Masters in Spain: A Practical Guide for Non-EU Graduates
Official vs own degrees, real public fees, pre-registration timing, the IPREM money rule and your work options during and after study.
You can start masters in Spain with a bachelor's degree from outside Europe, and for an official master's you do not need to get that degree recognized by the ministry first. The university checks your diploma itself. At public universities, non-EU students pay about 82–84 € per ECTS credit for a standard master's, which is roughly 4,900–5,100 € for a one-year, 60-credit program.
The rest depends on three choices: an official or a university-own degree, a public or a private university, and the region. Each changes your fees, your language of study and your options after graduation. Below is what matters for applicants from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Egypt and the Gulf.
Official and university-own master's degrees
Spanish universities offer two kinds of master's programs. A máster universitario is an official degree listed in the national register of university programs. A título propio is a university-own degree: the university designs and awards it without national accreditation.
For immigration, both count. Spanish law places títulos propios of recognized universities under "higher studies," the same category as official degrees. So both can lead to a student stay permit and both give the automatic right to work up to 30 hours a week.
The differences show up elsewhere:
- Admission without diploma recognition applies to official master's programs.
- Scholarships such as MAEC-AECID África-Med Máster fund official, full-time master's programs only.
- Some official master's programs give access to a regulated profession in Spain, such as law practice or health psychology. Spanish universities call them "habilitantes," and they often cost more.
If you plan to stay in Spain after graduation, choose an official master's unless you have a clear reason not to. We explain why in "What to know before you apply" below.
How much does a masters in Spain cost at public universities?
Public universities charge per ECTS credit, and each region sets its own non-EU rules. A student permit does not count as residence for fees, so you pay the non-EU rate even after arrival.
| University | Standard master's, non-EU | Professional (habilitante) master's | 60 ECTS, approx. |
|---|---|---|---|
Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) | 84.07 € per ECTS | Higher rate, e.g. 126 € (law practice), 169.21 € (health psychology) per ECTS | ~5,044 € |
University of Barcelona (UB) | 82 € per credit; some programs 95–110 € | 71 € per credit | ~4,920 € |
Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) | Double the resident price for new non-EU students without residence | Double the resident price | Depends on program |
Two more costs are easy to miss. Some universities charge a fee to check a foreign diploma: the Autonomous University of Barcelona, for example, charges 218.15 €. Lower per-credit prices you may see online usually apply to EU students and residents only.
For program-level details, see our pages on the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Barcelona.
Private universities
Next year's official master's price lists of private universities such as CEU San Pablo, UCAM and Universidad Europea are not public yet. We request the current fee sheet for each program you consider, so you compare real numbers, not aggregator estimates.
Master's price per credit at public universities
€ per ECTS credit for non-EU students
- UCM: health psychology (habilitante)169.21 €
- UCM: law practice (habilitante)126 €
- UB: some programs95–110 €
- UCM: standard master's84.07 €
- UB: standard master's82 €
- UB: habilitante71 €
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Admission requirements for non-EU graduates
For an official master's, the university checks two things: the level of your bachelor's degree and whether that degree gives access to master's study in the country that issued it. Admission on this basis does not mean your degree is recognized in Spain for other purposes, such as employment in a regulated profession.
What you usually prepare
- Bachelor's diploma and transcript, legalized for use in Spain.
- Apostille if your documents come from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Oman or Bahrain.
- Full legalization chain if they come from Nigeria, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar or Kuwait: Ministry of Education, then Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then the Spanish consulate.
Full details on documents and translations are on our admission requirements page.
Your master's timeline
Autumn, a year before you start — shortlist programs, check the language requirement and start the apostille or legalization of your diploma.
January–February — first pre-registration window at many public universities. At UCM in the last intake it ran from 28 January to 20 February; new dates are published closer to the intake.
Spring — second window. At UCM in the last intake it ran from 27 April to 22 May. A short September window exists only for remaining places.
At least 2 months before classes — apply for the student visa at the Spanish consulate. The immigration office has 7 days to decide on the permit, then the consulate issues the visa within 1 month.
Within 1 month of arrival — apply for your TIE residence card at the police, if you stay longer than 6 months.
Student visa and the IPREM money rule
A master's student applies for a long-stay student permit (estancia por estudios). It is issued for the full official length of the program. You must study full-time, which means enrolling in at least 90% of the program's credits.
The key financial rule is IPREM, a Spanish reference income. You must show 100% of IPREM for every month of your stay: 600 € a month, or 7,200 € for a 12-month program. Tuition is not part of this amount. If your housing is fully paid in advance for the whole stay, this requirement does not apply. Scholarships and documented sponsorship count.
| Who comes | Minimum for 12 months |
|---|---|
Student alone | 7,200 € |
Student + 1 family member | 12,600 € |
Student + 2 family members | 16,200 € |
Student + 3 family members | 19,800 € |
Other visa requirements
- Medical (not travel) insurance from a company authorized in Spain, for the whole stay, with no co-payments, waiting periods or coverage limit. Repatriation cover is not required.
- Police clearance from every country you lived in during the last 5 years, if you are 18+ and staying more than 6 months.
- Medical certificate for the visa application.
Family members (spouse or partner, minor children) can join a university student, but they cannot work in Spain. The full process is on our Spain student visa page.
Working during and after your master's
A university student can work for an employer or be self-employed without a separate work permit, as long as work does not interfere with studies. The limit is 30 hours a week, and exceeding it can cancel your student permit. You may work only in the autonomous community that issued your permit, plus border towns of neighboring regions.
Internships that are part of your study plan need no extra permit. Social Security registration through a job can replace private health insurance.
After graduation you have two routes, and neither requires you to leave Spain for a new visa.
Route 1: switch to a work permit. There is no labor-market test and no need for a permanent full-time contract. You need a contract under the sector's collective agreement; part-time is fine if annual pay reaches the full-time minimum wage, currently 17,094 € a year. The new permit is issued for 1 year.
Apply within 2 months before or 3 months after your permit ends or your degree is awarded. Once the application is accepted for processing, you can work full-time while you wait.
Route 2: the job-search permit. Graduates with a degree at EQF level 6 or higher can get a permit to look for work or start a business, for up to 24 months, without extension. Apply online within 60 days before or 90 days after your student permit ends. The office answers within 20 days, and no answer means approval.
One exception: students funded by development-aid or humanitarian scholarships, such as MAEC-AECID, cannot switch to a work permit this way. More on both routes on our study and work in Spain page.
What to know before you apply
These five points most often change a student's plan.
Risks and how to handle them
- Applying from inside Spain has strict limits. If you entered legally, you can apply for a student permit from Spain only for university studies, and only if you apply at least 2 months before classes start and at least 2 months before your legal stay ends. On a 90-day visa, that means the first ~30 days after entry. This route does not work for language courses: a tourist who wants a language course needs a student visa from the consulate. Our advice: plan for a consulate visa and treat the in-country route as a backup that needs exact dates.
- Most public-university master's programs teach in Spanish. In Catalonia, public universities are also increasing teaching in Catalan: the official target for bachelor's programs is 80% of teaching hours in Catalan. We help you find English-taught options or plan a Spanish course before you start.
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
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Send us your bachelor's diploma, your transcript and the city or field you have in mind. In a free first consultation, we check whether your degree qualifies for an official master's, shortlist public and private programs with real fees for the upcoming intake, and map your pre-registration and visa dates so you do not miss the first window at the start of the year. Contact us through the form on the site, WhatsApp or Telegram, or go to our contacts page. For the bigger picture, start with our guide to studying in Spain.
