Study Transfer from Montenegro: Switch to Foča, Niš or Malta

Which medical faculties exist in Montenegro?

Faculty of Medicine of the University of Montenegro (Univerzitet Crne Gore), Podgorica — the only one in the country, state-run. Six years, degree “Doktor medicine”. The cohorts are small: around 40 to 50 places in human medicine, 20 in dentistry, 30 in pharmacy.

There are no private providers with human medicine in Montenegro. The University of Mediteran and UDG do not offer such a programme.

The decisive point: the language

The university states on its official page for foreign applicants that the Faculty of Medicine does not offer study programmes in English. Across the entire university there are only two fully English-language accredited programmes — Medicine is not among them.

Portals that advertise “Study Medicine in Montenegro in English” are therefore contradicting the faculty itself. Conversely, the same portals usually fail to mention that the programme is tuition-free.

Why do students transfer from Montenegro?

The language, almost always. Bringing Montenegrin to a level that sustains lectures in physiology and daily ward life is a project in its own right alongside medical studies. Some manage this well. Others realize after two or three semesters that the language is costing them more energy than the course content.

No WFME framework. There is no accreditation agency for Montenegro recognized by the World Federation for Medical Education. This is irrelevant for German medical licensure, but matters for the US pathway via ECFMG.

The limited number of places. With 40 to 50 places per year, the faculty is small, and anyone who does not get in loses a full year.

Recognition itself is not an obstacle. Montenegro is the most advanced EU accession candidate, with negotiations ongoing since 2012 — but remains formally a third country. This is no longer a disadvantage since the reform of March 2026: from 1 November 2026, the oral knowledge examination under Paragraph 3 of the Federal Medical Licensing Act applies as the standard pathway to nationwide medical licensure.

How we handle a transfer from Podgorica

You will not find a checklist of papers or a table of dates here, and that is deliberate. What a faculty wants to see differs from university to university and changes from one intake to the next — a list written today would send you chasing the wrong things.

All we need to begin is your profile: where you are studying, how far you have come, and which countries would work for you. We then check individually at which university, in which country, we can place you — and where we can get you in on a timeline you can genuinely plan around. Because we work with the largest network of official partner universities for medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing and veterinary medicine, that is usually a choice between several options rather than a single one.

And because you are transferring rather than starting over, we always look for the highest possible entry point, so the semesters you have already completed count. In many cases that means continuing in one of the final two years of the programme.

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Where you can transfer to

Faculty of Medicine Foča (Bosnia and Herzegovina) — one of our core locations, around €3,500 per academic year, English-language programme, geographically and culturally close. Foča generally grants very high entry points.

University of Niš (Serbia) — around €6,000 per academic year, English-language. The curriculum is closely comparable to the Montenegrin one, which helps when your previous work is credited.

MediCampus Europeo Malta — around €14,500 per academic year, EU member state. The degree is automatically recognized in Germany; the procedure under Paragraph 3 of the Federal Medical Licensing Act is not required.

Which of the three fits you is not something you have to work out alone — that is exactly what the first conversation is for.

What the transfer costs

In Podgorica you pay no tuition fees. A transfer therefore means paying them for the first time — that is worth stating openly. Foča costs €3,500, Niš €6,000, Malta €14,500 per academic year.

The question is not whether this is more expensive. It is: what does it cost you to continue a programme in a language you may not be able to work confidently in at the end? A lost year or a dropout costs more than the fee difference — and Foča at €3,500 is at the lower end of what is offered in Europe at all.

Why early advice pays off

With Montenegro, the language question usually becomes clear in the second or third semester. That is the best moment for a conversation: you have already completed enough to have something credited, and have not yet invested so much that a transfer is painful.

The first conversation is free and non-binding. Tell us where you stand and we will tell you honestly where we can get you in — book a free study consultation, by phone or video call, with your parents if you would like them there.