Which Countries Actually Tell You Anything
Bulgaria publishes requirements and a confirmed fee for all 11 of its programs. Italy publishes fees for 24 of 25 and requirements for 8.
Quick Answer
It varies more by country than by university, and the gap is wide enough to shape a shortlist. Measuring each country on three things we track for every program — published exact admission requirements, a confirmed 2026-2027 fee, and a specific assessment date — Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovakia and Bosnia and Herzegovina come out near the top, with Bulgaria publishing requirements and a confirmed fee for all 11 of its programs. Portugal's single program publishes all three. At the other end, Albania publishes requirements for one of its two programs, Latvia for three of four, and Ireland for 12 of 17 with no specific assessment dates at all. The most interesting case is Italy, which publishes a confirmed fee for 24 of 25 programs and exact requirements for only 8 — because Italian admission runs through a national test rather than a per-university rule, so there is little for a course page to state. The practical use is not to rank countries by virtue but to know, before you commit time to a shortlist, how much you will be able to find out without emailing anybody.
Source Status
Each country is scored on the share of its programs that publish exact admission requirements, carry a confirmed 2026-2027 fee, and name at least one specific assessment date — all three recorded per program in our catalog. The score is the mean of those three shares and is a measure of disclosure, not of quality.
Quick Take
- Bulgaria publishes requirements and a confirmed fee for all 11 programs.
- Italy publishes fees for 24 of 25 but requirements for only 8.
- Ireland publishes no specific assessment dates at all.
The table
Three things we hold for every program: the exact admission requirements, a fee confirmed for the current cycle, and at least one specific assessment date. The score is the mean of the three shares.
| Country | Programs | Requirements | Confirmed fee | Dates | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portugal | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| Lithuania | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 87% |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 83% |
| Bulgaria | 11 | 11 | 11 | 5 | 82% |
| Croatia | 6 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 78% |
| Slovakia | 6 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 78% |
| United Kingdom | 88 | 74 | 86 | 38 | 75% |
| Italy | 25 | 8 | 24 | 22 | 72% |
| Poland | 25 | 22 | 22 | 7 | 68% |
| Hungary | 12 | 11 | 11 | 2 | 67% |
| Czechia | 14 | 10 | 14 | 2 | 62% |
| Cyprus | 6 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 61% |
| Greece | 6 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 61% |
| Romania | 22 | 16 | 22 | 2 | 61% |
| Serbia | 8 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 58% |
| Malta | 4 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 58% |
| North Macedonia | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 58% |
| Ireland | 17 | 12 | 17 | 0 | 57% |
| Latvia | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 50% |
| Albania | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 33% |
Read the columns before the score. A country can rank low because it publishes no dates while being completely clear about money — Romania and Ireland both confirm a fee for every single program.
Why Italy looks contradictory and is not
Italy publishes a confirmed fee for 24 of its 25 programs and exact admission requirements for 8. That inversion is the most striking cell in the table, and it is a feature of the system rather than a failure of disclosure.
Italian public medical admission runs through a national test and a national ranking. The university does not set the entry rule, so a course page that restated it would be restating the ministry. What the university does control is its fee — and even that is assessed rather than fixed, which is a separate complication covered in what Italian public universities cost.
Italy also publishes 22 specific assessment dates, the second-highest count in the table behind the UK. So the honest reading is not that Italy tells you less, but that it tells you different things: when you will be tested and roughly what you will pay, but not what to have on your transcript.
North Macedonia shows the same shape at smaller scale — one of four programs publishes requirements, all four have a confirmed fee. The wider question of what silence means is in the programs that publish no requirements.
The countries that publish everything
Bulgaria is the standout at scale: all 11 programs publish exact requirements and carry a confirmed fee, and five publish assessment dates including Plovdiv's five sittings with their own registration deadlines. If you want to know exactly what you face before spending anything, Bulgaria tells you.
Lithuania, Slovakia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are close behind on the same pattern — small program counts, near-total disclosure. Vilnius publishing six exam dates is part of why Lithuania scores as it does.
That correlation is worth naming rather than assuming: these are mostly smaller, exam-led systems, where the university decides admission itself and therefore has something concrete to publish. Large systems with central admissions publish less because there is less that belongs to them.
It says nothing about teaching quality, recognition or cost. Bulgaria's transparency does not make it the right choice, and Ireland's missing exam dates do not make it the wrong one.
How to use this when shortlisting
Expect to email, and budget the time. A shortlist weighted to Ireland, Latvia or Albania will need direct contact to answer questions a Bulgarian or Lithuanian page answers for free. That is a real cost in weeks, not just effort.
Ask the specific question, not the general one. "What are your entry requirements?" returns the page you already read. Sending your actual record and asking which requirements it satisfies returns an answer.
Treat a missing fee differently from a missing requirement. Eleven programs across the catalog still have no confirmed 2026-2027 fee, and applying without knowing the price is a different risk from applying without knowing the grades — see programs without a published price.
And do not read disclosure as difficulty. The countries publishing least are not the ones hardest to enter; several of them are the easiest. What low disclosure predicts is how much of your own time the application will consume, which is worth knowing before you commit to six of them.
The verification method that works regardless is in how to verify a school yourself.
FAQs
Which European countries publish the clearest medical school information?
Measured on published requirements, a confirmed current-cycle fee and specific assessment dates, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovakia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina score highest, with Portugal's single program publishing all three. Bulgaria publishes requirements and a confirmed fee for all 11 of its programs.
Why does Italy publish fees but not entry requirements?
Because Italian public medical admission runs through a national test and ranking, so the entry rule is not the university's to state. Italy publishes a confirmed fee for 24 of 25 programs and exact requirements for only 8 — but also 22 specific assessment dates, the second-highest count of any country here.
Which countries publish the least?
Albania publishes exact requirements for one of its two programs, Latvia for three of four, and Ireland for 12 of 17 with no specific assessment dates at all. Low disclosure does not mean low quality — Ireland confirms a fee for all 17 of its programs.
Does a country publishing less mean it is harder to get into?
No, and often the reverse. Disclosure predicts how much of your own time the application will take, not how competitive it is. Several of the countries publishing least are among the more accessible; several publishing most run competitive entrance exams.
Why do so few countries publish assessment dates?
Because many do not control them. Where selection is a university exam, the university can publish the date — which is why Italy, the UK, Lithuania and Bulgaria lead that column. Where admission is rolling or file-based, there is no single date to publish, which is why Cyprus, Greece, Serbia, Malta, Ireland and Latvia show none.
How should this change my shortlist?
Use it to budget your own time rather than to rank countries. A shortlist weighted toward the lower half of the table will need direct contact with admissions offices to answer questions the higher half answers on the page, and that is a matter of weeks rather than an afternoon.