Second Degree in Cyprus: Routes, Rules and Costs for 2027

Three ways to study in Cyprus when you already have a degree

You have three options and they are not equally good. A second bachelor’s is allowed, with no national quota of the kind Germany applies to a Zweitstudium. A master’s in a subject you did not study at undergraduate level is admitted through ordinary postgraduate entry, with prerequisite courses attached. A one-year top-up into the final year of a bachelor’s does not exist in Cyprus as a named qualification.

Which fits you depends on why you are studying again. To change field or seniority, the master’s is almost always the answer: it runs 1.5 to 2 years, costs €5,125 per programme at the two public universities, and is the only route of the three that leads to the Job-search / entrepreneurship residence permit. A second bachelor’s makes sense in one situation: the new field is regulated at home and the licence requires an undergraduate degree in that subject.

Unless a professional body insists on a first degree in the new subject, take the master’s with prerequisites. Our master’s degrees in Cyprus page sets out the entry standards.

A second bachelor’s in Cyprus

Cyprus permits a second bachelor’s — yes — with no quota and no separate graduate scheme. You apply on the ordinary undergraduate form described on our bachelor’s degrees in Cyprus page, against the same standards as a school leaver.

One rule shapes the decision. At least half of a bachelor’s 240 ECTS must be earned at the university awarding the degree. A graduate therefore enters with advanced standing and attends about two years rather than 4 — but never less than two, however much credit you bring. Credit is granted by the admitting department on your transcript, not by a published table.

You pay the standard rate for the years you attend, because no institution checked publishes a second-degree surcharge: €8,970–11,520 per year at the English-teaching private universities, or €6,834 per year at the public ones, where almost all bachelor’s teaching is in Greek. Two years of private undergraduate fees cost more than any taught master’s on the island, so a second bachelor’s has to be justified by a licence, not by interest.

Changing field with a conversion master’s

There is no one-year conversion master’s in Cyprus as a separate product. Changing field happens inside ordinary admission: a master’s asks for a recognised degree in a related subject, and an applicant from another field is admitted subject to prerequisite undergraduate courses, taken on a pass/fail basis alongside the 90-ECTS master’s. The Neapolis MSc in Digital Marketing sets Principles of Marketing as a prerequisite for applicants without a marketing background.

The length does not change. A master’s runs 1.5 to 2 years with or without prerequisites, because the extra courses sit on top of the timetable instead of extending it. Ask admissions in writing how many prerequisite courses your file attracts before you accept an offer: they raise your contact hours and are priced on no public fee page. A second master’s follows the same logic, with at least two-thirds of the ECTS earned at the awarding university.

Fees are the ordinary ones: €5,125 per programme at the University of Cyprus and the Cyprus University of Technology. The Open University of Cyprus lists 6 English-taught master’s at €5,400–5,850 per programme, UCLan Cyprus 18 at €9,500 per programme, and Neapolis University Pafos 27. Compare them on our universities in Cyprus page.

HND and diploma holders: top-up routes

Applicants from Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya often ask for a final-year top-up, the way British universities sell it. Cyprus does not have one. The published position: No dedicated one-year top-up degree. Holders of an HND or a three-year higher diploma enter the standard four-year bachelor's with transfer credit — up to half the programme's 240 ECTS, since at least 120 ECTS must be completed at the awarding university — after KYSATS recognition, which awards equivalence to higher diplomas of 180 ECTS.

In practice you apply to the ordinary bachelor’s, send the diploma and transcript to KYSATS (EUR 85.43 per application), and are placed in the second or third year. Two years of attendance is the floor, you pay the standard €8,970–11,520 per year for them, and every certificate needs an apostille: yes.

Test two alternatives first. Ask the university whether your diploma counts as a full first degree for master’s entry: Neapolis University Pafos publishes no rule and assesses recognition case by case. Or finish a bachelor’s at home and apply to a master’s, where three-year African degrees are accepted with no four-year and no honours rule.

Visa, age and funding for a second degree

Nothing in Cyprus’s published immigration rules bars a second degree at the same level. The student permit is tied to full-time enrolment at a registered institution and renewed each year with fresh proof of funds, insurance and medical tests. No purpose-of-stay or academic-progression rule for same-level study is published, on the Migration Department’s students page or anywhere else. Treat that as unwritten rather than settled: two of the department’s own refusal reasons are a programme change deemed intended to evade academic-progress rules and insufficient progress in prior studies, so state in your file why the second degree follows from the first. Age is not an issue: the limit is none.

Funding bites harder. The Cyprus State Scholarship Foundation awards to third-country students in first-cycle and second-cycle programmes on academic or socio-economic criteria, and no published rule excludes an applicant who already holds a degree at that level. Erasmus Mundus is open to all nine of our origin countries and pays €1,400 per month, but nobody may hold a second Erasmus Mundus scholarship. Work rights are unchanged: 20 hours/week outside class time, in decreed sectors/occupations, with a permit and an approved contract first. See Cyprus student visa requirements and Cyprus scholarships.

How to apply with a degree in hand

The sequence is the same for all three routes; only step two differs.

1. Get your existing qualification recognised. Send the degree or diploma and full transcript to KYSATS (EUR 85.43 per application). It decides how much credit you carry and whether a diploma counts as a degree.
2. Choose the route. A master’s with prerequisites where the field is unregulated; a second bachelor’s where a licence requires the undergraduate degree itself.
3. Apply direct to each university. Cyprus has no national portal. Intakes are September, January/February and postgraduate admission is Rolling; the University of Cyprus keeps fixed annual dates.
4. Assemble the documents. Degree certificate, full transcript, KYSATS evaluation, passport, two academic references for master’s entry, and an apostille on every certificate.
5. Prove your English. The usual floors are 5.5 for undergraduate and 6 for postgraduate entry, though each university sets its own. UKVI IELTS certificates are not accepted by the Migration Department.
6. Build the money file. Show €5,000–7,000 per year as an available balance in your own name, or a sponsor’s with a signed letter that matches the fee receipt.
7. Take the medicals and buy insurance. HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphilis and a TB chest X-ray, in original form from home and repeated after arrival, plus cover at €120–300 per year.
8. Let the university file the entry permit. Allow 4 to 13 weeks, pay €70–140, and register with the Aliens’ Register within seven days of arrival.