IB Diploma and University Admission in Czechia: No Nostrification, Faculty Rules
Fee figures: catalogue of 6 October 2026.
For IB students Czechia removes the first hurdle that most foreign applicants face. Before enrolling at a Czech university, an applicant with a foreign school certificate normally needs nostrification, the official recognition of that certificate. The Czech Higher Education Act lists the IB Diploma separately as one of the documents that prove completed secondary education, so IB holders skip that step. Everything after it, from entrance exams to deadlines, is decided faculty by faculty.
What the law says
Section 48(4) of the Higher Education Act (Act No. 111/1998) lists how an applicant proves secondary education with a school-leaving exam. Next to a Czech maturita, a nostrification decision and the European Baccalaureate, it names a certificate of the International Baccalaureate issued by an IB World School authorised by the IB foundation in Switzerland, or belonging to an association of IB World Schools it recognises.
In practice this means:
- No nostrification and no university assessment fee. The Faculty of Arts of Charles University, for example, lists the IB among the documents it accepts without a fee, while a foreign certificate that the faculty has to assess itself is charged.
- You need the diploma itself. A course certificate or predicted grades are not proof of secondary education. Admission before your results arrive is conditional, and you hand in a certified copy of the diploma by the date the faculty sets, usually at enrolment.
If you finished school without the full Diploma, for example with IB courses only, the IB rule does not apply and the usual route through nostrification does.
How faculties select
Czech faculties do not convert IB points into a national score, because there is no national score. Each faculty publishes its own admission conditions for each programme. The common patterns, described in how to get into a university in Czechia, are:
- an entrance exam set by the faculty, or the National Comparative Exams run by Scio;
- admission on school results, sometimes with a waiver of the exam for strong applicants.
Where a faculty waives the exam on school results, it states its own IB thresholds. Two examples from Charles University:
- Second Faculty of Medicine, General Medicine in English. For the 2027 intake, IB applicants can ask to be exempted from the entrance exam with at least 35 points in total and at least 19 points from three subjects: Chemistry HL, Biology HL, and Physics or any Mathematics at HL or SL. Results must be from 2024/25 or later. Waivers go to at most 25 top-scoring applicants across the IB, European Baccalaureate and bachelor's degree groups. The request, the application and the fee of CZK 2,500 are due by 30 April 2027. Applicants who are not exempted sit the exam on 3 June or 22 July in Prague, or at a partner agency abroad.
- Faculty of Pharmacy, Pharmacy in English. For the 2026/27 intake the faculty waived its entrance exam for IB applicants with at least 32 points, Biology at 5 (HL) or 6 (SL), and one of Chemistry, Mathematics or Physics at the same level. The application deadline was 30 April 2026.
These waivers reward exactly the Higher Level sciences that a medical or pharmacy degree needs. If you plan to apply, choose Biology and Chemistry at HL in your first year of the Diploma Programme.
Timing
Application deadlines at most faculties fall between late winter and the end of April, before IB results come out in early July. You apply with your school reports and, where the faculty asks for them, predicted grades. Entrance exams, where they exist, run from spring into early summer. Admission is then confirmed once the faculty has your final results and diploma.
Students taking the November session have their results in January and can use them for applications in the same year.
Czech or English
Programmes taught in Czech at public universities are free for everyone, whatever your nationality, but you need Czech at about B2 and you sit the same exam as Czech applicants. See Czech language exams. Programmes in English are paid: in our catalogue the typical fee for English-taught programmes is €4,253 a year for non-EU students. We list 201 bachelor's programmes taught in English.
Where to look next
- How to get into a university in Czechia
- Nostrification in Czechia
- How much it costs to study in Czechia
- Student visa for Czechia
- IB Diploma and universities in continental Europe
Official sources
- Higher Education Act No. 111/1998, section 48 (in Czech)
- Charles University, Faculty of Arts: proving foreign secondary education (in Czech)
- Charles University, Second Faculty of Medicine: exemption from the entrance exam
- Charles University, Faculty of Pharmacy: admission requirements
Always check current information on the official website of the university before you apply.