Medicine (English)

About the course

A Master’s degree in Medicine taught in English at the Faculty of Medicine of the state university in Burgas on the Black Sea coast. There is also a separate Bulgarian-taught Medicine programme with its own exam dates.

Entry requirements for Irish students

• The university assesses the Irish Leaving Certificate individually and does not publish a fixed Irish requirement. Contact admissions to confirm. You need secondary education that qualifies you for higher education at home, and all documents must be legalised and officially translated into Bulgarian.
• Entrance exams in Biology and Chemistry taken in English. The university’s English page describes Biology as 30 questions in 60 minutes (maximum 30 points) and Chemistry as 30 questions on organic and inorganic chemistry in 60 minutes (maximum 70 points).
• English at B1 level: accepted proof includes IELTS, TOEFL, Cambridge, PTE or Michigan English Test certificates, a bilingual diploma or the International Baccalaureate. Otherwise you sit the university’s 60-minute English B1 test (50 points, pass mark 25) on exam day.

Working in Ireland afterwards

Because your medical degree comes from an EU/EEA country, the Medical Council of Ireland can recognise it automatically under EU Directive 2005/36/EC, as long as it is listed in Annex V (point 5.1.1). If that listing says the degree must come with an internship or state-exam certificate from your home country, you need to have that too, and you must also show your current professional standing and meet the English-language requirements. Graduates of EU/EEA medical schools may apply to the HSE for Irish intern posts, but only if their home-country degree does not already count as complete training. In older HSE intern guides (e.g., the 2022 guide), only graduates from medical schools in Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Iceland and Slovenia could apply. Graduates from other EEA countries (and Italians holding the ‘abilitante’ degree) were told they are not eligible, because they qualify directly for General registration. Applicants who need no work permit were matched before those who do. Please check the current eligibility list in the HSE intern guide for the year you apply. We could not confirm it for the July 2027 intake because the current HSE guide pages are password-protected.

How to apply

1. Apply online or in personApply for Medicine in English through the university’s online system or in person. For 2026 entry the latest online deadlines were 28 Jul, 18 Aug and 6 Sep 2026, depending on the exam date. Expect similar timing for 2027 entry.
2. Get documents readyGet your Leaving Certificate and other documents legalised (apostille) and officially translated into Bulgarian, along with your passport and an English certificate if you have one.
3. Pay and sit the examsPay the 300 euro exam fee and the 150 euro processing fee, then sit Biology, Chemistry and (if needed) the English B1 test on one of the summer exam dates (in 2026: 30 Jul, 20 Aug or 8 Sep).
4. Check ranking and enrolRankings are published about a week after each exam (in 2026: 6 Aug, 26 Aug and 14 Sep). Enrol in the period that follows. The last 2026 window closed on 2 Oct 2026.

Costs

• The annual tuition fee for Medicine taught in English is not published on the university’s English admission pages, so ask admissions for the 2027/28 fee in writing before applying. Published one-off costs for the 2026 cycle: a 300 euro entrance exam fee (Biology, Chemistry and English B1 test) and a 150 euro document processing fee. Fees for English-language programmes in Bulgaria are usually charged to EU students as well.

At a glance