Path · from the matura to specialist
It takes 11 to 13 years from admission to medical school to the specialist title, not counting breaks and waiting for a place. Four stops: admissions, studies, the LEK with the internship, and specialist training.
Your road
Specialist at the earliest2039
Studies, internship and specialist training add up to about 12 years. You will then be about 31, if you take the matura at 19. Estimate
Our calculation: the sum of the periods in the regulations, without breaks, repeats or waiting for a place. Sources: studies, internship, specialties.
Stop 1 of 4 · The matura and admissions
2027 · matura in May, studies from OctoberChange the year of your matura
What counts above all is extended-level biology and chemistry in the matura, the school-leaving exam, and at many universities also mathematics or physics. Each university has its own formula, so thresholds can only be compared as a percentage of the maximum score.
The admissions limit for 2026/27 is 10,730 places at 39 universities, of which 7,051 are full-time studies in Polish. For medicine at the University of Warsaw (UW) there were 32.8 applications per place in 2026, and one person can apply for several programmes.
The threshold is the score of the last person admitted, so it rises when applicants increase and places do not. At the Jagiellonian University (UJ) in 2024–2026 there were 258, 253 and 252 places, applicants rose from 1,085 to 1,779, and the threshold rose from 73.67 to 81.33 points. For scale: in 2026, 6% of those taking extended-level biology scored at least 80%, and 10% in extended-level chemistry.
Full-time studies in Polish at public universities are free. A year of part-time studies at the public universities whose price lists we checked costs from PLN 40,000 (≈ €9,110) to PLN 69,500 (≈ €15,800). The medical studies loan is at most PLN 22,000 (≈ €5,010) per semester, less than the fees at most universities.
Sources: Dz.U. 2026 item 1167, UW, applicants per place, UJ, admissions summary, Central Examination Board (CKE), percentiles 2026, list of university price lists, M.P. 2026 item 424, Ministry of Health, parliamentary question 18621.
Your result and the 2026 thresholds
9 of 15 thresholds are within reach of this result
Each university has its own formula, so this is an approximation, not an admissions result. The threshold depends on the number of applicants, so next year it will be different. Universities that do not publish a threshold are left out. Under the name we give the points and the definition of the threshold when it is not the last person admitted after all rounds. “New” is a university with its first admissions limit from 2015/16. Sources: UJ, UW, WUM and list of all universities. The percentage of the maximum is our calculation.
Texts at this stop
Stop 2 of 4 · Six years of studies
2027–2033 · 6 yearsChange the year of your matura
The programme lasts 12 semesters and has at least 5,700 hours of classes. At the Medical University of Warsaw (WUM), the 2026/27 cohort has 5,760 hours and 30 exams in its plan. The first years are basic sciences, clinical subjects dominate from the fourth year, and the sixth is practice on the wards.
81.3% of medical students move on to the second year on time, 73.3% in law and 42.3% in mathematics (2016–2018 cohorts, the same measure for all programmes).
Of Poles who start medicine, about 80% finish on time: 4,776 graduates in 2023/24 against 5,954 first-semester students in 2018/19. Most drop out in the first year.
Most anatomy hours are exercises in the dissection room. Since 2025/26, regulations have allowed 5% to 15% of exercises in the morphological sciences to take place in simulated conditions, for example on a virtual dissection table.
Sources: Dz.U. 2021 item 755, WUM, study programme, ELA, source data, Ministry of Health, students and graduates, WUM, guide for first-year students, Dz.U. 2025 item 1133, Act on Higher Education and Science, art. 344.
Six years, 5,760 hours and 30 exams: the medical study plan at WUM
Hover over a subject or tap it to see the hours and ECTS credits.
Texts at this stop
Stop 3 of 4 · The LEK and the internship
2033–2034 · 13 monthsChange the year of your matura
A diploma does not yet give the full licence to practise (PWZ). A graduate first gets it only for the postgraduate internship, and in full after the internship and after passing the Medical Final Examination (LEK).
The LEK has 200 test questions, and the pass mark is 56% correct answers. On a first attempt, 96.0% passed in autumn 2025 and 87.1% in autumn 2026. The result also matters later, because it is mainly what sets the order in the ranking for specialist training. That is why some doctors sit it again even though they have already passed.
The internship lasts 13 months. The fixed part is internal medicine (11 weeks), paediatrics and surgery (8 each), family medicine (6), emergency medicine (3) and intensive care (2), and for 10 weeks the intern trains in a field of their own choice. Since 1 July 2026 the basic pay has been PLN 8,458.38 (≈ €1,930) gross per month.
The Ministry of Health has prepared a bill that shortens the internship to six months, and the Supreme Medical Council (NRL) opposes it. For now it is only a bill: the government’s legislative agenda plans its adoption for the fourth quarter of 2026.
Sources: Act on the professions of physician and dentist, Dz.U. 2026 item 37, Medical Examinations Centre (CEM), LEK results, Dz.U. 2023 item 377, Ministry of Health, intern pay, bill UD384, NRL, position 3/26/X.
In autumn 2025, 98.3% of candidates passed the LEK, more than in the exams for several other professions of public trust
Texts at this stop
Stop 4 of 4 · Specialist training
2034–2039 · 5 yearsChange the year of your matura
After the internship and the LEK, a doctor can treat patients independently. To become a surgeon, paediatrician or family doctor, they still need specialist training: four to six years of work under a programme, ending with the State Specialisation Examination (PES).
The regulation lists 77 specialties, and 69 of them can be started straight after the internship. Residencies are awarded and funded by the Minister of Health: since 1 July 2026 the basic pay has been PLN 10,595.24 (≈ €2,410) gross per month, and PLN 11,654.76 (≈ €2,650) in the 23 priority fields. Non-residency places are the remaining free places in facilities authorised to train. They do not come with pay from the minister’s pool.
There is no entrance exam. Applications are filed twice a year and can name up to 15 variants, that is, combinations of field, province and mode. When there are more applicants than places, the order is set by a ranking in which the LEK result counts above all.
Overall there are more places than applicants. In autumn 2025 there were 14,598, acceptance was confirmed by 5,483 doctors and dentists, so 62% stayed empty. In individual fields the opposite can happen: in plastic surgery there were 7.47 applicants per place.
The PES is a test of 120 questions, passed from 60%, and an oral exam, from which a test score of at least 75% exempts you. In 2025, 80.3% of test attempts were passed, and 89.5% among those taking it for the first time.
Sources: Dz.U. 2023 item 975, Dz.U. 2026 item 856, Act on the professions of physician and dentist, Dz.U. 2026 item 37, CMKP, results of autumn 2025, summary by the CMKP director, via beautyrazem.pl, CEM, PES test results, Ministry of Health, parliamentary question 31481.
Selected specialty
All 29 in the tablePriority field: higher resident pay
These are 29 of the 77 specialties. Pay: basic pay from 1 July 2026, without the voluntary commitment to work in Poland. The rate is an average from job ads, not pay. The PES test figure is the share of attempts with a score of at least 60%. Sources: Dz.U. 2023 item 975, annex 5, Dz.U. 2026 item 856, CMKP, list of places, summary by the CMKP director, via beautyrazem.pl, CEM, report “Lekarze – oferty pracy” (doctors’ job offers).
In autumn sessions 56 to 74% of specialist training places remain empty — mostly non-residency places
Autumn 202274% empty
16,173 places, 4,180 filled. Empty: 1,147 residency places (27%) and 10,846 non-residency places (91%). Rynek Zdrowia
Autumn 202370% empty
16,380 places, 4,934 filled. Empty: 2,323 residency places (37%) and 9,123 non-residency places (90%). Puls Medycyny
Autumn 202456% empty
12,078 places, 5,310 filled. Empty: 2,303 residency places (35%) and 4,465 non-residency places (82%). Puls Medycyny
Autumn 202562% empty
14,598 places, 5,483 filled. Empty: 2,557 residency places (38%) and 6,558 non-residency places (83%). CMKP
Texts at this stop
Specialist title: at the earliest 2039
Who decides how many people take this road
Admissions limits, their history and what a change in intake does to the number of doctors years later.
Other ways into the profession
A diploma from outside the European Union and a separate, paid pool of studies in a foreign language.
After the specialist title
What the money looks like after training and who holds doctors to account for errors.
Euro amounts are approximate, converted at the National Bank of Poland mid rate of 6 November 2026 (table 217/A/NBP/2026): 1 EUR = 4.3925 PLN.
Editorial position
We call on the state to publish, every quarter, the total pay of each person working in facilities with a National Health Fund (NFZ) contract — summed across all their workplaces, under a permanent identifier instead of a name.