There are many students who wish to transfer their medical studies from Poland abroad. There are thousands of students in Poland from Sweden, Norway, Spain, and Italy. The problem is that young doctors and dentists from Poland must take a 13-months internship after graduation. Afterward, students will do an examination on general knowledge (National medical exam – LEK for general medicine or LDEK for Dental medicine), which gives them the right to practice as a doctor in a hospital. Foreign students are also subject to these rules and they need to submit plenty of documents in order to be enrolled for LEK in case they wish to complete their post-graduate internship in Poland. This is the obligatory rule for all students of Universities in Poland, including Polish students and EU nationals. During studies, students must take compulsory internships in hospitals or other medical institutions. The main problem is one-year internship that makes their type of study more difficult.
According to the Medical University in Wroclaw (source: https://ed.umw.edu.pl/medicine-graduation-info), international students who can obtain medical degree in Poland under these conditions:
- is a citizen of Poland or a Member State of the European Union,
- has:
- diploma of higher education in the field of medicine or dentistry
- has served his/her postgraduate internship
- has successfully passed the Medical Final Examination (LEK) or the Medical-Dental Final Examination (LDEK) in Polish or in the language in which he/she completed the medical programme.
The most popular universities in Poland for foreign students are Medical University in Lodz, Silesian Medical University in Katowice, Medical University in Bialystok, Jagellonial university or Poznan University of medical sciences.
What are the differences between Polish and Slovak medical or dentistry education in the English language?
- There is no post-graduate internship in Slovakia in order to get a medical or dentistry degree
- there is no Slovak language test after graduation needed – although there is a Slovak class in the first four semesters for basic communication in the Slovak language with a patient
- admission process in Slovakia is an only multiple-choice test – based on your results you get admission. Polish universities have various admission rules, eg. Skype interview, marks from secondary school, written test, etc
- The dental program in Poland takes 5 years, in Slovakia it takes 6 years
- there is no advanced MD pathway for American students in Slovakia
If you have decided to study medicine or dentistry in Slovakia and you wish to transfer from Poland, you can do it to the Faculty of medicine in Kosice. It is the only university, that is accepting transfers to higher than 2nd year. What is the process?
Firstly you will need to get a list of your completed subjects from Polish university – in the English language with the stamp of study office. In addition, also the curriculum of your completed courses is needed. All completed subjects must be done in last 5 years.
Secondly, there is a need for a comparison of your curriculum with the curriculum of UPJS in Kosice.
If everything is OK, you will get information to which school year you can transfer to. This depends on many things, including the fact, how many students are there in the study year, you desire to enter.
Every year we organize an entrance exam for the University of Pavel Jozef Safarik in Poland (Krakow and Warsaw). You will not need to travel to Slovakia but write it comfortably in Poland.
If you need any assistance with transfer to Slovakia, please contact me by writing email to medhead@medhead.eu or call me at +421910173958. I will be glad to help you.