Medicine (English-taught programme), Master’s degree

About the course

A six-year Master’s degree in Medicine taught in English at Trakia University in Stara Zagora. It qualifies you as a doctor. There are 10 semesters of study, then a 10-month state internship with six compulsory state exams, and practical placements from years 2 to 6.

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 a NACID certificate recognising your Leaving Certificate that shows the required subject marks, which are set out in the university’s table of required marks. Your Leaving Certificate Chemistry and Biology marks also count towards your ranking.
• Entrance exams: written tests in Biology and Chemistry, taken in English. Your ranking score is your test marks doubled, plus your school marks in Chemistry and Biology. If you score below 3 in the entrance exams (a fail in the Bulgarian system), you are not ranked. Sample tests are on the university website.
• English: there is an English exam for applicants from countries where English is not an official language. English is an official language in Ireland, so Irish applicants would appear to be exempt, but check this with admissions.

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. Prepare documents earlyGet your Leaving Certificate apostilled and translated into Bulgarian (through a diplomatic mission or a notary), and get a NACID certificate recognising it. Complete the application form, and have a copy of your passport and four photographs ready.
2. Apply and pay exam feesEmail scanned documents to the Admission Office, or send them by post or deliver them in person (Room 13, Rectorate, Stara Zagora). In the 2026 cycle they had to arrive by 21 August 2026. Pay 80 euro for each exam.
3. Sit the entrance examsTake the Biology and Chemistry tests in Stara Zagora. In 2026 the sessions were 6-7 June, 25-26 July and 22-23 August.
4. Enrol and pay tuitionIf you are ranked, pay the first semester’s tuition (4,500 euro in 2025) and enrol in person with 6 photos and proof of payment. In 2026, enrolment ran from 29 August to 4 September and classes began on 28 September.

Costs

• The university’s first-ranking announcement for 2025 entry lists an annual tuition fee of 9,000 euro for English-taught Medicine, with the first semester’s 4,500 euro paid at enrolment. The announcement gives one fee with no separate EU rate, so expect to pay it as an EU student. The university says this payment is non-refundable, even if you do not enrol. The entrance exams cost 80 euro per exam, and there is no document-processing fee. The 2026 fee schedule is in a PDF we could not open, so confirm the 2027/28 fee with the university.

At a glance