Universities in Poland for African Students

Choosing a university in Poland

The first split is public against private. Public universities hold nearly all of Poland’s ranked places and charge non-EU students €2,000–6,500 per year at bachelor’s level and €2,500–7,500 per year at master’s. Private universities charge €3,500–7,000 per year, decide faster and are built around international intakes, but most carry no QS position at all.

The second split is how the money is quoted. Some universities price non-EU tuition in euro, others in złoty, and many bill per semester rather than per year, so the same degree can appear at two very different numbers. Fees are set per programme, not per university: a master’s at the University of Warsaw runs €1,000–18,000 per year depending on the course.

The third is the city, which moves your budget more than tuition does. Warsaw runs PLN 2,500–4,500 per month against PLN 1,600–2,600 per month in Katowice.

Shortlist in that order — is the programme taught in English, what does that exact programme cost, what does the city cost — and treat the ranking as the last question. Read the full cost of studying in Poland before you settle on Warsaw or Kraków.

Top universities in Poland

Fees below are the published non-EU rates for 2026/27 unless the dataset says otherwise, and several are billed per semester.

University of Warsaw is the highest-ranked at #271 (QS 2026), with 36,300 students and the widest English offer in the country: 14 bachelor’s and 30 master’s. Bachelor’s fees are €1,000–5,500 per year.

Jagiellonian University in Kraków, founded in 1364 and ranked #329 (QS 2027), covers law, humanities, social sciences and the natural sciences. Bachelor’s tuition is €5,000 per year, master’s €4,500–5,000 per year.

Jagiellonian University Medical College is the separate medical faculty and the main English-medium medicine route, at €16,000 per year. It asks IELTS 6.5 and decides admission by entrance exam.

Warsaw University of Technology, #504 (QS 2027), runs 12 English bachelor’s and 24 master’s in engineering, computing and architecture. Fees are wide, €4,680–13,660 per year, and billed per semester.

AGH University of Kraków, 761–770 (QS 2027), is the mining, materials and computing school, at €1,250–3,000 per semester. Every applicant outside its recognised-system list must sit AGH’s own maths exam.

Gdańsk University of Technology, 801–850 (QS 2027), teaches 7 English bachelor’s and 15 master’s at PLN 17,200–20,000 per year. Doctoral study there is free.

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, 731–740 (QS 2027), is strong in languages, law and political science and is among the cheapest here at PLN 0–4,000 per semester.

University of Wrocław, 851–900 (QS 2027), lists 13 English bachelor’s — law, computer science, biotechnology, international relations — at €3,600–4,200 per year, dropping in later years.

Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, 1001–1200 (QS 2026), teaches medicine in English at PLN 63,000 per year and ordinary degrees at PLN 6,000–17,200 per year, in the cheapest city on this list.

University of Łódź, 951–1000 (QS 2026), offers business, economics, law and computer science at €2,500–3,000 per year, and asks IELTS 6 rather than the usual 5.5.

SGH Warsaw School of Economics has no QS world place but is the specialist economics and finance school, with 5 English bachelor’s at a flat €5,000 per year.

University of Silesia in Katowice, 1201–1400 (QS 2026), is thin at bachelor’s level with 1 English programme but has 9 at master’s, from PLN 7,100–13,500 per year.

English-taught programmes

This is where Poland differs from Germany: English provision is real at bachelor’s level, not only at master’s. The University of Warsaw lists 14 English bachelor’s, Wrocław 13, Warsaw University of Technology 12, Łódź 8, AGH and Gdańsk Tech 7 each. Master’s provision is deeper again: 30 at Warsaw, 24 at Warsaw Tech, 21 at AGH. Jagiellonian and Kozminski teach their international programmes in English throughout.

The gap is subject, not level. Engineering, computing, business, medicine and the sciences are well served in English; law, humanities and public-sector tracks are often Polish-only, and some of those ask for Polish at C1.

There is no statutory national English rule — Not applicable: the visa rules set no language condition — universities decide admission-language requirements independently. IELTS 5.5 at bachelor’s and 6 at master’s are the common university minimums, with Warsaw University of Technology at 6 and the Medical College at 6.5. If your schooling was in English, ask each admissions office in writing whether that exempts you before you book a test — see studying in Poland without IELTS.

Entry requirements for African students

There is no central admissions portal. The national route is IRK / direct + NAWA SYRENA system for secondary-certificate recognition: each university runs its own IRK instance on its own subdomain, and you register separately at every one. Recognition runs through NAWA (SYRENA system) confirms a secondary certificate's eligibility to apply; nostrification applies only to higher-education diplomas/degrees, not secondary certificates, and an apostille or consular legalisation of the original certificate is required.

The pattern is the same for all four main African qualifications. WASSCE and NECO, KCSE, the South African NSC and the Moroccan Baccalauréat are none of them on NAWA’s automatic-recognition list, so each needs an individual NAWA recognition statement before admission — confirmed in the published rules at the University of Warsaw, Gdańsk Tech, Jagiellonian and Lazarski. Several universities publish nothing qualification-specific and assess case by case, which means you should write to admissions before you pay any fee.

Two universities add their own test. AGH requires its maths exam of every applicant outside its recognised list, with 30% to pass, and converts other grades to a percentage scale. Jagiellonian University Medical College decides medicine admission solely on entrance-exam results, whatever certificate you hold.

For a master’s, the bachelor’s degree must entitle you to graduate study at home; Lazarski sets a minimum 55% average, and Warsaw University of Technology requires a similar field to the master’s applied for. Country detail sits on the corridor pages, for example studying in Poland from Nigeria.

Tuition and scholarships

Public tuition is €2,000–6,500 per year at bachelor’s and €2,500–7,500 per year at master’s, with real outliers at both ends: the University of Warsaw starts at €1,000–5,500 per year, Warsaw University of Technology reaches €4,680–13,660 per year. Medicine in English is a separate market at €14,900–17,000 per year.

The private route is Lazarski University at €5,040–5,520 per year, rising each year of the degree, and Kozminski University at PLN 38,800–46,800 per year, which prices well above the private-sector norm of €3,500–7,000 per year.

There is no recurring registration fee on top of tuition, and most universities let you pay the year in two semester instalments. What you do pay once is the application fee, PLN 85–100 at most public universities and €18 at Lazarski.

Non-EU students pay tuition even in Polish-taught programmes, so the free-study route open to EU citizens is not open to you. The funding that exists is the Banach NAWA Scholarship Programme, Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters route, set out on Poland scholarships.

How to apply

1. Shortlist three to five programmes. Check the fee on each programme’s own admissions page, and whether it is quoted per year or per semester.
2. Start recognition first. Apply to NAWA through SYRENA for a recognition statement on your secondary certificate, and have the original apostilled or consular-legalised. This is the step that runs late.
3. Register in each university’s own IRK system. There is no shared national application, so a five-university shortlist means five accounts and five uploads.
4. Prove your English. Submit IELTS at 5.5 for bachelor’s or 6 for master’s, or the exemption letter that university accepts in writing.
5. Sit any entrance exam. AGH’s maths exam and the Medical College’s medicine exam are separate from the application and fall on fixed dates.
6. Apply early within the window. Intakes are October, February (some), and bachelor’s admission is Rolling to ~July; non-EU applicants generally advised to apply earlier.
7. Accept the offer, pay the application fee and the first tuition instalment, and get the acceptance letter. Then file the National (Type D) visa application with PLN 17,650 in funds evidence, insurance covering 30,000 euro, and the €200 fee. Processing takes 2 to 8 weeks — the full list is on the Poland student visa page.
8. After arrival, take NFZ voluntary health insurance at PLN 55.80 per month and, if you stay beyond the visa, apply for the residence card at PLN 390.