Admission to Universities in Spain: Homologation, UNEDasiss and Documents
What a non-EU applicant needs for a bachelor's place in Spain, from school certificate to admission score.
To enter a bachelor's program at universities in Spain with a school certificate from Pakistan, India, Nigeria, Egypt, Bangladesh or most other non-EU countries, you need two things. First, the Spanish Ministry of Education must homologate your certificate to the Spanish título de Bachiller. Second, you get an admission score through UNEDasiss, ideally boosted with PCE subject exams.
Everything else — apostille or legalization, translations, pre-registration at the university, the language test — hangs on these two steps. This page walks through them in order, with the upcoming intake in mind. Official dates for it are not published yet, so we show the last intake's calendar as a model and mark what is still to be announced.
Master's applicants follow a simpler route, covered briefly below and in detail on our master's in Spain page.
For the full country overview, see our Study in Spain guide.
Who needs homologation and who does not
Homologation depends on where you finished school, not on your passport. Graduates of school systems in EU countries and in countries with a reciprocity agreement with Spain, as well as holders of the IB Diploma or the European Baccalaureate, are exempt: they need neither homologation nor the Spanish entrance exam (PAU).
Everyone else must homologate. That covers national school certificates from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, Bangladesh and the Central Asian countries. A new decree for these systems has not been adopted yet, so the old rules of RD 412/2014 still apply.
Two common misunderstandings are worth clearing up:
- UNEDasiss does not homologate anything. Homologation is issued by the Ministerio de Educación, Formación Profesional y Deportes (and by some regional governments). For non-European applicants, it is a required step to obtain UNEDasiss accreditation.
- Age matters for the student permit: for university study, you must be at least 17.
If you are a GCC resident who studied in an IB school, check your diploma type first. It may save you the whole homologation process.
How to homologate your school certificate
Collect your official school-leaving certificate and your grade transcripts for at least the last 3 years of school.
Apostille or legalize every document in the country that issued it (see the next section).
Get an official Spanish translation of each document.
Apply online through the Ministry's Sede electrónica, or at any Spanish public registry, including a Spanish consulate abroad.
Pay the Tasa 079 fee (form 790) — about €48. From abroad, it is paid by bank transfer to the Tesoro Público account listed on the Ministry's page.
Wait for the decision. By law, the Ministry must decide within 3 months of receiving a complete file; no answer by then counts as a refusal, although a decision can still arrive later.
In practice, homologation often takes longer than the legal 3 months, so start as early as you can. While your file is pending, you can usually request a volante de inscripción condicional — a receipt that lets a university enroll you conditionally. If homologation is refused, that enrollment is cancelled.
Apostille, legalization and official translation
Which stamp you need depends on whether your country has joined the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention. For many applicants this changed recently: Pakistan joined on 9 March 2023 and Bangladesh on 30 March 2025.
| Country where the document was issued | What you need |
|---|---|
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan | Apostille |
Nigeria, Egypt, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait | Legalization chain: Ministry of Education → Ministry of Foreign Affairs → Spanish consulate |
The UAE is not a party to the convention, whatever you may have read elsewhere. A document from a UAE school needs the full legalization chain.
For homologation, "official translation" does not only mean a Spanish sworn translator (traductor jurado). The Ministry accepts four options:
| Translation option | Where it is done |
|---|---|
Sworn translator (traductor jurado) | In Spain |
Spanish diplomatic or consular mission | In your country |
Your country's consulate or embassy | In Spain |
Official translator abroad, with the signature legalized | In your country |
Visa requirements can differ from homologation requirements, so check the list of your Spanish consulate before you pay for translations twice. Our Spain student visa guide covers the visa file.
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UNEDasiss and PCE: how your admission score is calculated
UNEDasiss is the service of UNED (Spain's national distance university) that converts a foreign school result into a Spanish admission score. Spanish public universities use this score to rank applicants.
The formula for homologable school systems is:
Admission score = (0.2 × NMB + 4) + 0.1 × M1 + 0.1 × M2 + 0.1 × M3 + 0.1 × M4
- NMB is your school average converted to the Spanish 10-point scale.
- M1–M4 are your best results in PCE (Pruebas de Competencias Específicas) — subject exams run by UNEDasiss. Each counts only if it is at least 5 out of 10 and was taken in the same calendar year.
Your school grades carry 60% of the score and PCE exams 40%. Without PCE, the maximum score is 6 out of 10. For popular programs such as medicine, that is rarely enough, so most serious applicants sit PCE in subjects linked to their chosen degree.
The acreditación is requested online. UNEDasiss processes an application within up to 3 months, usually in about 3 weeks.
The UNEDasiss year, based on the last intake
Last intake's dates as a guide for the upcoming one
4 February – 1 December
Acreditación window
Request the UNEDasiss acreditación online; processing takes up to 3 months, usually about 3 weeks.
16 March – 28 April
PCE registration, spring session
Sign up for the PCE subject exams that carry 40% of your admission score.
25–29 May
PCE exams, spring session
The spring PCE exams take place in Spain.
By 7 July
Documents to public universities
In the last intake this was the deadline for sending documents to public universities through UNEDasiss.
1–22 July
PCE registration, September session
A second chance to register for PCE exams.
2–8 September
PCE exams, September session
Pre-registration and places at public universities in Spain
With a UNEDasiss score in hand, you apply for a place through the pre-registration (preinscripción) process of the region or university where you want to study. Places on each program are limited, and applicants are ranked by admission score. Pre-registration windows are set by each region and university, so your list of target programs defines your personal deadlines.
In the last intake, the deadline for sending documents to public universities through UNEDasiss was 7 July. Expect a similar early-summer deadline for the upcoming intake and plan so that your homologation file and PCE results are ready well before it.
Fees for non-EU students also depend on the region. In Madrid, non-EU students aged over 18 without a residence permit pay a higher tariff, and a student stay permit does not count as residence. At Complutense, that meant about €6,823–8,186 a year for a bachelor's. At the University of Barcelona, full-degree students, including non-EU, paid about €1,061 for 60 ECTS plus around €140 in fees. See our Complutense and University of Barcelona pages for details.
Private universities: a different route to study in Spain for international students
Private universities set their own admission process. It may include an internal entrance test, an interview or a language check, and the timetable is usually more flexible than at public universities. Degree requirements such as homologation still matter for the official degree you will receive, so do not skip that step.
Among the private universities we work with are CEU San Pablo, UCAM and Universidad Europea. Each publishes its own requirements and intake dates on the university card pages. Several private universities also run programs taught in English, which can be the only realistic option if you do not speak Spanish yet.
Language of instruction and exams
No law sets one Spanish level for university admission: each university or program decides. Most Spanish-taught programs ask for around B1–B2, so always check the exact requirement of your program.
The DELE is the most widely accepted Spanish certificate. DELE sessions are scheduled for:
| Date | Levels |
|---|---|
12 February | A2 only |
2 April | A1–C1 |
21–22 May | All levels |
9 July | A2–C1 |
10 September | A2 only |
15 October | A2–B2 |
12–13 November | All levels |
Registration closes about 5–8 weeks before each exam; for the May session, the deadline is in early April. If you need a B2 certificate for a September start, the May session is the last comfortable option.
Calendar for the upcoming intake
UNEDasiss has not published its next calendar yet. The table below uses the last intake's dates as a model; the university will confirm the new dates closer to the intake.
| Step | Last intake (model) | Guideline for the upcoming intake |
|---|---|---|
UNEDasiss acreditación window | 4 February – 1 December | Opens early in the year; dates to be announced |
PCE registration, spring session | 16 March – 28 April | March–April |
PCE exams, spring session | 25–29 May (in Spain) | End of May |
Document deadline for public universities | 7 July | Early summer; dates to be announced |
PCE registration, September session |
Work backwards from these dates. Homologation takes at least 3 months by law, and the student visa file must reach the consulate at least 2 months before classes start. In practice, that means starting your documents in the autumn a year before a September start.
Master's applicants: with a bachelor's degree from outside the European Higher Education Area, you can enter an official master's program without homologating your degree. The university itself checks the level of your diploma and that it gives access to master's study in your country. This check is not a homologation for other purposes.
What to know before you apply
These are the points applicants usually learn too late. Here they are upfront, with a way around each one.
Risks and how to handle them
- Applying from inside Spain is a narrow option. You can apply for a student stay from inside Spain only for a university program, if you are an adult, in Spain legally, and at least 2 months before classes start. You must also apply at least 2 months before your current legal stay ends — for a 90-day visit, that means within roughly the first 30 days. For a language course, this route is closed to anyone who entered as a tourist: you need a student visa from the consulate. We check your dates before you book a flight.
- Most public-university programs are taught in Spanish. In Catalonia, public universities are increasing teaching in Catalan: the target for publicly funded bachelor's programs is 80% of teaching hours and 90% of subjects available in Catalan. If you do not speak Spanish or Catalan, we shortlist English-taught programs, mostly at private universities.
Motivation letter: template and a paragraph-by-paragraph guide
A ready skeleton in English with a note on what each paragraph has to do, plus the mistakes that make a letter useless.
- Where a letter is really required and where it is not
- A five-paragraph template with example wording
- How to strengthen it with specifics and numbers
- Seven mistakes and a checklist before you send
Not sure whether you need homologation, or which PCE subjects to take for your program? Send us your school certificate and transcripts, and we will map your route to a Spanish university for the upcoming intake: documents, apostille or legalization, UNEDasiss, and a realistic list of public and private options. The first consultation is free — contact us via the form, WhatsApp or Telegram.
