Studying abroad, and coming back
Where you study affects your route into work in Ireland. Some degrees allow you to apply for an Irish intern post; others lead to General registration. Check that route, alongside fees and course requirements, before accepting a place.
Checked on 22 August 2026 against the Medical Council, Annex V.1.1 of Directive 2005/36/EC, the HSE intern guide and the schools themselves.
Degree recognition
Why some graduates cannot apply for internship
For the qualifications described below, full recognition means Ireland considers basic medical training complete. These graduates apply for General registration and are not eligible for an Irish intern post.
Check the qualification entry in Annex V.1.1. Whether that country's entry in Annex V.1.1 of Directive 2005/36/EC carries a certificate in the “Certificate accompanying the qualifications” column. If it does, the degree alone is not the whole of basic medical training, so a separate internship is needed and Ireland's intern year is open to you. If the column is blank, the degree is the whole of basic medical training. Ireland deems you finished, and the intern year is closed to you.
Medical Practitioners Act 2007, section 45(3) forbids being registered in more than one division at a time, and the HSE excludes anyone who is registered or entitled to registration on the General Division. The member state and the European Commission, by delegated act under Article 21a. Not the HSE, and not the school.
Eligible countries and qualifications
It is a list of countries, not schools, with one exception. 11 countries qualify outright, two qualify with a condition attached, and one named campus qualifies because the degree it awards is Irish.
Including Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Added by statute, not by the Directive: section 49(1) of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 was substituted on 6 June 2023 to name the UK.
Eligible only if you have not completed the Polish postgraduate internship, the staż podyplomowy. Sitting the LEK is fine. Finish the staż and you are barred.
On the country list, but closed in practice. Since the 2020 reform the laurea is abilitante, which carries the licence, and the HSE excludes abilitante graduates. Anyone starting now will graduate abilitante.
Other countries listed as eligible: Ireland, Portugal, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland. And one school by name: RCSI & UCD Malaysia Campus, formerly Penang Medical College, a 5 year programme. It awards RCSI and UCD degrees, which are Irish qualifications.
Qualifications not eligible for internship
Graduates of medical schools in these 18 states are deemed to have completed basic medical training already, so they cannot apply for an Irish intern post:
Examples include: Slovakia, including Comenius and Košice; Latvia, including Rīga Stradiņš; Romania, including Cluj, Iași and Târgu Mureș; Croatia and Bulgaria; Spain and France. Separate restrictions apply to graduates of non-EEA schools.
Medical schools and fees
Fees exactly as each school publishes them, with no conversions. The Hungarian schools price in US dollars, so what an Irish family actually pays moves with the exchange rate.
University of Nicosia, Cyprus
Intern year closed€24,000 a year · 2026/27 · 6 years · English
Named in Annex V.1.1 by name since October 2014, with the certificate column blank. Graduate entry MD is €25,000 a year over four years.
Semmelweis University, Hungary
Intern year closedUSD 10,450 a semester · 2026/27 · 6 years · English
Semmelweis calls year six the internship year, which is exactly why Ireland's is closed to you: it is inside the degree. Admission and enrolment fees are extra.
University of Debrecen, Hungary
Intern year closedUSD 16,900 a year · 2026/27 · 6 years · English
Discounted rate for a single instalment; USD 17,900 if paid by semester. Year six practice weeks beyond twelve are charged separately.
University of Pécs, Hungary
Intern year closedUSD 16,750 a year · 2026/27 · 6 years · English
University of Szeged, Hungary
Intern year closed€7,900 a semester · 2026 · 6 years · English
A German language track is slightly cheaper at €7,600 a semester.
Poznań University of Medical Sciences, Poland
ConditionalPLN 485,000 for the whole degree · 2026/27 · 6 years · English
PLN 71,000 a year for years one and two, PLN 85,750 for years three to six. Eligible for the Irish intern year only if you skip the Polish staż.
Medical University of Gdańsk, Poland
ConditionalFees not published in a form I could verify · 6 years · English
Same conditional position as Poznań. Fees not obtained.
Charles University, First Faculty, Czech Republic
Intern year closed€24,250 a year · 2026/27 · 6 years · English
Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
Intern year closedFees not published in a form I could verify · 6 years · English
RCSI & UCD Malaysia Campus, Malaysia
Intern year openFees not published in a form I could verify · 5 years · English
The only named non-EEA school on the intern list, because the degree conferred is Irish.
General registration and SHO posts
You come home, register on the General Division under Medical Practitioners Act 2007, section 46(b)(iii), and start as an SHO. You do not repeat the intern year and you are not permitted to. In the Medical Council's words: doctors with general registration may practise independently without supervision but may not represent themselves as being specialists.
What the application needs
- A qualification listed in Annex 5.1.1
- The internship or state exam certificate, where the Annex requires one
- Passport, notarised
- A Certificate of Good Standing dated within three months from every regulator of the last five years
Eligibility for training schemes
The requirement to hold the equivalent of a Certificate of Experience for the Trainee Specialist Division. was removed on 6 November 2020 by the Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Act 2020, section 100, by S.I. No. 507 of 2020. The Medical Council states: once a doctor holds, or is eligible for, General registration, they will automatically be eligible for registration for the Trainee Specialist Division.
Trainee Specialist registration follows the training post details entered by the site and the training body on the HSE's DIME database, and reverts to the General Division when the post expires.
Confirm RCPI eligibility before enrolling
RCPI's application guidance lists “a medical degree from one of the listed EU countries” as a way to evidence registration eligibility, and adds that some countries do not have internship as part of the degree, in which case candidates should register on the General Division.
RCPI's separate entry guidance says applicants must have completed a recognised internship before the programme starts, and be eligible for the Trainee Specialist Division.
Read literally, those conflict. Only RCPI can settle it, and it should be settled in writing before anyone commits to a six year degree on the strength of it.
Other intern application requirements
Check these requirements before applying for an intern post with a non-Irish qualification.
A centile from your school
The Dean or Head of School must send the HSE a centile based on your overall degree or overall exams, by a deadline in mid May. If your school will not produce one in the required form, the application is ineligible no matter what else is true. Worth asking a school about before you enrol, not after.
English language evidence
IELTS 7.0 overall with 6.5 in each domain, or OET grade B overall and in each domain. Sitting the Leaving Certificate exempts you, as do A-levels with additional documents, or completing the entire degree in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the USA or the UK.
Police clearance from everywhere you have lived
Clearance from every country you have lived in for six months or more since you were sixteen, dated after you left. The HSE guide singles out Poland and the UK.
Common questions
Can you do the Irish intern year after studying medicine in Hungary?
No. Graduates of Hungarian medical schools, including Semmelweis, Debrecen, Pécs and Szeged, cannot apply for an Irish intern post. Hungary's entry in Annex V.1.1 of the EU directive carries no accompanying certificate, so Ireland treats the degree as complete basic medical training. You register on the General Division instead and start as an SHO.
Does the University of Nicosia count for the Irish intern year?
No. Nicosia is named in Annex V.1.1 in its own right and its MD is directly licensing, so its graduates are deemed to have finished basic medical training and cannot apply for an Irish intern post.
Which foreign medical schools let you do the Irish intern year?
Schools in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Poland, Portugal, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland, plus RCSI and UCD Malaysia Campus. Italy is on the list but closed in practice since the 2020 licensing reform, and Poland only counts if you skip the Polish staż.
Do you have to repeat the intern year if you studied abroad?
No, and in most cases you are not allowed to. If your degree gives you full recognition, Ireland considers your basic medical training finished, you register on the General Division and you start as an SHO.
Can you get on a training scheme without an Irish intern year?
Yes. Since 6 November 2020 the Trainee Specialist Division no longer requires the equivalent of a Certificate of Experience. Once you hold or are eligible for General registration you are eligible for the Trainee Specialist Division, and RCPI lists an EU degree as a way of evidencing that. One RCPI page still says a recognised internship is needed, so get it in writing.
Source dates and limitations
At the last review, the HSE Medical Intern Unit and eligibility pages were unavailable, following an outage dating from roughly 28 January 2026. The archived eligibility page used here is from 6 September 2025. The country lists agreed with the Medical Council page available at that review; the HSE wording comes from archived 2025 documents.
Before you commit to a six year degree on the strength of any page, including this one, confirm with applyintern@hse.ie and MIU.NDTP@hse.ie.
What I could not verify
- Whether the intern eligibility list changed for the 2026 or 2027 intake. The HSE's professional web estate has been down since around 28 January 2026 and no 2026 or 2027 dated intern guide is obtainable anywhere. Confirm with applyintern@hse.ie and MIU.NDTP@hse.ie.
- Whether RCPI requires a completed internship in practice, given the conflict on its own two pages.
- ICGP eligibility for GP training, which is the largest scheme by intake. Its site moved and the criteria page could not be reached.
- Whether the St George's, University of London MBBS delivered at Nicosia still exists, and if so whether the HSE would treat it as a UK medical school.
- Whether a doctor who never did any internship anywhere faces obstacles registering later with the GMC, AHPRA, MCNZ or the Medical Council of Canada. The HSE guide warns the Certificate of Experience is required by most other competent authorities.
- Fees for Gdańsk, Masaryk, the Italian and Spanish schools, and RCSI & UCD Malaysia.
- UK fee status for Irish students beyond England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland differ and were not checked.
If you have been through this and something here is wrong or has moved, tell me and it gets fixed.