Everything you have to doto transfer to Košice
Not the pitch, the procedure. Every document you need, who has to stamp it, which spreadsheet to download, what goes in which box, where to post it and by when. Written from UPJŠ's own rules, and linked to them so you can check us.
Five things that have to be true
If any one of these is wrong, the rest of the process cannot help you. Read them before you spend a euro. If you are unsure about your own case, send us your transcript and we will tell you honestly.
Your studies are unfinishedRead more
Recognition only ever applies to a course of study you started and did not complete. If you already graduated and hold the degree, those credits cannot be moved.
You are coming from a faculty of medicineRead more
The courses have to come from another faculty of medicine, at the same level, running the same or only a slightly different programme. A biomedical science or a pharmacy degree does not qualify.
Your courses are less than ten years oldRead more
Counted from the start of the academic year you are entering.
Dentistry only goes into year 1 or 2Read more
A dentistry transfer can be placed in the first or second year and no higher, whatever your transcript says. General medicine has no equivalent year cap, only the credit caps.
You are ready to sit the entrance examRead more
There is no way around it on this route. You take the same biology and chemistry paper as a first-year applicant.
You need to have passed the entrance exam
Transfers go through the normal admission at UPJŠ, so the exam comes first and everything on this page happens after it. You do not have to work out the application yourself: we register you, prepare you and send you the question banks, the study plan and a full mock exam, all free.
Order your documents. Do this first, not last.
Three documents have to come from the university you are leaving, and only they can issue them. This is the slowest part of the whole process and the one you control least, so start it in April or May, in writing, and chase it. Do not wait for your exam result.
Original transcript of records
Your full list of passed courses. Not a screenshot of a student portal, not a printout you made yourself.
- An original, not a copy and not a scan
- Stamped and signed by your university
- Shows the exact date each course was completed, day and month, not just the year
- Includes your university's grading system, so Košice can map your marks onto theirs
Syllabus of every completed course
The course descriptions: what each subject actually covered, and how many hours and credits it carried. This is what the guarantor compares against the UPJŠ curriculum, so it decides more of your outcome than the transcript does.
- Originals, or copies certified by a notary
- Stamped and signed by your university
- One syllabus for every course you want recognised, not a summary
- This is the slow one. Many faculties only issue a stamped syllabus set on written request, and only after the summer exam session closes.
Curriculum of your study programme
The programme as a whole: the full plan of what your degree contains, year by year. People forget this one constantly, and a file that is missing it is not reviewed.
- Issued by your university
- Stamped and signed
Fill in the recognition spreadsheet
UPJŠ publishes the request as an Excel file, one per programme. Download yours, and read the first instruction below before you open it, because it is the thing that confuses almost everybody.
Open it in desktop Microsoft Excel. Not Google Sheets, not Numbers, not your phone.
This is the one that catches nearly everybody, and UPJŠ never explains why. The subject names are not text in the spreadsheet — each one is the label attached to a little check box floating over the column. Google Sheets, Apple Numbers and mobile spreadsheet apps throw those controls away when they open the file, so the whole subject column looks completely blank and there is nothing to tick. The form is not broken and you have not downloaded the wrong one. Open it in Excel on a laptop and every subject appears.
Fill in the yellow boxes at the top
Surname, first name, date of birth and e-mail down the left; your permanent address in the next column; then every previous university with the exact start and end dates and the number of academic years you spent at each. Up to five universities fit. The printed label sits inside the yellow box, so click the box and type your answer after the label. Do not delete the label. Use the e-mail address you actually read, because that is where the Study Department replies.
Put Medently in the agency box
There is a "Name of Agency" field in the address block. If you are coming through us, write Medently there. It is how the Study Department knows to copy us on anything about your file, which is what lets us chase it for you.
Tick only the subjects you are actually claiming
Click the small square next to the subject name. The row highlights when it takes. Leave everything you are not claiming alone. The compulsory-elective blocks are round buttons rather than squares, so inside one block you can pick exactly one option, and each block ends with a "No compulsory elective course" choice if you have nothing to claim there.
For every subject you tick, fill the three columns across
All three are compulsory: the name of the matching subject at your old university, the grade you got, and the exact date you passed it in dd.mm.yyyy. The date has to match your transcript to the day. A ticked row with a blank date is the most common reason a file stalls.
Widen any cell whose text is cut off
UPJŠ asks for this in writing: check that every cell is fully readable and adjust it if not. Text that is visually truncated is treated as information you did not give.
Save, print, sign and date it by hand
The signature goes on the printed paper, not on the screen. An unsigned form is not a submitted form.
Pay the €20, and keep the receipt
One flat fee of €20 covers the whole request, however many subjects you are claiming. It was set by Rector's Decision No. 3/2026 with effect from 1 September 2026. The proof of payment is itself one of the required documents, so the receipt goes in the envelope.
Paying the €20 from inside Slovakiaview details
Paying the €20 from elsewhere in the EUview details
Paying the €20 from outside the EUview details
Post the whole file by 15 September
Everything goes together, on paper, in one envelope. There is no upload, no email submission and no partial delivery.
Study Department – Ing. Mária Horňáková, PhD.
Trieda SNP 1
040 11 Košice
Slovak Republic
What must be inside, and all five have to be there:
- The printed, signed recognition request
- The original transcript, stamped and signed, with exact dates and the grading system
- The syllabus of every completed course, original or certified copies, stamped and signed
- The curriculum of your study programme
- Proof you paid the €20
An incomplete file is not reviewed at all. It does not bounce back to you with a note. Nobody emails to say a syllabus is missing. It simply waits, and the deadline passes while it waits. That is the whole reason we check the pack page by page before anything is posted.
The Dean decides, and the decision is final
Your file goes to the study programme guarantor, who compares each subject you claimed against the UPJŠ curriculum and writes an opinion. The Dean then rules on which subjects are recognised and which year you enter.
Thirty days from a complete file
The clock only starts when nothing is missingThe Dean decides within 30 days of receiving your request. An incomplete file is not on the clock at all, which is why the checklist matters more than the speed of the post.
You are told your year and your recognised subjects
The decision names the subjects being carried across and the year you are admitted into, and it comes with your enrolment date. Whatever is not recognised, you take at UPJŠ. Making up a semester or two is completely normal.
Nobody can promise you a year in advance
This is worth being blunt about, because agencies do promise it. The year is decided after the exam, by the Dean, in writing, and that decision is final. Every accepted student starts at the beginning of the academic year. If someone guarantees you entry into third year before any of this has happened, they are inventing it.
Nostrification, and what it costs
Separate from everything above, and it catches people out because it has nothing to do with the recognition file. Slovakia has to formally recognise your school leaving certificate before you can be enrolled. Start it while you are waiting on the Dean, not after.
The office has thirty days from a complete request, and the notary and the sworn translator both take time on top of that. Start at least eight weeks before you need it. If you do not hold the decision on enrolment day, your right to enrol becomes void, and there is no discretion in that.
The fee, and why it differs
It is paid with a kolok, a Slovak duty stamp you buy over the counter at any post office. There is no bank transfer and no card payment, so budget the trip as well as the money.
Get a notary-certified copy of your school leaving certificate
Then a sworn Slovak translation. Both have to be done in Slovakia, and the translation has to carry the sworn translator's blue round stamp. A translation done at home will be refused.
Everything you hand in must be an original
Originals with original stamps and signatures. Not scans, not ordinary photocopies. And be ready for this: the office keeps what you submit and does not give it back.
If your country has no bilateral agreement, add your subject list
Not just your final grades: a notary-certified copy of the list of subjects and exams from every year of school, with a sworn Slovak translation.
Pay with a kolok, bought at any post office
You do not transfer this fee. You buy a kolok, a Slovak duty stamp, at a post office counter and attach it. €7 or €40 depending on your country, as above.
Allow thirty days, because that is the legal maximum
The office has thirty days from receiving a complete request. Add the notary and the translator on top, so start at least eight weeks before you need it.
Collect the decision, then copy it before you hand it over
You are emailed when it is ready and collect it in person at Moldavská cesta 3110/10B in Košice. Have a notary certify a copy, give the copy to the Study Department and keep the original yourself. UPJŠ recommends exactly this.
The Regional School Administration Office in Košice recognises school certificates only. University-level diplomas are a different office in Bratislava entirely, and it is not what UPJŠ asks a transferring student for. You need the school leaving certificate one.
The rules the faculty applies to your transcript
These decide how much of your degree survives the move. They come from the July 2026 recognition rules, Dean's Directive No. 1/2026 and Dean's Directive No. 4/2023.
- The test, since 1 September 2026Dean's Directive No. 1/2026 rewrote it: a course is recognised when its content is identical or sufficiently similar to the UPJŠ course, and no more than ten years have passed since you took it. The Dean decides, on the written opinion of the study programme guarantor.
- Ten years, not fiveCounted from the start of the academic year you are entering. ⚠ The spreadsheets UPJŠ publishes still print "within the last 5 years" — that text predates the directive. See the trap below before you leave anything off.
- 180 credits, 90 a year, 60 for a single semesterThe maximum that can be recognised in total is 180 credits, no more than 90 from any one academic year, and no more than 60 if your last year at that university was only one semester.
- Compulsory and compulsory-elective onlyA course is recognisable only if it exists in the UPJŠ programme as a compulsory or compulsory-elective subject. Free electives do not transfer.
- Graded for gradedIf a subject is graded at UPJŠ, it can only be recognised if it was graded at your old university too. A bare "passed" against a graded UPJŠ subject does not map.
- A pass becomes passed, E, sufficientWhere your old course was marked simply as passed, UPJŠ records it as "passed – E – sufficient".
- No bachelor credits into the master's programmeCredits earned in a bachelor's degree cannot be carried into the magister programme, and nothing from a degree you actually completed can move at all.
- One faculty per academic yearIf you were enrolled at more than one medical faculty in the same academic year, only the credits from the first one you enrolled at can be recognised.
- Outside the EU, it is the exceptionUnder Dean's Directive No. 4/2023, courses taken outside the EU, Israel, the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea are recognised only in exceptional and justified cases, and courses taken online in those countries are never recognised, without exception. The university also has to be recognised by its own ministry and approved by UPJŠ management. Talk to us before you count on any of it.
- Dentistry stops at year 2A dentistry transfer can enter the first or second year only. There is no transfer into the third year or higher, regardless of how much you have passed.
- Coming back to UPJŠ?Re-accepted students do not send a transcript or syllabus for the years they already did at UPJŠ. You only send them for any other faculty of medicine you attended in between.
Every euro this process asks of you
The mistakes that cost a whole year
None of these are hypothetical. Each one has happened to a real student, and every one of them is avoidable if you know about it in advance.
The form says five years. The rule says ten.
Every one of the 2026/27 spreadsheets still carries the line "within the last 5 years". Dean's Directive No. 1/2026 changed it to ten years with effect from 1 September 2026, and the July 2026 rules sheet says ten as well. A student who trusts the form will silently drop five years of coursework they were entitled to claim. Claim on the ten-year rule. If anyone queries it, the directive is the newer instrument and we will send it to them.
An incomplete file does not bounce back. It just waits.
UPJŠ is blunt about this: if the request does not contain every required document, it will not be considered. Nobody emails you to say a syllabus is missing. It simply sits there while the deadline passes. This is why we check the pack page by page before anything is posted.
A scan is not a submission.
"It is not enough to send only a copy or a scan." Paper, in an envelope, through the post. Email does not open the file.
Nostrification takes thirty days, by law.
Your school leaving certificate has to be recognised in Slovakia before you enrol, and the office has thirty days to decide. If you do not have the decision by enrolment day, your right to enrol becomes void. Start it at least eight weeks out, and remember the notarisation and the sworn translation both have to be done in Slovakia.
The apostille is the long pole on the exam application.
Getting your school certificate apostilled or superlegalised runs four to twelve weeks depending on the country. Croatia, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Romania and Ukraine are exempt from the apostille. Everywhere else, start early.
The medical certificate expires.
It has to be no more than three months old on the day you use it, so getting it too early is as bad as getting it too late. You may well need two: one for the exam application and a fresh one for enrolment.
Ordering the syllabus in August is too late.
Four to eight weeks is normal for a stamped, signed syllabus set, and most faculties will not start until their own exam session has closed. Ask in April or May, in writing, and chase it.
Only the first faculty in a year counts.
If you spent one academic year enrolled at two medical schools, the credits from the second one are gone. Nothing can be done about it afterwards, so factor it in before you move mid-year.
What transfer students ask us
Do transfer students really have to sit the entrance exam?
On this route, yes. You go through the normal admission process, which means the same written biology and chemistry paper as every other applicant. It is 200 multiple-choice questions over two and a half hours, and there is no interview. We prepare you for it for free.
Which year will I be placed in?
Nobody can tell you before the Dean decides, and anyone who promises you a year is inventing it. The order is fixed: you pass the exam, you post the recognition file, then the Dean rules on which subjects count and which year you enter. That decision is final, and every accepted student starts at the beginning of the academic year.
When is the deadline?
The recognition request has to reach Košice by 15 September. That is the rule every year. The entrance exam sittings and their own application deadlines are announced each spring, and we publish them as soon as the faculty confirms them.
What if a subject is not recognised?
You take it at UPJŠ. Most transfer students make up a semester or two, because small differences between curricula are completely normal. It is not a failure and it is not unusual.
Can I transfer in the middle of the academic year?
No. UPJŠ has a September intake only, and every accepted student starts at the beginning of the academic year. There is no January or February sitting to wait for, so waiting really means waiting for the following summer.
Does my old university have to agree?
They do not have to approve the move, but you do need documents from them, and they have to be stamped and signed. Ask for them politely, in writing, and early. If your registry is difficult, tell us and we will help you word the request.
What does it cost to do this with Medently?
Nothing. You pay UPJŠ the €30 exam fee, the €20 recognition fee, your translations and your tuition. Our guidance, the question banks, the mock exam and the document checking are free, because the universities pay us and you never do.
How long does the decision take?
The Dean decides within thirty days of receiving a complete file. Incomplete files are not on the clock at all, which is the whole reason we check the pack before it goes.
Send us your transcript and we will map it for you
Tell us where you study, what you have passed and which year you are in. We will tell you honestly whether the transfer is realistic, prepare you for the exam, build the document pack with you and check every page before it is posted. It costs you nothing, ever.
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