Failing Medical School at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens? Exams, Dismissal and Transfer (2026)

Failing medical school at the University of Athens: exam rules at NKUA

Key facts

• The Medicine programme at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) lasts 12 semesters and carries 360 ECTS
• Graduation requires 48 compulsory courses and 12 elective courses
• A course is passed with a grade of 5 or higher on a scale from 0 to 10
• Exams take place in January to February, in June to July and in the September resit
• The maximum study duration is 18 semesters, which is 9 years
• More than three fails in one course: one application for other examiners per course
• A certified disability of at least 50 percent exempts you from the maximum duration

NKUA does not cap the number of attempts per exam in the way some other countries do. You sit a course at the end of the semester, and if you fail you can try again in the next exam period. What counts is time. Every semester you stay enrolled counts towards the limit, whether you pass courses or not.

The programme splits into three blocks. Semesters 1 to 5 are pre-clinical, semesters 6 to 9 are clinical, and semesters 10 to 12 are full-time clinical practice. Students who fall behind in the pre-clinical block carry open courses into the clinical years, where the workload per semester is higher.

Maximum study duration at NKUA Medicine: 9 years

The formula is simple. Programmes of eight semesters get four extra semesters. Programmes of more than eight semesters get six. Medicine has twelve, so the limit is eighteen semesters. The deletion is not a decision of a committee. It happens automatically, two months after the results of the September resit are posted. Deleted students can ask the secretariat for a certificate that lists their courses, grades and ECTS.

Which cohort are you in? The rule applies fully to students admitted from the 2022/2023 academic year. For older cohorts, transitional rules in Article 153 of Law 5224/2025 count the time from the 2021/2022 academic year. Ask the secretariat in writing for your personal deadline. A dated reply from the secretariat settles the question.

Failed the same exam more than three times at NKUA

The evaluation is either a re-grading of your earlier written answers or a new written or oral exam. It must take place within three months of the appointment of the examiners. If the head of the department does not appoint examiners within 60 days, you can turn to the dean and, after another 60 days, to the Ministry of Education.

There is a special rule for the final stretch. If you are in the last academic year before the maximum duration, the evaluation must be completed within 60 days. If it is not, the law allows you to finish your studies without passing that course, by completing the required teaching and credit units in another way. If the other examiners fail you as well, you return to the normal exam procedure for that course.

Extension, extraordinary exam and exceptions at NKUA

The extension has two conditions. First, you have passed at least 70 percent of the ECTS of your programme when you apply. Second, in one of the four semesters before the application you took at least two assessments and passed at least one. If a thesis or internship is still open, the extension is three semesters. During the extension you cannot enrol part-time and you cannot interrupt your studies.

If only one or two courses are missing after the extension, you can ask for an extraordinary exam within 10 days of the last results. Your deletion is suspended until those results are out, which must happen by 15 December. If you have not graduated by then, the deletion follows automatically.

Two exceptions matter. A certified disability of at least 50 percent exempts you from the maximum duration. Serious health reasons of your own, or of a first-degree blood relative, spouse or partner, can justify going beyond the limit on application. The procedure and the documents are set out in the NKUA internal regulation (Government Gazette B 816/5.3.2025). Studies can also be suspended for up to two years for extenuating circumstances in the English-taught Medical Degree programme of the School of Medicine.

Deleted from NKUA Medicine: what happens next

Request the certificate and the course descriptions at once, even if you still hope for an extension. Universities abroad assess your courses by hours, content and ECTS. Without documents they cannot give an answer. With them, a case can often be judged within days.

Why students get stuck in Medicine at the University of Athens

NKUA is one of the best-known medical schools in Greece, and its programme asks a lot: 60 courses over twelve semesters. Some students lose the thread in the pre-clinical block, especially when a course is examined orally or when one subject blocks the next. Rent in Athens, a part-time job or illness in the family add to this. Fit and pace matter as much as effort. None of it says anything about the doctor you will become.

Switch early: checklist if exams keep going wrong

• You have failed the same course in two or more periods.
• An open course blocks several courses behind it.
• You are in your seventh year or later.
• You study for months but freeze in the exam.
• Your passed ECTS are below 70 percent in the later years.

If two of these apply, ask for an assessment now. Clinical years bring more material, not less, so the problem rarely solves itself in the next semester.

Next four weeks: plan for students at NKUA

Transfer from NKUA to a medical school abroad

A study transfer is a complicated undertaking. Every university checks hours, content and syllabi in its own way, deadlines differ, and documents must arrive in the right form. Our experts have almost ten years of experience with study transfers worldwide and therefore plan and carry them out confidently. The consultation costs you nothing.

Medschool Experts is built for this situation. We can save your medical career, because your passed courses are not lost. Where the profile allows, we aim for entry into a higher year, so that you do not start from the beginning.

Returning home after a transfer: is the degree recognised?

Many families worry that leaving Athens means leaving Greece for good. It does not. You graduate with an EU degree and return as a qualified doctor. For other EU and EEA countries the same directive applies, and the national licence body of the country where you want to work handles the final registration.

Cost of continuing Medicine abroad

Greek-taught undergraduate study at a public university charges no tuition, so each extra year looks cheap. It is not. A blocked year still costs rent, living expenses and a year of your professional life. A year that moves you forward in a new programme often costs less over the whole degree than two blocked years at home.

How Medschool Experts helps students from NKUA

We handle the whole application process abroad. You send your transcript, we check what can be recognised, and we prepare the next steps with you. Read how other students restarted on our student stories page, or see the overview of the Greek rules for all universities.