Transfer from Iuliu Hațieganu University Cluj-Napoca: Where to Continue Medicine or Dentistry in 2026

What is Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca and what does it teach in English?

The Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca is a state medical university in Romania, known in Romanian as Universitatea de Medicină și Farmacie „Iuliu Hațieganu”. Medicine and Dental Medicine both run six years and 360 ECTS and are offered in English, alongside Romanian and French lines of study.

The Romanian medical faculty in Cluj-Napoca dates back to 1919, and the university has carried the name of Iuliu Hațieganu, its first professor of clinical medicine, since 1992. The university reports more than 7,000 enrolled students and more than 2,800 international students from 63 countries. Clinical teaching happens in the city’s university hospitals.

One detail matters for anyone reading this with a pharmacy degree in mind. Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca runs five years and 300 ECTS in Romanian and French, not in English. Medicine and Dental Medicine are the two English-taught long programmes, which is also what our own location page for Cluj-Napoca lists.

Can you transfer from Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca to another university?

Yes. A student enrolled at the Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, can continue Medicine or Dental Medicine at another university instead of starting again from the first year. Medschool Experts is the leading specialist for study transfers in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and veterinary medicine, with the world’s largest choice of official partner universities.

What a transfer rests on is your record: the semesters you have completed, the exams you have passed and the ECTS behind them. We take that record, compare it against the partner universities that teach your subject in English, and tell you where the highest entry is realistic. We do not publish document lists or deadlines here, because the answer is never the same twice. Ask us and we check your profile.

One rule we hold to in every case. You stay enrolled in Cluj-Napoca until your new place is confirmed in writing.

Why do students transfer from Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca?

Students leave the Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, for five recurring reasons: total cost, the fit of a particular exam format, personal or organisational circumstances, a career goal in the United States, and a career goal in Germany. None of these is a complaint about Cluj-Napoca. Each is a question of fit.

Cost. At 10,000 € a year plus living costs, six years add up. When a family’s finances change in year two or three, the arithmetic changes with them. Our most affordable route is the Faculty of Medicine Foča at the University of East Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina: 3,500 € tuition per year and roughly 7,500 € a year for tuition and living costs together, both Medschool Experts figures for 2026.

Exam fit. Some students keep meeting the same wall at the same subject. A different faculty means a different exam format, a different pace and a different year-group size. This is one of the situations we handle most often, and we are specialists in it.

Personal and organisational reasons. Difficulties with an individual professor, a move closer to family, a health matter in the household. These come up, they are legitimate, and they are nobody’s business but yours.

The United States. Students aiming at the USMLE and a US residency want a programme built around that path. The Mostar School of Medicine in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only European university that specifically prepares for the USMLE, Step 1 for the preclinical part and Step 2 CK for the clinical part, in small groups with a better teacher-to-student ratio than other European medical schools and only 30 places a year. Medschool Experts places students there reliably without an entrance test as long as our own quota allows.

Germany. Some universities prepare particularly well for a German career. The University of East Sarajevo in Foča is one. The Medical University of Varna in Bulgaria is another, and students there can complete the final practical year in Germany through Medschool Experts. The same is possible from Foča.

Where can Iuliu Hațieganu Cluj-Napoca students transfer to?

Where a student of the Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, should go depends entirely on the goal. Lower cost points one way, a United States career points another, and a German career points a third. The table below sorts the options by goal and states, for each one, whether dentistry is taught as well as medicine.

Read the dentistry column carefully if you are a dental student. Foča teaches Dentistry in English at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of East Sarajevo, and the Medical University of Varna runs Dental Medicine in English at its Faculty of Dental Medicine. Mostar and the Caribbean schools are medicine programmes, so they are not dentistry destinations. That distinction is not a detail. It decides whether an option exists for you at all.

The full list of places we work with sits on our partner universities page, and the shape of the support we provide is set out under services. What students actually did with it is collected in our student stories.

How much can an Iuliu Hațieganu Cluj-Napoca student save by transferring?

A student of the Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca pays 10,000 € in tuition per academic year, the university’s own figure for 2025/2026, and roughly 400 to 600 € a month for living costs in Cluj-Napoca. Foča in Bosnia and Herzegovina costs 3,500 € in tuition and about 7,500 € a year including living costs, our own 2026 figures.

Work the example through. A student with three years left pays somewhere between about 44,400 and 51,600 € to finish in Cluj-Napoca, tuition and living together, and about 22,500 € to finish in Foča. The gap is roughly 22,000 to 29,000 €. That is a car, or a deposit, or simply the difference between graduating with debt and graduating without it.

Which year can you enter after leaving Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca?

There is no fixed cap on the entry year for a student leaving the Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. We frequently achieve high placements, often year four or year five. Every case is reviewed individually, and the aim is always the highest possible entry with no or minimal loss of time.

The rule of thumb we work with is simple. Usually no more than two exams may still be outstanding, and the ECTS behind those outstanding exams must stay below a maximum. Within that frame, a lot is possible. Outside it, we say so early rather than late.

What decides the outcome is the transcript, not the ambition. Send us the record and we will tell you where it lands.

How does a transfer from Iuliu Hațieganu Cluj-Napoca work with Medschool Experts?

A transfer from the Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, runs through four steps with Medschool Experts: a free consultation, a review of your academic record, a concrete placement offer, and the switch itself with a written plan. You stay enrolled in Cluj-Napoca until the new place is confirmed.

Step one costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Step two is where the work happens, because a transcript has to be read against several universities at once. Step three is an offer with a named university and a named entry year, not a maybe. Step four is the part students worry about most, and it is the part we have done hundreds of times.

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What does leaving Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca mean for recognition of your degree?

Romania is a member of the European Union, so a medical or dental diploma from the Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca falls under Directive 2005/36/EC and is recognised across the EU and the EEA without an equivalence assessment. Bulgaria is an EU member state too, so a degree from the Medical University of Varna carries the same status.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is not an EU member state. A diploma from Foča or Mostar is therefore assessed individually in EU countries rather than recognised automatically, and the procedure depends on the country and the profession you are heading for. Students take that route every year and it works, but it is a different route and you should choose it knowingly.

This is one of the first things we map out in the consultation, because the answer changes depending on whether you want to practise in Germany, Switzerland, Austria or somewhere else entirely. Tell us the target country. We work backwards from there.

When should Iuliu Hațieganu Cluj-Napoca students start planning a transfer?

A student at the Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, should start planning as soon as the question comes up, and ideally around the end of a semester when the exam results are in. The transcript is what we work from, so a completed semester is worth more to a transfer than a half-finished one.

Waiting has a cost that is easy to miss. Every extra semester in Cluj-Napoca is another 5,000 € in tuition plus living costs, and the entry year at the new university is decided by the record, not by how long you stayed. Early planning buys options. Late planning buys fewer.

Start the conversation now. Book a free consultation, bring your transcript, and we will tell you within one conversation whether a transfer makes sense for you and where it could lead.