Medical universities in Europe other than in the UK

Majority of aspiring doctors consider the UK as their first choice and sometimes the only place to study medicine. The UK medical schools have a good reputation both academically and otherwise, however, limiting oneself to one country is not a wise thing to do. The competition in the UK can be quite challenging as no matter how impressive your grades, CV or experiences are you may still not be guaranteed a place. As if that is not enough, you've got the UKCAT, long applications and an interview to think about. Remember you might do all these for your four study options and still not get a place. It is therefore better to have a backup plan than to be rejected and wait for another year to apply. There are some highly recognized schools in eastern and central Europe that offer medicine in English. Compared to the UK, these schools are cheaper and easier to get in. All of them are accredited by the EU while most of them are US, UK and Canadian accredited. In fact some of these schools are higher in the ranking of universities than some other UK medical schools; see http://www.arwu.org/Europe2009.jsp

Here is a short overview of some of the well known medical schools in Central and Eastern Europe:

Czech: Has seven schools offering the 6 year MD Program in English. There are four different faculties in Charles University: three of these are located in Prague (the capital) and the other two are in Hradec Kralove and Pilsen. The other independent universities are Masaryk University in Brno and Palacky University in Olomouc. The first faculty of medicine is highly ranked and appears in the top 100 medical schools in Europe. However, it is quite costly compared to the others. The tuition fee in Czech ranges from 12400 USD to 16900 USD per year. You are required to have completed a chemistry, biology and physics/math course to be accepted into these schools. Entrance exams in these subjects are normally held if there are more applicants than expected.

Poland: Although it has thirteen schools offering the 6 year MD Program in English, only ten of them are most popular in terms of academics and prestige. Jagiellonian University located in Krakow is the top medical school in Poland and the most prestigious and competitive. Admissions are based on entrance examinations in biology and chemistry. The other school that conducts entrance examinations is Gdansk medical school. The universities that admit students without having them do their examinations are: Medical school of Warsaw, Medical academy of Lublin, Poznan medical university, Wroclaw medical school, medical university of Silesia in Katowice, medical university of Bialystok, medical university of Szczecin and medical university of Lodz. The annual tuition fees range from 11740 USD to 15000 USD.

Hungary: Has four universities offering the 6 year MD Program in English. These are: Semmelweis University, University of Szeged, University of Pécs and University of Debrecen. Semmelweis is the capital so the university is the most popular but Szeged is top ranked in terms of academics. You will need to do an exam in biology, chemistry/physics and English and an oral interview to be admitted in these universities. Graduate students with a B. Sc or International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma holders with biology and chemistry/physics are exempted from the entrance examinations and interviews. Annual fees range from 12000 to 16000 USD.

Romania: The well known international medical universities are: Carol Davila University, University of Constanta, University of Cluj Napoca, University of Iasi, University of Targu Mures, University of Timisoara and University of Oradea. All these universities except University of Timisoara do not conduct an entrance examination. You are required to submit an application file that reflects your school performance and achievements. It is the cheapest country to study medicine. The fees in Romania range from 5000 USD to 7000 USD

Slovakia: It is also a cheap place to study medicine with three universities: Comenius, Kosice and Martin which admit students based on an entrance examination in biology and chemistry. The tuition fees range from 11,100 to 11,800 dollars.