A Master's in Czechia: when nostrification is not needed

Nostrification is usually not the route an applicant for a Master’s needs. The higher education act, in § 48(5), gives a graduate of a foreign university three ways to prove their previous education, and one of them runs through the faculty itself inside the admission procedure: it issues no recognition decision, the fee is capped at 20 percent of the ministerial base, and the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University (MFF UK) publishes that it charges nothing at all (Act No. 111/1998 Sb., the faculty’s admission requirements, Verified: 2026-08-31). Full nostrification under § 89 and § 90 costs a fixed 3 000 CZK, and it is an administrative proceeding with a basic period of 30 days (§ 90a, MŠMT, archived copy, Verified: 2026-08-31).

The short answer: three routes, not one

A Kazakhstani diploma is valid in Czechia on its own: the law requires explicit recognition only where that is directly prescribed (MŠMT, archived copy, Verified: 2026-08-31). The ministry page is cited here from the archive: the live address serves a JavaScript shell with no readable text, so the statute is the primary source and the MŠMT page the secondary one.

Admission to a Master’s is exactly the case the law prescribes: § 48(1) requires the proper completion of study in a programme of any type, and § 48(5) requires that completion to be proved with a document (Act No. 111/1998 Sb., Verified: 2026-08-31). The condition is broader than “a bachelor diploma”, and on top of that the faculty sets its own conditions under § 49(1), including how closely the programmes are related and the number of credits.

Everything below concerns a university diploma. If what has to be proved is a school certificate for admission to the first cycle, the procedure is a different one, with a different fee and a different authority: certificate nostrification in Czechia.

Education can be proved with one of three documents under § 48(5): a general recognition decision under § 89 and § 90; a foreign document that is equivalent without any further procedure under international obligations; or a foreign document assessed by the university itself. The second route is closed for a Kazakhstani: Charles University applies automatic equivalence to diplomas from Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Slovenia (faculty rules, Verified: 2026-08-31).

The faculty’s assessment: what it actually is

This is not “just show the diploma”: § 48(5)(c) allows the university to require supplementary information, including official confirmation from a foreign authority that the institution which awarded the diploma was part of the country’s higher education system at the time of study.

Under § 48(8), § 89-90b do not apply here, no recognition decision is issued, and the university only makes a record in the admission file. That record lets you enrol, but it gives no recognized Czech qualification: if an employer, a professional regulator or another university later needs the diploma recognized, nostrification is a separate procedure.

Nor is it an applicant’s right. Under § 48(6) the route is available only if the university has no doubts and if the education meets the recognition conditions of § 90(5), applied by analogy; the university may send the applicant to general recognition instead. So read the faculty’s rules before paying for any documents.

The fee is capped: § 48(7) allows no more than 20 percent of the ministerial base (Act No. 111/1998 Sb., Verified: 2026-08-31). The base itself is explained in free study in Czechia, and the amount is worth confirming with the university: § 58(5) obliges a public university to publish its fees no later than the application deadline.

Nostrification: who decides, what it costs, how long it takes

The application goes not to the ministry but to a public university the applicant chooses, one that runs a programme in at least one of the fields of education covered by the foreign programme, or is entitled to run one; the rector decides (§ 89(1) and § 90(1), Verified: 2026-08-31). MŠMT is only the appeal body here.

The fee is fixed by law: 3 000 CZK at any public university (§ 90a(2), Verified: 2026-08-31). The apostille, the translation, certified copies and postage are not included in it.

The decision is issued within a basic period of up to 30 days from receipt of the application, and that period is extended when checking the documents is complex or laborious (MŠMT, archived copy, Verified: 2026-08-31). A diploma from a country with no bilateral treaty is exactly the case the extension exists for, so do not plan on 30 days as the actual time. If the application is refused, the appeal goes to the university within 15 days, MŠMT decides, and that decision is final.

Refusal is mandatory on four grounds under § 90(5): at the time of study the institution was not part of its own country’s higher education system as a university; it did not hold the required authorization; the education differs substantially from the qualification applied for; or the programme was delivered wholly or partly on the territory of Czechia. Check the first ground before paying for anything at all.

The recognition is academic: nostrification gives no right to work in a regulated profession, and MŠMT names teacher, doctor, lawyer and architect as examples.

The two routes side by side

What a Master’s costs

A programme in Czech at a public or state university carries no tuition fee, and the rule covers follow-up Master’s study (navazující magisterské studium) as well: § 46(2) makes the follow-up form a Master’s programme, and § 58 sets no fee for study in Czech. Charles University sets out the 2+1 arithmetic (the page on fees, Verified: 2026-08-31), but it is not universal: § 46(2) sets a duration of one to three years. More detail: free study in Czechia.

“English is always paid” is not what the law says. § 58(4) names four cases in which a public university may set no fee for a bachelor’s or Master’s programme: study under an international treaty, study within an EU programme, study under a foreign cooperation agreement, and study by government scholarship holders.

Every amount below is a fact about a specific university, not about Czechia.

The application fee is counted separately: MFF UK charges 1 500 CZK per application for 2026/2027, and VŠE charges a non-refundable 100 EUR (MFF UK, VŠE, Verified: 2026-08-31).

The universities publish the caveats themselves. ČVUT calls its figures an estimate for full-time study and writes that faculties may change fees every semester. Masaryk University gives no year for most of its rows. UNYP publishes prices for the whole programme, and gives euros and dollars as an estimate at the November 2025 exchange rate.

Deadlines: there is no 2027/2028 calendar yet

As of 26 August 2026, not one of the universities checked had published a Master’s admission calendar for 2027/2028. The MFF UK page for 2027/2028 returns a 404 error, and VŠE writes that the opening date of admissions will be announced later (VŠE, Verified: 2026-08-31). That is why there is not a single 2027 or 2028 date on this page.

Only what the law fixes can be stated in advance. The university publishes the application deadline and method, the admission conditions, the procedure for checking them and, where there is an exam, its form and criteria at least four months ahead, in the public part of its website (§ 49(5), Verified: 2026-08-31). For a programme that has just been accredited the period may be shorter, but no less than one month.

Here is how the last published cycle looked at one faculty.

Sources for the table: the admission requirements in Czech and in English for 2026/2027, Verified: 2026-08-31.

That calendar changes the plan: the February application deadline falls about seven months before the deadline for presenting the diploma, so a student defending in June still applies in February. The same faculty advises applicants from outside the EU and Schengen to use the winter round, because it puts the visa process at up to 90 working days. It also warns that without a document proving completed education you will be neither admitted nor enrolled.

Masaryk University publishes its windows by day and month, without a year: for the follow-up Master’s programmes at one faculty the September window runs from 1 November to 15 May and the February one from 1 July to 31 October, and the same block never names which faculty. Most faculties have a February intake, a second entry point in the same year. The Faculty of Pharmacy closes admission for non-EU applicants earlier: 31 May instead of 31 July (muni.cz, Verified: 2026-08-31).

The language of the programme

There is no single national threshold; the faculty sets the conditions. For a programme in Czech, MFF UK accepts one of three documents: proof of at least two years of continuous study at a school or university in Czechia or Slovakia with Czech or Slovak as the language of instruction; a Czech exam at B2 or C1 level at ÚJOP of Charles University; or a state language exam at B2, C1 or C2 level at a language school holding the corresponding right (MFF UK, Verified: 2026-08-31).

For a programme in English the same faculty publishes minimum scores: TOEFL iBT 85, IELTS 6.5, TOEIC Listening and Reading 850, Duolingo 110, Michigan English Test 66, and it also accepts Cambridge C1 Advanced and C2 Proficiency, TELC English C1, UNIcert C1, ECPE and the Czech state exam in English. The result must be no older than two years. The exemption covers anyone who studied for at least two years with English as the sole language of instruction in nine named countries, and Kazakhstan is not among them (MFF UK, Verified: 2026-08-31).

At Masaryk University the Faculty of Informatics and the Faculty of Social Studies both name B2 as the minimum. Those are the thresholds of two named faculties, not a Czech standard.

Apostille and translation

Both countries are parties to the Hague Apostille Convention: it has been in force for Czechia since 16 March 1999 and for Kazakhstan since 30 January 2001 (HCCH status table, Verified: 2026-08-31). Superlegalization through an embassy is therefore not needed: MŠMT writes that a document from a convention country carries only an apostille and is then officially translated. The apostille goes on the diploma and on the supplement.

From there the language of the translation differs. For nostrification MŠMT names Czech, while accepting documents in English or Slovak without an officially certified translation; a Russian-language document does not fall under that exception. MFF UK accepts Czech or English. Confirm the target language with the faculty before paying a translator: a translation into the wrong language is money gone.

The translation is done by a court translator, soudní překladatel, entered in the Czech register of experts and translators. Under § 27(2) of Act No. 354/2019 Sb. every copy of a paper translation is signed by hand and carries the translator’s seal (Act No. 354/2019 Sb., Verified: 2026-08-31). The requirement that the original or a certified copy be attached to the translation comes not from the statute but from the MŠMT page (MŠMT, archived copy, Verified: 2026-08-31). The MŠMT page still uses the pre-reform term soudní tlumočník, which makes it easy to find the wrong specialist. The Kazakhstani side: apostille and sworn translation.

What to do, in order

1. Find in the faculty’s rules which route it allows for proving the diploma, and ask in writing what supplementary information it will require.
2. Check the status of the Kazakhstani university at the time of your study: this is the first ground for refusal.
3. Confirm the target language of the translation before ordering a translator, and allow time for the apostille on both documents and for the visa.
4. Count the fees separately from tuition: the application fee plus the assessment fee, or 3 000 koruna for nostrification.
5. Compare the destinations: Poland, Czechia or Italy and Czechia.

A specific case is worked through in a consultation.