Bogomolets National Medical University (NMU) in Kyiv is one of the oldest and largest medical schools in Ukraine, and it is the only university on this site for which the institution itself publishes a full tuition schedule for international students. That matters, because it means the figures further down this page come from the university rather than from us, from an agency, or from a guess.
Everything below is drawn from the university’s own official website and its international-student portal, with dates and sources stated. Where the university does not publish something — or publishes it without saying which year it applies to — we say so rather than fill the gap.
1841: Twenty-Nine Students
The university dates itself precisely. The Council of St. Volodymyr University in Kyiv approved the opening of a medical faculty in September 1841. Teaching began on 9 September 1841, when Professor M.I. Kozlov delivered the first anatomy lecture, followed on 12 September by Professor V.O. Karavaiev lecturing on the encyclopedia and methodology of medicine. The first admission was twenty-nine students.
By 2010 the university records its student body having grown to around 10,000 people. That is the arc: from a first-year cohort you could fit in one room to one of the largest medical universities in the country.
How It Became Independent — and Why That Year Keeps Recurring
In 1920 the medical faculty was separated from St. Volodymyr University and reconstituted as the Kyiv Institute of Health Care, uniting the faculty with other medical schools in the city. It was renamed the Kyiv State Medical Academy in 1921, later became the Kyiv Medical Institute, and in 1946 was given the name of O.O. Bogomolets, President of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1992 it was reorganised as the Ukrainian O.O. Bogomolets State Medical University, and in 1995, by Decree of the President of Ukraine, it received national university status.
If that 1920 date looks familiar, it should. The same year, in Kharkiv, the medical faculty of the Imperial University was separated out and merged into what became Kharkiv National Medical University. Ukraine’s major medical schools were largely detached from their parent universities in the same wave of Soviet reorganisation. It is a genuine historical pattern rather than a coincidence, and it explains why several Ukrainian medical universities appear to share founding dates with a general university in the same city.
In 2011 the university joined the Magna Charta Universitatum association, on its 170th anniversary.
Faculties
The university lists nine teaching units, and the range is wider than most Ukrainian medical universities:
- Medical Faculty No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3
- Dental Faculty
- Pharmaceutical Faculty
- Medical Psychological Faculty
- Faculty for Training Doctors for the Armed Forces of Ukraine
- Faculty for Training Foreign Citizens
- Educational-Scientific Institute of Public Health and Preventive Medicine
Two of these are worth pausing on. A dedicated Medical Psychological Faculty is unusual. So is a faculty specifically for training doctors for the armed forces — a reminder that this is a working national institution with obligations beyond international recruitment.
Alongside the faculties the university operates a medical professional college, a library founded in 1841 alongside the faculty itself, and a simulation centre.
Programmes, Languages and Published Tuition
The university’s international-student portal states that students have the ability to study in the state language or in English, and publishes the following programmes and fees.
Medicine — 6 years, 360 ECTS credits. Ukrainian-medium: $3,000 for year one, then $3,600 per year for years two to six. English-medium: $3,500 for year one, then $4,700 per year for years two to six.
Dentistry — 5 years, 300 ECTS credits. Ukrainian-medium: $3,600 for year one, then $4,100 per year. English-medium: $3,600 for year one, then $4,975 per year.
Pharmacy — 5 years, 300 ECTS credits. Ukrainian-medium: $2,800 for year one, then $3,300 per year. English-medium: $3,700 for year one, then $4,075 per year.
Preparatory Department — 1 year, $1,200.
Primary Specialization in General Medical Practice — 12 months, $3,600.
Two honest caveats, and please read them before you budget against these numbers. First, the portal does not state which academic year these fees apply to, and we have not been able to verify that independently — so treat them as the published schedule at the time of writing (September 2026) and confirm the current year’s figures in writing before you commit. Second, tuition is not the whole cost: accommodation, the invitation letter, visa costs, insurance, translation and legalisation of documents all sit on top. We will give you a complete breakdown for your situation.
If your language is not yet strong enough for direct entry, the preparatory year exists for that purpose — see our guide to the preparatory course in Ukraine.
International Students: What Changed
This is where we want to be precise about the difference between what was true and what is true, because most pages about this university are not.
Before the full-scale invasion, the university’s portal records approximately 3,000 international students from 70 countries. The portal’s current statement is that representatives of 33 countries study at the National Medical University. Those are two different figures describing two different periods, and any page quoting the pre-war number as though it were today’s is misleading you.
On study format, the university states that Ukrainian education has adapted to distance and mixed formats of providing educational services, and its main site carried a notice in September 2026 about transitioning to a mixed form of education. So the honest summary is: currently mixed, and you should confirm what that means for your specific programme and year of study before applying. Ask particularly about clinical rotations, which are the part of a medical degree that cannot be delivered online, and about what a period of mixed study means for the licensing body in the country where you intend to practise.
Kyiv is not Kharkiv — it is far from the front line and functions as a capital city — but it is still subject to air raids, and you should read your own government’s travel advice for Ukraine before deciding.
Accommodation and Student Support
The university reports dormitory capacity of 1,072 beds in rooms of two to three people, and states that dormitory costs are regulated by current Ukrainian legislation and remain affordable for students. It operates an International Student Center handling document processing, housing and adaptation, and states that translator-mentors are on duty around the clock in the dormitory.
That last detail is a genuinely useful one for a nineteen-year-old arriving alone in a country whose alphabet they cannot yet read.
For more on the city itself, see our guide to studying in Kyiv.
Admission Documents
The portal states that applicants need complete secondary education and lists the documents required: a document confirming previous education (the original plus a notarised copy in two counterparts), a notarised copy of the passport, eight applicant photographs at 30×40 mm, and an invitation to study.
The portal does not publish application deadlines, which we could not verify from any official source — so ask directly and early, because intake dates drive everything else in your timeline.
For the full document package we require before opening an application, see admissions.
Accreditation — Documented, but Dated
The university’s own documents page records accreditation at the fourth (highest) level by decision of the State Accreditation Commission of 10 June 2003, minutes No. 45, under certificate RD-IV No. 118966, and a Ministry of Education licence, series AG No. 582604, approved by commission decision of 24 November 2011, minutes No. 91. The licence covers Medicine — including General Medicine, Paediatrics, Medical Psychology and Stomatology — and Pharmacy, together with internship, residency, postgraduate and foreign-student instruction. The page also notes that graduates receive a Diploma Supplement developed jointly by the European Commission, the Council of Europe and UNESCO/CEPES.
We are reporting those exactly as published, and noting equally plainly that the validity dates shown on that page are historical and we could not verify the current accreditation and licensing position from it. Confirm current status directly with the university.
Separately and more importantly: recognition of any Ukrainian medical degree is decided by the licensing authority in the country where you intend to practise, not by the university and not by us. See is a Ukrainian medical degree recognised for the principle, and put the specifics to your own regulator in writing.
How Study in Ukraine Today Helps
We handle the process: preparing and submitting a complete application, obtaining your official invitation letter, and guiding you through the Ukrainian Type D student visa requirements. We do not begin applications on incomplete files, because incomplete files fail later at the university or the embassy.
If you are still comparing institutions, our guide to medical universities in Ukraine sets out what actually separates them, and our overview of studying medicine in Ukraine covers the route end to end.
When you have a shortlist and a complete document set, apply online.
