2024 update: There have been recent changes in various recognition rules. The faculty of medicine in Kosice will no longer accept subjects completed online in countries outside of the EU, Israel, USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, and South Korea will not be recognized. Students who complete their education in countries outside of the EU, Israel, USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, and South Korea will not be recognized without any exception and will be considered on an individual basis and their education might be recognized only exceptionally.
Due to the last changes in recognition policy at the Medical University in Kosice, I will list down only recognition cases from different European countries to UPJS in Kosice.
Please note that curricula at different universities might have changed already, so the transfer would end differently in 2024. If you have any questions, make sure to contact me.
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General rules and benefits
Firstly, let me write down what are the main benefits of transferring to the Medical University in Kosice. While many medical universities expect students to clear all subjects from the 1st year, at UPJS you need to have only 40 ECTS to be recognized to proceed to the second year. Secondly, your marks are accepted regardless of mark (which means all results A to E are accepted, and F is not accepted). You can also be in higher year (for example 3rd year after transfer) and complete pending subjects from the 1st and 2nd year. Also University does not take a number of hours leading to completion of your exam into consideration.
The problems are usually associated with the fact, that the type of completion must be the same (you can recognize the subject at UPJS ending with exam for subject at your home university ending with exam). Experience from real students are listed below. -
Transfers from the Faculty of Medicine in Bratislava, Comenius University to the Faculty of Medicine in Kosice
There are plenty of students transferring from the Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University in Bratislava. The reason was difficulties in advancing to higher years in Bratislava and favorable conditions for transferring to Kosice. From the experience of my students, the following subjects were recognized from 1st and 2nd year without problems: Biology and human genetics 1, Biology and human genetics 2., First aid, Histology and embryology 1, Histology and embryology 2, Medical chemistry, medical ethics, Latin medical terminology 1 and 2, Slovak language 1-4, Microbiology 1 and 2, Physiology, Nursing care – clerkship in hospital, Fundamentals of Immunology, Medical biochemistry 1 and 2. Medical psychology and communication, Physical training 1-4. The problem was with Nursing care 2- in Kosice, there is an exam at the end of Nursing Care 2, while in Bratislava, there is a credit test / evaluated mark. Second difficult was with Anatomy – from 2023/2024, there will be only Anatomy 1 and Anatomy 2 in Kosice, while there will be Anatomy 1, 2, and 3 in Bratislava. This means that students, who completed Anatomy 1,2,3 in Bratislava, will have Anatomy 1 and 2 recognised (but there will not be Anatomy 3 in Kosice anymore, so anatomy is completely completed). If a student has Anatomy 1 and 2 in Bratislava, then only Anatomy 1 in Kosice is recognised and Anatomy 2 with the exam must be completed. If there is only Anatomy 1 in Bratislava completed, then Anatomy must be taken from the 1st semester in Kosice. New students had to enroll at least 40 credits, but it is required to pass 40 credits in order to proceed to the next year, so the optimal way is to enroll at least 60 credits from optional subjects in 2nd year or take some subjects from 3rd and 4th year without prerequisites.
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Transfer from Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University in Bratislava to UPJS in Kosice
The student was studying Dental medicine in Bratislava and transferred to Kosice. There is the subject of Propedeutics of Dental Medicine 2 in Bratislava (in total there are Propedeutics of DM 1-4 in Bratislava). This subject is completed by the credit test (not by the exam as in UPJS). Therefore it was not possible to recognise it. On another hand, students are entitled to ask for extra exam after they transfer so they don’t need to wait 1-2 semesters to complete the missing subjecs.
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Transfer from the Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University (MU) to the Faculty of medicine, University of Pavel Jozef Safarik
The student was studying in Brno for 3 years and decided to transfer to Kosice. The problem was the following: the subject of Internal Medicine was not recognized. Internal propedeutics at Masaryk University was divided into 1 and 2 and it was finished with an exam for propedeutics 2. In UPJS on the other hand, Internal propedeutics is only a one-semester course, which means there is an exam for it after the 5th semester, after that Internal Medicine 1 starts in the sixth semester. It is worth mentioning that for Surgery the same applies, but here the recognition is not a problem. Being done with surgery propedeutics 1 and 2 in MU enables you to start surgery 2 in UPJS right away.
As you did not get Internal medicine recognized, you will be behind in Internal medicine, which is the only prerequisite for starting gynecology in the fifth year. The gynecology department is the only subject in the fifth year that writes its credit test at the end of the semester for all students at the same time. All other subjects do their evaluation directly after the block teaching of the individual blocks for one or two groups of students. Also it is not possible to start classes of ophtalmology, infectiology, anaesthesiology. This situation happened for over 30 students from Masaryk University (MU).If this transfer is a must for you, try to change before your start the clinical part of your education, meaning between year 2 and 3, then I think you can minimize the risks. If the transfer or the delay of your graduation don’t bother you, I can say that as a former MU student you should not have too much trouble with the courses.
