Он бывший студент.

In Russian, the verb to be is usually omitted in the present tense.

So:

• Он студент = He is a student
• Он бывший студент = He is a former student

Russian does have forms of to be in the past and future:

• Он был студентом = He was a student
• Он будет студентом = He will be a student

But in simple present-tense statements, you normally leave is/am/are out.

Бывший means former or ex-.

So бывший студент means:

• former student
• ex-student

It describes someone who used to be a student but is not one now.

This word comes historically from the verb быть (to be), but in modern Russian learners should usually treat бывший as a normal adjective meaning former.

Because бывший must agree with студент, which is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective also has to be masculine singular nominative:

• бывший студент = masculine
• бывшая студентка = feminine
• бывшее...? = neuter, if used with a neuter noun
• бывшие студенты = plural

Russian adjectives change their endings to match the noun they describe.

It is in the nominative because this sentence is basically an identification statement:

• Он студент = He is a student
• Он бывший студент = He is a former student

In present-tense sentences like this, Russian commonly uses the nominative for the predicate noun phrase.

So:

• Он = nominative subject
• бывший студент = nominative predicate phrase

This is one of the standard patterns learners meet early in Russian.

Often, yes.

With был / будет and similar forms of to be, Russian very often uses the instrumental for the predicate noun:

• Он был студентом = He was a student
• Он будет студентом = He will be a student

So if you put this phrase into another tense, you may see:

• Он был бывшим студентом

That is grammatically possible, because бывший студент becomes instrumental:

• бывшим студентом

However, that exact sentence can sound a little awkward or context-dependent in real life, because former student already refers to a later stage in life. Still, grammatically it shows the case pattern clearly.

Normally, no. The natural order is:

• Он бывший студент

In Russian, adjectives usually come before the noun they describe.

Putting бывший after студент would sound unusual and strongly marked. It might appear only in special stylistic contexts, poetry, or with unusual emphasis.

For normal speech, use:

• бывший студент

Usually yes, but the exact English translation depends on context.

Common translations are:

• former
• ex-

Examples:

• бывший муж = ex-husband
• бывший президент = former president
• бывший студент = former student

So бывший does not mean just past in a general sense. It specifically means someone or something that used to have a role, status, or relationship.

Yes, in modern Russian it behaves like a normal adjective in many ways.

It:

• agrees with the noun
• changes for gender, number, and case
• usually comes before the noun

Examples:

• бывший студент = masculine singular
• бывшая студентка = feminine singular
• бывшие студенты = plural
• с бывшим студентом = instrumental singular after с

So even though it comes historically from a verb, learners can safely treat it as an adjective here.

Here are the most useful forms:

• Она бывшая студентка. = She is a former student.
• Они бывшие студенты. = They are former students.

Notice how both the adjective and the noun change:

• бывший студент = masculine singular
• бывшая студентка = feminine singular
• бывшие студенты = plural

If the person is female, Russian normally uses the feminine noun студентка, not студент.

The stress is on the first syllable:

• бы́вший

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• BYV-shiy

And the whole sentence is roughly:

• Он бы́вший студе́нт
• on BYV-shiy stoo-DYENT

A few notes:

• ы is not the same as English ee or i
• вш is a consonant cluster, so say it smoothly: быв-ший
• студент has stress on the last syllable: студе́нт

Normally, no. In a simple sentence like this, это is not needed.

The standard form is just:

• Он бывший студент.

You may see это in other sentence types, especially when identifying or defining something:

• Это студент. = This is a student.
• Он — бывший студент. = He is a former student.

A dash may sometimes be written for emphasis or style, but это would usually sound unnatural in this exact sentence.

No. You should use бывший студент, not прошлый студент.

Why?

• бывший = former, someone who used to be something
• прошлый usually means last, past, or previous in other senses

For example:

• в прошлом году = last year
• прошлая неделя = last week

But for a person’s old role or status, Russian normally uses бывший:

• бывший студент
• бывший директор
• бывший муж

So прошлый студент would not be the normal way to say former student.