If you are a foreign student and want to apply to a university in Spain, the process of admission to university studies and the documentation you need to provide will be different depending on:
- The State/Country where you completed your studies.
- The Academic title you have.
- Whether or not you meet the requirements for access to university studies in the country from which you come from.
The process will also change depending if you haven’t started the university yet, if you started university studies without having finished them or if you have completed university studies.
Our advice is to first visit the University web page you would like to access. Read carefully all the options they have for the admission of foreign students. In fact, not all centers establish the same admission criteria, so it is important that you obtain this information as far in advance as possible.
Let’s check here some of the most frequent and standard options to apply to university in Spain.
Foreign students who can request pre-registration with the degree of origin
Students who are in one of the following situations will be able to access through these routes:
- Those who come from a Member State of the European Union or from a country with which Spain has agreements on access to university and, in addition, meet the requirements demanded in their country of origin to access university studies.
- Students with a European Baccalaureate degree.
- Students with an International Baccalaureate Diploma.
If you meet any of these conditions, you can participate in the pre-registration process for university access. To do this, it is convenient that you follow the following steps:
In most cases, the university requires the accreditation issued by the UNEDassis service (University Application Service for International Students in Spain). So you must access the website of the National Distance Education University (UNED) to process your application request.
With this accreditation you will be able to obtain your qualification for admission to the chosen degree studies.
Take in mind, to access a Spanish Public University, a grade of more than 10 points will be required. So, basically you have two alternatives that will allow you to increase your admission score:
- Carry out the Specific Competence Tests (PCE) organized by the UNED. You can take a maximum of six subjects, depending on what the university you want to enroll in requires and the entrance mark you need to achieve.
- Examination of subjects of the specific phase of the selectivity in any university of the State taking into account the dates of the tests established by each autonomous community.
In both cases, always check the Spanish university web page you want to access first, so you can choose the subjects that are most relevant to take the exam.
Students who must apply for recognition of the Spanish Bachelor’s degree
They must follow this modality of access:
- Students who come from States that do not belong to the EU and that do not have any agreement with Spain regarding access to university.
- Students from the EU or from countries with which Spain has agreements on university access but who do not meet the requirements for access to university studies in their country of origin.
If you belong in this group, you have to do out the following procedures:
Homologize the studies of origin to the title of Spanish Bachiller. This homologation is carried out through the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training. Except if the region in which you are going to study is Catalonia, Galicia or the Basque Country, because in those cases you must request homologation through the region itself.
After that, you should pass the high school Assessment for University Access (EBAU) or the Specific Competence Tests (PCE), the same we saw before.
Get organized!
Getting access to a Spanish University can look complicated, but it’s not if you follow the steps accurately. Here are some more suggestions.
Organize as much as you can to keep track of all deadlines you must follow:
- to apply for a UNEDasiss accreditation
- to register for Specific Competency Tests
- Exam dates and locations
- Documents processing times. This is important especially if you need to get your certificate/diploma through official homologation. You will most probably legalize and translate them.
- University application dates
Also, make sure the university you want to enroll in recognises UNEDasiss accreditations or use other calculation schemes.
Some conclusions
We hope this article has helped you to get a quick idea of all the things you need to apply to university in Spain.
In Live and Study Barcelona we have helped many students like you to come and study in Spain. We are an international team with more than 10 years´experience and we are recognised by several established universities in Spain. We can help you in many ways to come and live in this beautiful Country. Some examples? We can help you with the visa, and with the medical insurance. Check this article to see all the services we can offer you!