How to Get Into a University in Slovakia as an International Student

Fee figures: catalogue of 6 October 2026.

Slovakia has no central admissions service that ranks applicants. You apply to each programme separately, and each faculty decides whom to admit. Since September 2026 the rules come from the new Higher Education Act (Act 300/2025), and applications go through a central electronic system run by the Ministry of Education.

Universities and programmes

Most programmes are at public universities; there are also a few state universities and a group of smaller private institutions. Our catalogue lists 907 full-time bachelor's and long-cycle programmes at 48 institutions and campuses. Long-cycle programmes, such as general medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and veterinary medicine, lead straight to a master's-level degree.

The first choice: Slovak or English

Programmes taught in Slovak at public universities are free for everyone, whatever your citizenship, for the standard length of the programme.
Programmes taught only in a foreign language may be charged, if the university decides so. Most English-taught bachelor's programmes have a fee, but some are free. Our catalogue lists 64 programmes taught in English.
Programmes in Hungarian, run for the Hungarian minority, are free.

For a programme in Slovak you must follow teaching in Slovak; faculties set their own language requirements. The fees are in how much it costs to study in Slovakia.

How to apply

Find programmes on Portál VŠ (portalvs.sk), the ministry's portal, which lists every programme with its deadline, admission conditions and fees.
Create a profile in the central electronic application (prihlaskavs.sk), which has an English version. You enter your details once and can send any number of applications.
Upload the documents each faculty asks for and pay the application fee if there is one.
Take the entrance exam if the programme has one.
Wait for the decision, then confirm that you will enrol.

By law, every university must accept an electronic application, even one sent without an electronic signature.

Admission conditions

The basic condition for a bachelor's or long-cycle programme is a complete secondary education. On top of that, each faculty may set further conditions that select the applicants with the greatest ability to study:

an entrance exam, written, oral or practical (talent exams in the arts);
admission on school results, such as grades or school-leaving exam results;
a health check, when the programme requires it.

A faculty may waive the exam, or part of it, for good results in a school-leaving exam subject. Faculties must publish their conditions, the exam format and the planned number of students at least two months before the application deadline.

There are no national cut-off scores. Each faculty ranks its own applicants.

When to apply

Deadlines differ by faculty. For the 2027/28 intake, most fall between the end of February and the end of April 2027, according to the programme pages on Portál VŠ. Art schools close much earlier: at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (VŠMU), for example, applications for 2027/28 close on 2 December 2026. Check each programme's own dates early.

Application fees

Universities may charge an application fee. By law it may not exceed a quarter of the annual base set by the ministry: €195 at most for 2026/27. Real fees are usually much lower: the Slovak University of Technology (STU), for example, charges €30 for programmes in Slovak and €60 for programmes in a foreign language in 2026/27.

After the decision

The faculty sends a written decision within 30 days of checking that you meet the conditions.
If you are rejected, you can ask the faculty to review the decision within eight days of receiving it.
If you have not finished school yet, or your certificate is not yet recognised, you can be admitted conditionally, and must show that you meet the conditions by enrolment day.
The faculty may ask whether you will enrol. If you do not answer in time, you lose the place and it goes to the next applicant.

Your school diploma

Foreign certificates usually need a recognition statement or a decision from a regional school office; Czech certificates count automatically. The details are in document recognition for Slovakia. If you have an IB diploma, read IB diploma and university admission in Slovakia.

Non-EU students: residence

Students from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland apply for temporary residence for the purpose of study once they are admitted. See student visa for Slovakia.

Where to look next

Official sources

Portál vysokých škôl: programmes, deadlines and fees (Ministry of Education)
Central electronic application: the ministry's application system
Act 300/2025 on higher education: admission rules, §§ 68–70 (Slov-Lex, in Slovak)
STU: tuition and fees for 2026/27: an example of application fees (in Slovak)

Always check current information on the official website of the university before you apply.