Transfer From University of Debrecen to UPJŠ Dentistry

So you are somewhere in Debrecen between an oral anatomy revision and your next prosthodontics lab, and you are googling transfer from Debrecen to UPJŠ dentistry at 1am. I get it. I study dental medicine at UPJŠ in Košice and I work with Medently, and every summer I end up walking a few students from the Hungarian schools through this exact move. This is the guide I wish existed for them: a real year-by-year comparison of the two curricula, what usually gets recognised, what you might repeat, and what the whole thing costs.

First, some fairness: Debrecen is not the problem

Let me say this upfront, because transfer articles love trashing the school you are leaving. The University of Debrecen has run its English Dentistry Program since 2003 and hosts over 700 international dental students, with Erasmus exchange on top. The DMD you would earn there is a 5-year, 10-semester, 300 ECTS degree taught in English and recognised across the EU. It is a legit school with a long track record.

The reasons people message me are practical, not academic. Tuition is $17,500 USD per year, billed in dollars while you live on euros and forints, plus a $150 application fee and a $350 entrance procedure fee at the start. Progression pressure is real, like at every dental school. And moving within Hungary is genuinely hard: Medhead reports roughly ten applicants per transfer seat at Szeged, and Semmelweis and Pécs are not exactly quiet either. Meanwhile Košice sits about 30 minutes from the Hungarian border. You can change universities without changing your whole life, and the cost of living stays low.

Transfer from Debrecen to UPJŠ dentistry: the two official routes

UPJŠ runs two separate processes, and people mix them up constantly. Do not, because the deadlines and paperwork are different.

• Route 1: formal transfer. Only for students in good standing who met every condition to continue into the next academic year at their current university. You submit a signed Request for Transfer by 15 August. Interrupted, terminated or expelled studies do not qualify.
• Route 2: entrance exam plus subject recognition. Open to anyone with a previous uncompleted study who passes the UPJŠ entrance exam. After passing, you apply for recognition of your completed subjects by 15 September, submitted to the Study Department (Ing. Mária Spišáková handles it). The faculty then decides which subjects count and which year you enter.

One rule that surprises people: you cannot apply for a regular transfer and also sit the entrance exam for the same programme in the same year. Pick a lane. And real talk, for most students I speak with, route 2 is the realistic one, which means the entrance exam is still part of your life. Nobody should sell you this as effortless. It is the same setup I covered in the Zagreb to UPJŠ guide, because these rules belong to the university, not the country you come from.

Debrecen DMD vs UPJŠ MDDr: the year-by-year comparison

Both programmes are 5 years and English-taught. Debrecen runs 10 semesters and 300 ECTS towards the DMD. UPJŠ awards the MDDr and, from the 2025/26 intake, restructured its English Dental Medicine programme from 6 years down to 5, matching the Czech, Hungarian and Polish model. The first 5-year graduates finish in 2030, and for the next few years the faculty runs 5-year and 6-year cohorts in parallel. Which track a transfer student lands in is confirmed case by case, so ask before you assume.

Here is how the dental spine of each programme lines up. Both schools obviously run general medical subjects alongside these.

Year	Debrecen DMD	UPJŠ MDDr
1	Biophysics, chemistry, oral anatomy, histology	Preventive dentistry, Propedeutics 1-2
2	Biochemistry, dental physiology, materials science	Dental materials, Propedeutics 3-4, Clerkship 1
3	Pathology, microbiology, restorative, periodontology	Conservative 1, Prosthetics 1, Radiology
4	Complex dentistry, pharmacology, orthodontics	Conservative 2-3, Prosthetics 2-3, Dentoalveolar surgery
5	Advanced clinical dentistry, paediatrics, thesis	Periodontology, orthodontics, paediatrics, maxillofacial

Look closely and two things jump out. First, years 1 and 2 are dominated by the same general medical sciences at both schools: biology, chemistry, biophysics, histology, biochemistry, physiology. That overlap is your recognition goldmine. Second, the dental chains are sequenced differently. Debrecen brings periodontology and restorative dentistry into year 3 and orthodontics into year 4, while UPJŠ pushes periodontology, orthodontics and paediatric dentistry into the final years and instead front-loads a long Propedeutics of Dental Medicine chain across years 1 and 2, with professional clerkships starting in year 2. So a Debrecen year 3 student has already covered things UPJŠ teaches later, and is missing pieces UPJŠ students already did. That mismatch, not your grades, is usually what decides your year placement.

One more UPJŠ housekeeping fact: students must enrol in at least 40 and at most 90 credits per year to progress, so your recognised subjects also shape what a normal year will look like for you.

What usually gets recognised, and what you might repeat

The recognition rules come from the faculty (Dean's Directive No. 4/2023) and faculty management has the final word. All of these must hold:

• 5-year recency: the course was completed within the last 5 years.
• Same level, similar programme: it comes from another faculty of medicine at the same level with the same or only slightly different study programme. Debrecen dentistry qualifies on paper.
• It must exist at UPJŠ: only subjects that are compulsory or compulsory-elective in the UPJŠ curriculum can be recognised.
• Graded means graded: a UPJŠ subject that ends with a grade is only recognised if it was graded at Debrecen too. A subject you merely passed converts to grade E, sufficient.
• Completion type must match: the classic trap. One dental student had Propedeutics of Dental Medicine 2 refused because it ended with a credit test at the previous university but with an exam at UPJŠ.
• No completed degrees: you cannot transfer credits from a degree you already finished.

The fee is almost funny: 2 EUR per subject, capped at 15 EUR total. Easily the cheapest paperwork of your dental career.

In practice, your Debrecen year 1 and 2 sciences are the strongest candidates, and the preclinical dental chain is where things get argued subject by subject. I will not promise you a specific year, and neither should anyone else, because the faculty decides after seeing your transcripts and syllabi. What I can say: UPJŠ accepts grades A to E regardless of Debrecen's marking scheme, and transfers into higher years happen routinely, commonly cited up to 4th year.

The honest part: the UPJŠ entrance exam

If you go the recognition route, the exam comes first. It is a single written test: 200 multiple-choice questions, 100 biology and 100 chemistry, 2.5 hours, 800 points maximum, no negative marking. Each question has options A to D, and anywhere from zero to all four can be correct, which is what catches people who prepped on single-answer question banks.

Good news for someone two or three years into dental school: the biology is largely revision for you. The chemistry probably needs a proper brush-up, since you likely have not touched general chemistry since first year. Sittings run all through the summer, and you can usually register up to about a week before one, so you have not missed the boat. The next in-person sitting is 12 August 2026 in Košice. Medently registers students for free, and any exam fee goes to the university, never to us. Start with the free UPJŠ practice questions to see where you stand.

Costs side by side: Debrecen vs UPJŠ Košice

Debrecen dentistry costs $17,500 USD per year, plus the one-time $150 application fee and the $350 entrance procedure fee. UPJŠ Dental Medicine is billed in euros and by cohort: 11,000 EUR per year for earlier cohorts, 13,000 EUR for students admitted in 2024/25 and 13,500 EUR for the 2025/26 intake, payable in two installments with deadlines of 31 August and 1 March. At recent exchange rates, $17,500 lands comfortably above even the newest UPJŠ rate.

Two details worth knowing. Your UPJŠ fee is locked at your cohort's rate for the entire degree, so the number you enrol at is the number you finish at. And the whole recognition process costs 15 EUR maximum, while Medently's help is free, no agency fees, ever. If you want a deeper dive into the fee structure of a similar move, the Varna to UPJŠ cost guide breaks it down line by line.

DMD vs MDDr: what you hold at the end

Both degrees get you to the same place. The Debrecen DMD and the UPJŠ MDDr are dental qualifications recognised across the EU under Directive 2005/36/EC, the directive whose Annex V lists recognised dental practitioner qualifications. That covers the whole EU and EEA, including Norway, where you apply for autorisasjon through Helsedirektoratet. And with the new 5-year structure, UPJŠ dental graduates can start practising immediately after graduation, no additional specialisation required.

The UK is its own story since Brexit, and here is a dentist-specific point most transfer articles skip: dentists register with the GDC, not the GMC, which is for doctors. The GDC currently recognises EEA dental qualifications listed in Annex V through a near-automatic process, and the UK government reviewed those arrangements in 2023 and extended them for five years, to around mid-2028. Eligibility does not depend on your nationality or where you live. Rules can change after that window, so if the UK is your end goal, check the GDC site before you plan around it.

Documents and a realistic timeline

UPJŠ rejects incomplete requests, so get this right the first time. Everything must be officially translated into Slovak or English.

• Recognition route: Application for Recognition, original transcripts with exact completion dates, original or certified course syllabi, and proof of the fee payment.
• Transfer route, additionally: the signed Request for Transfer, a Letter of Authorization and proof that you are a current student.
• After acceptance, for registration: a recent medical certificate less than 3 months old, a passport or ID copy, your high-school leaving certificate and a certified birth certificate.

The hardest document to get remotely is the syllabi. Request them from Debrecen while you are still on campus, because chasing course descriptions from another country later is nobody's idea of a summer. Then the timeline is simple: sit a summer exam sitting, submit recognition by 15 September (or the transfer request by 15 August if you qualify for route 1), wait for the faculty's decision on your year, then register and enrol in your 40 to 90 credits through AiS2, the academic information system.

This is exactly the paperwork Medently handles every week, free of charge. Several people on the team transferred to UPJŠ themselves, so the answers you get come from lived experience rather than a brochure. Have a look at the full UPJŠ Košice guide, or start your application whenever you feel ready.

FAQ

Do transfer students have to sit the UPJŠ entrance exam?

On the recognition route, yes: you pass the exam first, then apply for subject recognition by 15 September. The exception is the formal transfer route (signed Request for Transfer by 15 August), limited to students in good standing. You cannot use both routes for the same programme in the same year.

Will my Debrecen credits be recognised at UPJŠ Košice?

Case by case. Subjects must have been completed within the last 5 years, exist as compulsory or compulsory-elective at UPJŠ and match the completion type. A subject you only passed converts to grade E. Year 1 and 2 medical sciences transfer best; the preclinical dental chain is assessed subject by subject.

Is UPJŠ Dental Medicine 5 or 6 years now?

From the 2025/26 intake it is a 5-year MDDr programme, with 5-year and 6-year cohorts running in parallel for the next few years. Which cohort a transfer student joins is confirmed case by case with the faculty.

Can I register with the GDC with a Slovak dental degree?

The GDC currently recognises EEA dental qualifications listed in Annex V of Directive 2005/36/EC through a near-automatic process, extended to around mid-2028. Dentists register with the GDC, not the GMC, and the rules may change after that window, so check the GDC site.