Medicine in Poland: 25 Programs, €11,529 Up

Poland sits in the middle of the European price range and buys you two things the cheaper countries cannot: scale and documentation.

Scale means 14 universities with large, long-established English divisions rather than a single small international track bolted onto a national course. Several run two or three English-taught programs, so one application effort can cover more than one route — the pattern in when one university is really two degrees.

Documentation means you can actually research it. 24 of the 25 programs publish their exact entry requirements, and 17 publish a dated deadline — against 5 of 22 in Romania. If you are managing a shortlist from another continent, that difference is worth real money in time saved. See which countries tell you what you need to know.

What you give up is price. Poland costs roughly 50 to 70 percent more per year than Romania or Bulgaria.

Verified 2026-27 annual tuition, cheapest first. Every course runs six years.

Olsztyn at €11,529 is nearly €3,000 below the next program, which makes it the obvious value entry point and worth checking early. Everything from Szczecin to Wrocław clusters between €14,500 and €16,000 — a €1,500 band across nine universities, which means the fee is almost never the deciding factor inside Poland.

A fourteenth program, Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce, runs an exam-and-interview selection but has no confirmed flat fee for 2026-27.

Dentistry — 8 programs, all five years, a year shorter than Romania's six.

Polish dentistry is dearer than Polish medicine at almost every university that teaches both — Warsaw charges €20,900 against €18,800, Wrocław €18,518 against €15,976. The one reversal is Szczecin, at €14,000 for dentistry against €14,500 for medicine. That subject differential is examined in one university, three very different prices.

Pharmacy is three programs: Medical University of Gdańsk at €9,812 over five years, plus Silesia at Sosnowiec (five and a half years, entrance exam) and Warsaw (five years, interview), neither with a confirmed flat fee. Gdańsk is the cheapest verified route into a Polish health degree by a wide margin.

Modeled living costs across the Polish university cities, including annual insurance:

Warsaw is the most expensive first year in Poland at about €28,750 and Szczecin the cheapest at €22,550 — a €6,200 spread driven as much by rent as by tuition. Living costs are modeled planning estimates rather than quoted prices; build your own figure with the cost calculator and see medical student living costs by city.

Poland decides at the university, and the methods split three ways. Five programs run their own biology and chemistry entrance examination — Jagiellonian, Silesia, Łódź, Lublin and Poznań, several of which combine it with an interview. Three admit on interview alone, including Białystok. The rest admit on secondary-school grades and documents, which is the largest group and the simplest route if your transcript is strong.

Several of the entrance exams can be sat online — Jagiellonian, Lublin, Silesia and Białystok all appear in entrance exams you can sit from home, which removes a flight from the cost of applying.

The Medical University of Warsaw is the outlier: it will consider a UCAT, BMAT, MCAT, GAMSAT or HPAT score, but states explicitly that this applies only after advance confirmation. If you hold one of those, ask before you assume — do you need the MCAT.

There is no national test and no MCAT requirement, and entry is direct from secondary school with no prior degree. What the universities want is strong biology and chemistry, proof of English, and legalized documents — what European medical schools ask you to produce.

Polish medical universities are listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools, Poland is an EU member, and Polish schools have one of the longer track records of sending graduates into North American residency.

For the USA: a World Directory listing with an ECFMG Sponsor Note covering your graduation year, then USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK, ECFMG certification and the NRMP match — medicine licensing in the USA.

For Canada: MCCQE Part I and the NAC Examination, then CaRMS. MCCQE Part II has been discontinued by the Medical Council of Canada — medicine licensing in Canada.

A track record is a statement about the country, not a guarantee about your school or your year. Verify both with the regulator before you enroll, using how to verify a medical school, and read the honest odds in residency match data.

Against Romania: Poland costs roughly 50% more per year and interviews far less often, but publishes dated deadlines at 17 of 25 programs against Romania's 5 of 22. Poland vs Romania.

Against Italy: the same program count, 25 each, and almost nothing else in common — Italy runs a national test and publishes requirements for only 8 of its 25. Italy vs Poland.

Against Bulgaria: Bulgaria is cheaper and tighter priced; Poland is deeper and better documented. Poland vs Bulgaria.

Against Czechia: similar money, Czechia concentrates 14 programs into 4 universities where Poland spreads 25 across 14. Czechia vs Poland.