Transfer From Zagreb to UPJŠ Dentistry: Which Year

I study medicine at UPJŠ here in Košice, and one of the most common messages that lands in my inbox reads something like this: "I'm doing dentistry in Zagreb, it's a solid school, but I want out, and I really don't want to lose two years." If that's you, here's the honest breakdown. This is how to transfer from Zagreb to UPJŠ dentistry, what UPJŠ typically recognises from the University of Zagreb School of Dental Medicine, and which year of the five-year MDDr you might actually join. No sugar-coating, no fake promises about slotting straight into fourth year.

Zagreb vs UPJŠ: the like-for-like picture

Let me be fair to Zagreb first. The School of Dental Medicine (Stomatološki fakultet) runs a proper six-year integrated Doctor of Dental Medicine, worth at least 360 ECTS, accredited right across the EU. You start hands-on preclinical manual-skills training in the earlier years and move onto treating real patients in the clinical years, so a large part of the degree is practical, chair-side work. Tuition sits around €10,000 a year, the same for EU and non-EU students. It is a good school. Nobody should pretend otherwise.

UPJŠ Košice teaches Dental Medicine as a five-year MDDr. programme, fully in English, across ten semesters. It dropped from six years to five at the 2025/26 intake, so if you read an old page calling it six years, that page is out of date. Tuition is €13,500 per year for the 2026/27 intake, and here is the part people miss: once you enrol, that annual fee is locked for the whole degree. It does not creep up year on year. What you sign for is what you pay.

Feature	Univ. of Zagreb	UPJŠ Košice
Degree	Doctor of Dental Medicine	MDDr.
Length	6 years	5 years
Tuition / year	~€10,000	~€13,500
Language	English	English
Structure	360 ECTS integrated	5-year MDDr track

That six-versus-five gap is the whole crux of the entry-year question, so hold that thought. You are not moving between two identical timelines, which is exactly why nobody can promise you a fixed landing year in advance.

The two official UPJŠ routes (they are not the same thing)

This is where most explainers online blur everything together and leave students confused. UPJŠ has two distinct processes, and you pick one.

• Route A, the transfer: This is registration from another university straight into the same or a similar UPJŠ programme. It is only open to students in good standing, meaning you met every condition to continue into the next academic year. If your studies were interrupted, terminated, or you were expelled, this route is closed to you. You submit a signed Request for Transfer by 15 August. No entrance exam on this path.
• Route B, recognition of subjects: This is for anyone with previous uncompleted study who wants their passed subjects counted. You must first pass the UPJŠ entrance exam, then apply for recognition of subjects by 15 September. The Study Department (Ing. Mária Spišáková) decides which subjects count and which year you enter.

One rule that trips people up: within the same academic year you cannot apply for both the regular transfer and the entrance exam for the same study programme. You choose your lane. If you are cruising along at Zagreb with clean grades, Route A is usually the smoother door. If your record has a wobble, or you interrupted a year, Route B via the entrance exam is your way in. Not sure which fits you? That is literally what our free credit review is for.

What UPJŠ typically recognises from your Zagreb subjects

UPJŠ will not just wave everything through, and honestly that is a good sign, because it means the degree holds its value. Here are the actual recognition rules, all of which have to hold true:

• The 5-year rule: the subject must have been completed within the last five years, counted from the start of the relevant academic year. Older than that and it will not count.
• Same level, same or similar programme: it has to come from another Faculty of Medicine at the same level, on the same or only slightly different programme. Zagreb dental to UPJŠ dental fits this well.
• It has to be in the UPJŠ curriculum: the subject needs to be a compulsory or compulsory-elective subject in the UPJŠ Dental Medicine plan. Your core basic sciences (Anatomy, Histology, Biochemistry, Physiology and friends) are the usual wins.
• Graded only for a graded slot: a UPJŠ subject that carries a grade is recognised only if it was also graded (not just pass/fail) at Zagreb. A subject you merely "passed" gets recognised as "passed, E, sufficient".
• No finished degrees: you cannot recognise credits from a study you already completed and were awarded a degree for. Recognition is for unfinished studies only.

The fee is refreshingly small: €2 per subject, capped at €15 total, plus the standard application fee. That is not a typo. Some competitor pages leave this out entirely, which is a shame, because it is one of the most reassuring numbers in the whole process.

Which year of the five-year MDDr will you join?

Here is where I am going to be straight with you, because plenty of pages out there are not. Nobody can promise you a fixed entry year in advance. The number of subjects UPJŠ recognises is what determines the year you slot into, and that is decided case by case by the faculty. You will see other sites confidently say "join second year" or "join fourth year" as if it is automatic. It is not.

What is true: students are commonly placed up to the fourth year depending on how many credits get recognised, and there is a minimum share of the degree you have to complete at UPJŠ itself before they will award their MDDr. Remember the six-versus-five gap too. Because Zagreb's degree is a year longer and structured differently, your subjects map across, they do not simply mirror the UPJŠ year number. So the realistic expectation is somewhere in the middle years, with the exact placement confirmed once your transcript is assessed. Anyone who quotes you a guaranteed "one or two semesters lost" before seeing your transcript is guessing.

If you want a grounded estimate rather than a guess, we have done this walk-through for dental students coming from other schools too. The Lublin to UPJŠ dentistry guide and the Varna cost guide show how the same rules play out from different starting points.

Yes, you still sit the entrance exam (Route B)

If you go the recognition route, the entrance exam is non-negotiable, and it is worth prepping for properly. The UPJŠ exam for Dental Medicine is a written multiple-choice test: 200 questions, 100 biology and 100 chemistry, over 2 hours 30 minutes. Each question scores 0 to 4 points for a maximum of 800, and the pass mark usually sits around 75%. It is knowledge you have already met in your first Zagreb years, so it is very passable with a focused refresh.

On timing, take a breath. You have not missed anything. Sittings run all through the summer, and you can usually register up to about a week before a given date. For 2026 there is an in-person sitting on 20 July in Oslo and another on 12 August in Košice. We register you for free and put you on the next available exam, so there is very likely still a sitting with your name on it. Warm up with our free flashcards and practice questions.

Your step-by-step transfer checklist

Tailored to a Zagreb dental student, here is the running order I would follow:

• 1) Check your standing. In good academic standing and eligible to continue into the next year? Route A (transfer) is on the table. Interrupted or resitting? Plan for Route B (entrance exam plus recognition).
• 2) Get your transcript sorted. Ask Zagreb for an official transcript of records with the university stamp, listing completion dates, plus the course syllabi. Then have everything officially translated into Slovak or English. Incomplete or untranslated requests get rejected, so this step matters.
• 3) Pick your route and hit the deadline. Route A: signed Request for Transfer in by 15 August. Route B: pass the entrance exam, then Application for Recognition in by 15 September.
• 4) Pay the tiny recognition fee. €2 per subject, €15 max, and keep the proof of payment for your file.
• 5) Let the faculty assess and confirm your year. The Study Department reviews your subjects and tells you which year you enter.
• 6) Complete registration. On acceptance you will also need a recent medical certificate (under three months old), a passport or ID copy, your high-school leaving certificate, and a certified birth certificate.

Documents you will need

• Both routes: Application for Recognition, original transcripts with completion dates, course syllabi, and proof of payment.
• Transfer route adds: the Request for Transfer, a Letter of Authorization, and proof that you are currently a student in good standing.
• Everything translated: officially into Slovak or English. This is the single most common reason a request bounces.

Where a UPJŠ dental degree actually takes you

This is the payoff, and it is a dental-specific one, so do not let anyone hand you the doctor version. Your MDDr. from UPJŠ is a dental qualification recognised right across the EU and EEA under EU Directive 2005/36/EC, listed in Annex V. For Norway, that means autorisasjon through Helsedirektoratet on the standard EEA route. For the UK, dentists register with the General Dental Council (the GDC), not the GMC. The GMC is for doctors, the GDC is for dentists, and mixing them up is a classic mistake. The GDC currently recognises EEA-listed dental qualifications through a near-automatic standstill process, which was reviewed in 2023 and extended for another five years to around mid-2028. Worth knowing if the UK is on your radar, though the EU/EEA route is the cleaner story for most.

One more option to keep in your back pocket: UPOL in Olomouc runs a sister five-year MDDr that plays by very similar recognition rules. If Košice does not feel like the right fit, UPOL Olomouc is worth a look. And if you are still weighing the whole "dentistry in Slovakia in English" question, our 2026 study guide covers it end to end.

Medently is free. No agency fees, no catch. I have been through this system, my co-founder Dr. Dylan is a doctor, and we would rather you land in the right year than rush the paperwork. Book a call and we will map your Zagreb transcript against the UPJŠ curriculum with you.

FAQ

Do you still have to sit the entrance exam to transfer to UPJŠ?

It depends on the route. If you are in good academic standing you can apply for a regular transfer by 15 August with no entrance exam. If you go the recognition-of-subjects route, you must pass the entrance exam first, then apply for recognition by 15 September. You cannot do both for the same programme in the same year.

Which year of UPJŠ dentistry will I join?

It is decided case by case, based on how many of your subjects UPJŠ recognises. There is a minimum share of the degree you must complete at UPJŠ, and students are commonly placed up to the fourth year depending on recognised credits. Nobody can promise a fixed entry year before assessing your transcript.

Is University of Zagreb dentistry 5 or 6 years?

Zagreb's Dental Medicine is a six-year integrated degree of at least 360 ECTS. UPJŠ Košice, by contrast, runs a five-year MDDr, having moved from six to five years at the 2025/26 intake. That length difference is exactly why the entry year is assessed individually.

How much does credit recognition cost at UPJŠ?

Recognition fees are €2 per subject, capped at a maximum of €15 in total, plus the standard application fee. It is one of the cheapest parts of the whole move.