro Flixbus ride and a top weekend pick, and Belgrade is reachable by a door to door minibus for around 50 euros since there is no direct public transport link.

Go claim your Romanian student card at the secretariat as soon as you arrive, it is what unlocks the 90 percent train and metro discount and nobody will hand it to you automatically. Buy a local SIM in town rather than at the airport, keep some cash on you for rent and markets, and warn the waiter before ordering if your group wants a split bill. Cross roads on the green only, locals never jaywalk and traffic is the country's real danger. Check any flat for bedbugs and its earthquake rating before signing, and if you head into the Carpathians, hike in a group and carry bear spray.