Jessenius Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University in Martin

О вузе

The Jessenius Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University in Martin (Slovak: Jesseniova lekárska fakulta Univerzity Komenského v Martine, JFM UK) is the only faculty of Comenius University outside Bratislava and one of three medical faculties in Slovakia. In English it runs a single six-year medicine programme (General Medicine, MUDr. degree), which, according to its own page, it was the first in Slovakia to open for fee-paying foreigners, in the 1991/92 academic year. For the 2027/28 intake tuition is 11,500 EUR a year, the application fee is 70 EUR, and the entrance exam in biology and chemistry is taken online on four dates, from March to September 2027.

• 1969 the year the faculty became an independent faculty of Comenius University
• 150 admitted a year to medicine in English (maximum)
• 4 entrance exam dates for the 2027/28 intake
• 11 500 EUR of tuition a year, application fee 70 EUR

About the university

The faculty’s beginnings go back to 1962, when a detached workplace of the Faculty of Medicine from Bratislava was set up at the hospital in Martin. It became an independent faculty of Comenius University, the eighth faculty of the university, on 6 June 1969, and it has had its present name since 1991, in honour of Jan Jessenius (1566–1621), a Renaissance physician and humanist, rector of Charles University in Prague. According to the faculty’s page from 2016 it had about 1,500 students and 430 employees at that time, and according to the brochure from 2023 it educates more than 650 international medical students, among others from Norway, Iceland, Germany and Austria. The faculty’s page adds that the ARRA agency repeatedly rated it the best medical faculty in Slovakia; that is the faculty’s own statement, and we have not verified the ranking.

The main clinical base is the University Hospital in Martin. The programme description also names, among others, the National Institute of Paediatric Respiratory Diseases and Tuberculosis, the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases, Tuberculosis and Thoracic Surgery, the Centre of Immunology in Martin, the Biopsy Centre Martin, the UVEA ophthalmology clinic and the army hospital in Ružomberok. The faculty has a medical education support centre with simulations (laparoscopy, a patient simulator, obstetrics, intensive care), the BioMed Martin research centre and, according to the page for applicants, the first biobank in Slovakia. The Malá hora campus is in Martin, and according to the brochure the library is open seven days a week until late.

A new university hospital (Univerzitná nemocnica sv. Martina) with 660 beds and 19 operating theatres is being built in Martin, and its shell is financed by the Recovery Plan. In March 2026, according to the TASR agency, its structure reached its highest point, and the shell was to be finished by 30 June 2026. The sources give no opening date, so we do not promise that your year will study in it.

Programmes in English

• Medicine (General Medicine, MUDr.): single-cycle (joint first and second degree) full-time studies, 6 years (12 semesters), up to 150 admitted a year. The programme description gives at least 360 credits (60 ECTS a year according to the 2026/27 plan). The first three years are preclinical and the last three clinical, and the academic year has two semesters of about 13 weeks. Tuition is 11,500 EUR a year.
• Outside our offer: the faculty also runs programmes in Slovak (according to the page from 2016 dentistry, nursing, midwifery and public health) and doctoral studies; the page for international applicants lists only medicine in English.

Course of studies

• Year 1 (60 ECTS): medical biophysics, medical chemistry, anatomy, medical biology and genetics, histology and embryology, medical terminology and the basics of first aid. The plan also contains the subject “Slovak Language / Foreign Language for Medical Purposes”, which runs through years 1–2.
• Year 2 (60 ECTS): physiology, medical biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, the second parts of biology, genetics, histology and embryology, medical psychology and communication, ethics, the basics of nursing techniques and a two-week (80 hours) nursing summer practice.
• Year 3 (60 ECTS): pathological anatomy, pathological physiology, propaedeutics of internal medicine and surgery, microbiology, molecular biology.
• Year 4: pharmacology, public health, surgery, internal medicine, dermatovenerology, paediatric propaedeutics, psychiatry, radiology, nuclear medicine, sports medicine, communication in clinical practice and a short course in dentistry, with two-week summer practices in internal medicine and in surgery.
• Years 5–6: the first of them includes ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology, forensic medicine, emergency medicine, orthopaedics, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, urology, neurology, infectology, anaesthesiology and intensive care, neurosurgery, haematology and further internal medicine, 40 hours of practice with a general practitioner and two-week summer practices in obstetrics and gynaecology and in paediatrics. The last year consists of clinical blocks: surgery for 8 weeks, internal medicine for 11 weeks, obstetrics and gynaecology for 5 weeks, paediatrics for 6 weeks, a four-week final internship with the defence of the diploma thesis, and state examinations in these four fields.
• Hours and rules: the programme description from the 2022 accreditation gives 5,891 contact hours (1,652 hours of lectures, 2,457 hours of seminars, practicals and clinical classes, and 1,782 hours of clinical practice) and about 4,000 hours of self-study. The whole study may not last longer than 8 years, at least 40 credits are required after the first year, and the state examinations are public, graded on the A–FX scale, with two corrective dates. Distance teaching is mostly done through Microsoft Teams, and e-learning through MEFANET and Moodle.
• Where the data come from: the plan for 2026/27 comes from the “Study plans” document published by the faculty, and the hours and rules from the programme description of the 2022 accreditation; the faculty may change the names of subjects and the number of hours in later years.

Admission step by step

1. Application and dates The application is submitted in the university’s e-application (e-prihlaska.uniba.sk), which opens for the 2027/28 intake on 1 December 2026. The exams take place on Saturday 20 March 2027 (applications from 1 December 2026 to 28 February 2027; the older subpage “Admission process” gives 6 March as the application deadline), on Saturday 26 June 2027 (from 1 March to 13 June), on Friday 6 August 2027 (from 14 June to 24 July) and on Thursday 2 September 2027 (from 1 to 31 August). The August and September dates are for candidates who do not need a national visa or a temporary residence permit, or already have one. The application fee is 70 EUR and it is paid by bank transfer when the application is submitted.
2. Documents The application needs a scan of the passport (the page with the photo) and the proof of payment of the 70 EUR fee. According to the “Application process” page the scan of the school-leaving certificate (without a translation into Slovak at this stage), the medical certificate of fitness to study (in English or German, legible, signed and stamped; a template is on the faculty’s page) and a certified copy of the IB diploma, if you want the bonus points, can be added later, but the older subpage “Admission process” lists them among the documents submitted with the application, so it is best to have them at once. The faculty does not require an English certificate; the brochure from 2023 gave level B2, so we confirm this before you apply.
3. Entrance exam The exam in biology and chemistry is taken online in the ScioLink application of SCIO, under video supervision: you take it at home on your own computer (Windows 10 or 11, or macOS 11 or newer, the Chrome browser, a camera, a microphone, a connection of at least 8 Mb/s download and 1 Mb/s upload), and a phone serves as a second camera. Before the test you photograph your face and passport, film the room and show the camera both sides of the sheets for notes; a breach of the rules invalidates the result. According to the programme description it is 40 questions in biology and 40 in chemistry in 80 minutes (SCIO gives the same numbers for the session of 7 August 2026, while the older preparation materials from 2023 write about two hours), with one correct answer, a point for each correct one and no negative points. The scope is biology (cytology, plants, animals, genetics, human biology) and chemistry (general and inorganic, and organic with biochemistry) at the level of a Slovak secondary school; the faculty provides 40 sample questions from previous intakes for each subject. The pages give neither a pass mark nor the way of ranking.
4. IB and retaking the exam Candidates with the International Baccalaureate (IB) get bonus points: 30 for at least 38 out of 45 points and 20 for at least 30; the admission criteria still include passing the exam. The exam can be taken more than once: after an unsuccessful attempt you submit a new application with a new fee for the next date, each time you get a different set of questions, and the next date can be booked only after the date of the previous exam has passed. The page does not give the amount of the repeated registration fee separately.
5. Result and decision Approving the results takes about seven working days. The result is published on the jfmed.uniba.sk page under the number of your application in the e-application, and the written decision (admission, conditional admission or refusal) arrives at the latest 30 days after the exam.
6. After admission and recognition of the certificate After admission you return the electronic return form attached to the message, check your certificate in the ministry’s database of recognition of documents (uznavanie.minedu.sk), and send the medical certificate and the confirmation of the hepatitis B vaccination by e-mail to the admission office. Most certificates from EU countries and some other countries are recognised automatically; if your country or certificate is not in the database, recognition is arranged at the Regional Education Office. According to the information pack for 2025/26 the return form and the fee for the student card had to be submitted by mid-July, the documents sent by post by 1 August, and enrolment took place in the second week of September; the dates for 2027 are confirmed by the faculty.
7. Visa and residence EU citizens register their residence in a simple way within 90 days of arrival. A candidate from outside the EU who stays in Slovakia for at least 90 days applies for a temporary residence permit: they book an appointment at the foreign police online and attend it in person, with the form and the faculty’s information pack. A non-EU candidate who transfers from Ukraine also attaches a certificate of no criminal record from Ukraine. Because the August and September dates are only for candidates who do not need a visa or a residence permit, those who do need one can choose the March and June dates.
8. Transfers from another university The faculty’s pages do not describe the procedure for transfers from other medical universities or a limit on the year to which one can be admitted; they mention only the legal basis of differential examinations (§ 18a of Act 422/2015) and candidates transferring from Ukraine. We agree the year and the conditions with the study department on the basis of your transcript and the curriculum of your previous university. The year you are admitted to depends on the university and on your record so far.

Contact: the study department of the Jessenius Faculty of Medicine (Study Department), Malá hora 4A, 036 01 Martin; admission and the e-application for medicine in English: tel. +421 43 2633 223, e-mail eva.stermenska@uniba.sk (the admission office). The study department receives visitors in person on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 to 11:30 and from 13:00 to 14:00. We prepare the documents with you and check the dates for your session before you submit the application.

Tuition and fees

• Tuition: 11,500 EUR per academic year (two semesters), by bank transfer according to the payment order generated in the AIS system, before the start of the semester (in 2027 in mid-September). When enrolling for the year the copy of the transfer with the student’s name is submitted, and the transfer description gives the name, the year of study and the word “tuition”. In 2025/26 the faculty allowed a single payment by 9 September or two instalments of 5,750 EUR (by 9 September and by 18 February); the rules for 2027/28 are confirmed by the faculty.
• Application fee: 70 EUR when applying; for a repeated exam a new application is submitted and a registration fee paid (the page gives no separate amount).
• Student card: in 2025/26 it cost 26 EUR with an ISIC licence or 13 EUR without it.
• Dormitory: from 92 to 228 EUR a month according to the faculty’s page and a refundable deposit of 100 EUR (details below).
• Scholarships and exchange: the pages we read do not describe scholarships for foreigners who pay tuition. According to the programme description students can go on Erasmus+ for 3–12 months (studies) or 2–12 months (traineeships), and according to the brochure from 2023 the faculty has agreements with more than 50 institutions.
• Cost of living: the faculty’s brochure from 2023 gave, per month: a private flat from 350 EUR, groceries from 130 EUR, a mid-range restaurant meal for two with drinks about 30 EUR and a cinema ticket from 6 EUR (the brochure also gave tuition of 10,900 EUR, so the amounts are out of date). The SAIA agency gives for Slovakia a dormitory from 60 EUR, a one-bedroom flat from 400 EUR including utilities and a monthly ticket from 20 EUR, adding that prices in Bratislava are usually higher; the page carries no date.

Accommodation

The faculty has two dormitories of its own, with 958 places in total according to the programme description from 2022. They are booked through the university’s dormitory system (ubytovanie.uniba.sk, logging in with the data from the AIS system); according to the information pack for 2025/26 applications usually opened between 11 and 19 July, and the number of places is limited. The page does not guarantee a place to international first-year students, so we arrange the dormitory together with the admission.

• L. Novomeského 7: a large building laid out as apartments (an apartment has up to four rooms with shared facilities), on the Malá hora hill, about 10 minutes’ walk from the centre; it has a canteen.
• P. O. Hviezdoslava 35: a smaller, fully refurbished building with twin and triple rooms, each with a bathroom and a kitchenette, a few minutes’ walk from the centre, with a communal kitchen. The older version of the page (2024/25) said that all interested students get a place in a triple room at Hviezdoslava 35 and that a separate room is not available.
• Equipment of both: Wi-Fi, CCTV, secure door entry, communal rooms, laundry rooms and on-site maintenance.
• Fees: the monthly fee is from 92 to 228 EUR depending on the type of accommodation (the older version of the page gave from 77 EUR), the page does not say whether that is the price per person or whether VAT is included, and a refundable deposit of 100 EUR is added. The faculty links separate price lists for students and for international students studying in English, whose contents we could not read, and the brochure from 2023 gave a dormitory from 140 EUR, so we confirm the amount for the English programme with the dormitory office before you pay.
• Private housing: from 350 EUR a month according to the brochure from 2023, a one-bedroom flat from 400 EUR including utilities according to SAIA.

Life in Martin

Martin has about 50,000 inhabitants (end of 2025) and lies in northern Slovakia, in the Turiec Basin on the Turiec river, between the Malá Fatra and Veľká Fatra mountains. Žilina is about 30 km away, Banská Bystrica 60 km, and Bratislava 230 km by road; the town lies on the main railway line and road from Bratislava to Košice. The climate is continental, with an average annual temperature of about 7 °C and snow cover for 60–80 days a year. In 1994 the Slovak National Council declared Martin the “centre of national culture of the Slovaks”: the Slovak National Library and Matica slovenská are seated here, and there are the open-air museum Múzeum slovenskej dediny, the Slovak National Cemetery and the Slovak Chamber Theatre.

• The town and leisure: the faculty’s brochure names cinemas, theatres, galleries, shopping centres, skiing and hiking, and good transport connections to neighbouring towns.
• Sport: according to the brochure the campus has a sports hall with access to a public swimming pool and sauna, and nearby there are running tracks, an ice rink and an outdoor swimming pool.
• Clubs and events: according to the brochure there are the clubs ANSA (students from Norway), FILS (from Iceland) and the Martin Club of Medics, open to all medical students; the faculty organises sports events, national days and an annual scientific conference with students’ projects.
• Train travel: the brochure mentions free travel for full-time students, with exceptions; according to the Slovak media from August 2026 a 100% discount applies to pupils and full-time students up to the age of 26 after the entitlement is registered in the system of the carrier ZSSK, and an ISIC card alone is not enough. We found no conditions for foreigners (including the residence status), so we check them with the carrier.

Recognition of the diploma

• Doctor is among the professions whose qualifications from one EU country are recognised automatically in the others under Directive 2005/36/EC, provided the programme meets its requirements. The programme description from the accreditation states that medicine in Martin meets the Slovak regulation on the professional qualifications of a doctor and this directive, and that it lasts 6 years.
• Outside the EU the rules of recognition are set by the authorities of the given country and they change. The programme page names recognition in the EU and in many regions outside the EU as well as entries in the World Directory of Medical Schools (WDOMS), ECFMG and USMLE, but these are the faculty’s own statements: check the entry in WDOMS and in ECFMG in their databases before you choose a university.
• The final decision on recognition is always made by the authority of the country where you want to work. Before you apply, ask the chamber or office there about its requirements.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

• Jessenius Faculty: application process and dates
• Jessenius Faculty: admission process
• Jessenius Faculty: frequently asked questions
• General Medicine programme in English
• Residence permit
• Payment details and tuition
• Organisation of study
• Study plans 2026/27 (PDF)
• Description of the General Medicine programme, 2022 accreditation (PDF)
• Information pack for admitted students 2025/26 (PDF)
• Study Department contacts
• Faculty dormitories
• Mission and history of the faculty
• Brochure “Study Medicine in Martin” (PDF)
• Online exam (SCIO)
• E-application
• Recognition database (ministry)
• University page for international applicants: the Faculty in Martin
• National study programme portal: General Medicine in English
• SAIA: living costs in Slovakia