Study in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Complete Guide 2026

Why study in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

You study in Bosnia and Herzegovina because it combines European degrees with some of the lowest tuition and living costs in Europe. Medicine in English starts at €3,500 a year, many bachelor programmes in English cost around €5,000, and a student room rarely costs more than €250 a month outside Sarajevo. Degrees follow the Bologna system, so your credits are counted in ECTS like anywhere else in Europe.

The country is small. Sarajevo, Mostar, Banja Luka and Tuzla are all within a four-hour drive of each other, and Zagreb, Belgrade, Split and Dubrovnik are a weekend trip away. Four airports have direct flights to Western Europe, the Gulf and Turkey.

What we see in practice: the students who do best here are the ones who chose a city on purpose. A medical student who wants quiet and a hospital on the doorstep is happy in Foča. Someone who wants a capital, an international crowd and a different café every night picks Sarajevo. Before you choose a university, decide what kind of six years you want to live.

How the university system in Bosnia and Herzegovina works

Higher education in Bosnia and Herzegovina is organised by the two entities and Brčko District, under one state-level framework law. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina leaves education to its ten cantons, the Republic of Srpska runs it centrally, and Brčko District has its own rules. For you as a student, this mainly decides the local teaching language and which ministry signs off on fees.

All state-accredited universities follow the Bologna structure:

• Bachelor (first cycle): 3 or 4 years, 180 or 240 ECTS
• Master (second cycle): 1 or 2 years, so that bachelor and master together add up to 300 ECTS (the 3+2 or 4+1 model)
• Integrated degrees: Medicine and Dentistry 6 years with 360 ECTS, Pharmacy 5 years
• Doctorate (third cycle): usually 3 years

Public or private?

The eight public universities are the old, large institutions: Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Tuzla, Mostar (two universities), Zenica, Bihać and East Sarajevo. They have teaching hospitals, the widest choice of subjects and, for international students, fees that are often lower than at private universities. Their English-taught tracks are mostly in medicine and health.

The 13 private universities are smaller and younger. Three of them, all in Sarajevo, teach in English across almost every field and are the most international campuses in the country. Others focus on business, law, IT or health in the local language.

One warning from our daily work: several institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina advertise to foreigners without state accreditation. We list only the 21 state-accredited universities, and we explain the difference in our article on non-accredited universities in Bosnia.

All 21 accredited universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina at a glance

The table lists every state-accredited university in Bosnia and Herzegovina with its city, type, teaching language and the lowest annual tuition for international students that we can confirm for 2026/27. Where the university sets the fee per applicant, it says "on request" and we send you the current figure in writing. You can filter all universities by field, city and language in our university finder.

"Tuition per year" shows the lowest confirmed fee for international students in 2026/27; medicine and dentistry are usually higher.

Study in Bosnia in English: programmes by field

You can study in Bosnia in English at nine universities: three private universities that teach almost everything in English, four public universities with English-taught medicine and selected other degrees, plus English master and doctoral programmes in Tuzla and Vitez. Open a field to see where it is taught and what it costs.

A pattern we see every year: applicants from the Gulf, Turkey and North Africa tend to choose the all-English private campuses in Sarajevo, while applicants from Germany, Austria, Scandinavia and Italy go mostly for medicine at the public universities, where tuition is lower and clinical teaching takes place in large state hospitals.

Tuition fees in Bosnia and your total yearly budget

Tuition fees in Bosnia range from about €1,534 to €13,750 a year for English-taught programmes. Public universities charge less than private ones in almost every field, and medicine is always the most expensive subject. Fees at public universities are set in convertible marks, so the euro amount stays stable because the mark is pegged to the euro.

Most universities split tuition into two semester instalments. Budget a total for ten months of living costs, because most students go home for part of the summer.

All tuition in euros; fees set in convertible marks converted at 1 € = 1.95583 KM. Add one-off costs for the first year.

For the first year, add one-off costs: certified translations, recognition of your school certificate, the medical certificate, health insurance, the residence permit fee (150 KM, about €77) and a rent deposit. In practice that adds €500 to 900 in the first months. Our detailed breakdown is in the guide to tuition fees in Bosnia.

Cost of living by city

Living costs in Bosnia and Herzegovina run from about €400 a month in smaller cities to €750 in Sarajevo. Rent makes the biggest difference; food, transport and phone cost much the same everywhere. A coffee costs €1 to 1.50, a plate of ćevapi €4 to 6 and a monthly bus or tram ticket well under €30.

The capital is the most expensive city, and the gap is mostly rent. Students at the two Ilidža campuses often save €50 to 100 a month by living in Ilidža rather than in the centre. See our full guide to the cost of living in Sarajevo.

Student visa Bosnia and residence permit in short

Every international student who stays in Bosnia and Herzegovina longer than 90 days needs a temporary residence permit for education. Your passport decides if you also need a student visa to enter.

• Entry: citizens of the EU, the UK, the USA, Canada, Turkey and many other countries enter visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180 days. Others apply for a visa at a Bosnian embassy before travelling.
• Address registration: within 48 hours of arrival your address is registered with the local foreigners' office. Hotels do this automatically; for a private flat the landlord has to take part.
• Residence permit: applied for in Bosnia after enrolment, with proof of enrolment, accommodation, health insurance, sufficient funds, a medical certificate and a recent criminal record certificate from your home country.
• Validity: one academic year, renewed every year with proof that you are still enrolled.

Processing officially takes one to two months, and the office does not always send a notice when the card is ready, so someone has to follow up. Details, documents and fees are in our guide to the student visa for Bosnia.

Language and daily life

The local languages are Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian, which are mutually intelligible; in the Republic of Srpska you will also see the Cyrillic alphabet on signs and menus. In English-taught programmes, all teaching and exams are in English. In daily life, younger people in cities speak good English, and in hospitals medical students pick up the local language from the second or third year.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is safe for students, and street crime is lower than in many Western European capitals. Daily life is relaxed and café-centred, and people are hospitable to foreigners. Winters in Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Tuzla are cold, while Mostar has a Mediterranean climate. The skiing on Jahorina and Bjelašnica, an hour from Sarajevo, is among the cheapest in Europe.

The currency is the convertible mark (KM, BAM), pegged at 1 € = 1.95583 KM. Card payments work in supermarkets and most cafés in cities; in smaller towns and for rent, cash is still common.

Is a degree from Bosnia and Herzegovina recognised abroad?

A degree from a state-accredited university in Bosnia and Herzegovina is recognised abroad through the normal recognition procedure of the country where you want to work. Bosnia and Herzegovina has been part of the Bologna Process since 2003, so the degree structure and ECTS credits are the same as in the EU.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has been an EU candidate country since December 2022, and in March 2024 EU leaders agreed to open accession negotiations. Until it joins, the EU's automatic recognition for doctors and dentists does not apply. For medicine and dentistry this means:

• Germany: knowledge test (Kenntnisprüfung) and then Approbation
• Other EU countries: a national recognition procedure, often with an exam or adaptation period
• Gulf states, Turkey and many other countries: recognition or licensing exams under national rules

For non-regulated fields such as IT, business or engineering, employers mainly look at your skills and your ECTS transcript.

How Study in Bosnia helps you

Study in Bosnia is the official representative of Bosnian universities for international students. We work with all 21 state-accredited universities, from our main office in Bern, Switzerland, and our office in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Because we are on site, we can solve the small things that cost you weeks when you are alone: a landlord who will not sign the address form, a translation the office rejects, a residence card that is ready but nobody has told you. For students who are interested in medicine at universities around the world, our sister company Medschool Experts advises on medical schools worldwide.

Study in Bosnia and Herzegovina: frequently asked questions