The world is flying in: 40+ universities, one morning in the Sports Hall

On Tuesday 13 October the Sports Hall becomes the biggest University Fair the school has hosted: more than 40 universities and institutions, each with its own representative to talk to. BGA students have the hall from 09:30 to 11:00, and the British International School of Tbilisi follows from 11:00 to 12:15. The fair is a joint project of BGA, BIST, GZAAT, the European School and Newton Free School.

HOW FAR THEY ARE COMING

The names on the list come from 17 places: Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Grenada, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Qatar, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The longest trip is from Tampa, Florida, 10,566 kilometres from Tbilisi in a straight line. Hong Kong is 6,698 kilometres away, Washington 9,297.

THE ONES TO FIND FIRST

The University of Hong Kong is ranked 11th in the world in the QS World University Rankings 2026. It is not the only Hong Kong name in the hall: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is 54th and City University of Hong Kong 63rd. Three of the world’s top 100, from one city.

Bocconi University, in Milan, is 10th in the world for business and management in the QS subject rankings for 2026. ESSEC Business School, just outside Paris, is 7th in the Financial Times ranking of European business schools for 2025.

IE University has a campus that goes up rather than out: a tower 180 metres tall in the north of Madrid. Northwestern University in Qatar has taught journalism and communication in Doha since 2008, and at 1,928 kilometres it is the nearest of these to Tbilisi.

Parsons Paris opened in 1921 as the first American art and design school in the city, and is part of The New School in New York. The George Washington University was created by an Act of Congress in 1821 and stands four blocks from the White House. The University of Rochester, founded in 1850, is home to the Eastman School of Music.

THREE THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW

Vilnius University was founded in 1579, which makes it one of the oldest universities in its part of Europe. At the University of Szeged, Albert Szent-Györgyi did the work on vitamin C that won him the Nobel Prize in 1937. And the University of Nicosia was the first university in the world to accept Bitcoin for tuition, in 2013.

EVERYONE ELSE

Modul University Vienna, Sigmund Freud Private University, Webster Vienna Private University, Anglo-American University, The American University of Paris, Bard College Berlin, Constructor University, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, SRH University, St. George’s University School of Medicine, NABA - Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Istituto Marangoni, John Cabot University, University of Stirling, Esade, La Salle Campus Barcelona, Franklin Switzerland, Sommet Education (Les Roches, Glion, École Ducasse), Lucerne University of Applied Sciences, Swiss Education Group, Aeres University of Applied Sciences, Koç University, Bard College, Drew University, Marist University, Bryant University, University of Tampa and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

HOW TO USE NINETY MINUTES

Ninety minutes is not long for forty tables. Choose five before you walk in, and bring the questions a website does not answer: what they look for in an application, what scholarships exist for students from Georgia, and when the deadlines are.

Rankings: QS World University Rankings 2026, QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026, Financial Times European Business Schools 2025. Distances are great-circle distances to Tbilisi. Photographs: Ka-Fai So, Daniel Case, Exploringlife, Paolo Gamba, Rdavout, Javier Perez Montes, Alanna Alexander, APK and Tomwsulcer, from Wikimedia Commons, under CC BY, CC BY-SA and CC0.