A Master's in Poland for Kazakhstanis: documents and cost

A Kazakhstani bachelor diploma that gives access to the next cycle at home also gives the right to apply to a Polish Master’s programme: that is Article 326(2) of the law of 20 July 2018 on higher education and science (NAWA. Verified: 2026-08-12). Paid nostrification is not part of it. The free written information from the director of NAWA about the diploma almost always is. And the right to apply is not the same as admission: the university runs the selection.

Why nostrification is not required for the second cycle: diploma nostrification. How the cycles and credits work: cycles and ECTS. This page covers only the mechanics of admission.

Who can apply for the second cycle

Anyone holding a diploma of completion of at least the first cycle can apply, provided that diploma gives access to the next level in the country that issued it. The law does not require a secondary school certificate for the second cycle (the Polish consulate. Verified: 2026-07-28). There is one hard limit here, and it is accreditation.

A diploma does not give access to further study in Poland if (NAWA. Verified: 2026-08-12):

• the institution was not an accredited university on the date the diploma was issued, or the programme did not have accreditation on that date
• the institution is not part of the higher education system of any country
• the programme or part of it was delivered in breach of the laws of the country where the study took place

Check the status of your programme on the date the diploma was issued before you apply, not after a refusal. Past that point the university applies its own conditions: the competition, subject requirements, sometimes an exam or an interview. The access provision gives the right to take part in admissions and nothing more.

What documents a Kazakhstani collects

The set has three layers: the diploma with its annex, the written information from the director of NAWA about that diploma, and a document proving command of the language of instruction. The first two are the same at every university checked here; each university sets the third itself, within the limits the law leaves it.

The University of Warsaw list of required documents does not mention a motivation letter at all (UW. Verified: 2026-08-31). Where in Europe it is asked for: the motivation letter.

The NAWA written information about the diploma: who exactly needs it

The requirement under Article 70(5d) does not apply to every foreign diploma. It applies when a diploma meets three conditions at once: it falls outside the list in Article 326(1) (diplomas from universities in the higher education systems of EU, OECD and EFTA or EEA countries), it has not been treated as equivalent to a Polish diploma under an international agreement covered by Article 327(1), and it has not gone through nostrification (text of the law. Verified: 2026-08-31).

A Kazakhstani bachelor diploma issued after 29 September 2005 and not nostrified meets all three, so the NAWA information about it is mandatory. Documents obtained before 29 September 2005 fall under the agreement between the governments of the Polish People’s Republic and the USSR of 10 May 1974, which puts them outside this provision. So is a diploma that has already been nostrified.

Four things matter about the information itself (NAWA on diplomas, NAWA FAQ. Verified: 2026-08-12). It is free and arrives in Polish as a PDF with an electronic signature, once a complete set has gone in through the SYRENA system. An apostille is not needed for NAWA itself: the diploma section of the FAQ answers that question with a flat “Nie” (NAWA FAQ. Verified: 2026-08-26). The agency guarantees no deadline: the 2025 announcement named up to 60 days, and the current FAQ no longer carries a figure. NAWA does not return paper documents.

The language of instruction: B2 is the floor, not the ceiling

The law obliges the university to check command of the language of instruction at a level it sets itself, no lower than B2: it may raise the bar, it may not lower it. The list of acceptable documents is closed and the same nationwide, and it lives in the minister’s ordinance Dz.U. 2025, poz. 1045. A certificate from the receiving university or from a language school is not on it.

Verified: 2026-08-31.

For Polish-language programmes the list accepts the state certificate under Article 11a of the Polish Language Act, ECL and telc certificates, a certificate of completion of a preparatory course of at least 9 months, a diploma from a Polish university with Polish as the language of instruction, and a sworn translator’s credential.

One line of the list matters to anyone who has already studied in English: the accepted document is the diploma itself, if it states the language of instruction, and otherwise the diploma annex or a certificate from the university. Warsaw University of Technology states the condition plainly: it accepts such a certificate if the studies ran exclusively in English, and rejects it if only part of the programme was in English, an exchange year for example. It does not accept a certificate issued by a school, with only two exceptions: the IB with English as language A and the EB with English as L1 or L2.

The University of Warsaw keeps no list of certificates of its own for applicants from outside the EU and refers to the same ordinance (UW. Verified: 2026-08-31).

What tuition costs

There is no Poland-wide rate: the law lets a university set the fee itself before admissions open. The four state universities checked here each do it differently: one by field of study, one by programme with a total for the cycle, one per semester, one by faculty. Every figure below is a fact about a named university and a named year, not a rule of the market.

Do not multiply the Warsaw University of Technology rate by four to get the price of a programme. The university page itself notes that a semester is half a year, that programme length varies, that programmes run three or four semesters, and that some admit in February. Multiply by the number of semesters in your own programme.

Two caveats. The English-language rates of the University of Wrocław are deliberately left out here: the annex carrying them is marked 2025/2026 inside an ordinance for 2026/2027. The Kozminski University fee table carries no academic year at all, so no year can be attributed to it; the same page states that the university issues the invitation and the admission decision to an international student who needs a visa only after payment for a full year, and that if the visa is refused the tuition is returned but the fee is not.

When no fee is charged

Article 324(2) is worded not as “may be exempted” but as “no fee is charged” (text of the law. Verified: 2026-08-31). The grounds that are realistic for a Kazakhstani: the Karta Polaka or confirmed Polish origin, a certificate in Polish as a foreign language at a level no lower than C1, a permanent residence permit or EU long-term resident status, and being the spouse or a direct-line relative of a Polish citizen living in Poland.

The exemption is narrow: it removes the fee for full-time study in Polish and leaves the fee in place for a programme in a foreign language. One live example: the University of Wrocław ordinance applies this list to the annex of Polish-language programmes and not to the annex of English-language ones.

There is a second ground as well, and it is open without Polish roots: NAWA scholarship holder status. In the 2026 call Kazakhstan is named in the list of countries of the Banach programme, which gives a Master’s student tuition-free study at a public university and a monthly payment. The conditions of the call, the deadlines, and which university benefits are open to a foreigner: scholarships in Poland for Kazakhstanis.

How the admission calendars work

Admissions for 2026/2027 have already closed or are closing, and there is no single application date for Poland: each university sets its own calendar, usually separately for each field of study. The Jagiellonian University keeps a separate calendar for international applicants, while the University of Warsaw does not split its calendar by citizenship.

The Jagiellonian University also names a condition for taking part: the diploma or a certificate of completion of studies must be in hand no later than 22 July 2026 for the first two rounds and no later than 24 September 2026 for the third. The calendar is tied to the date you physically hold the diploma.

Only one thing can be said about 2027/2028 today. Senate resolution No. 278 of 20 May 2026 sets the outer window at the University of Warsaw: admissions start no earlier than 2 February 2027 and run no later than 30 September 2027 (resolution No. 278. Verified: 2026-08-31). There is no table of dates by field of study for 2027/2028 yet: the same resolution delegates it to a rector’s ordinance that has not been issued. So no application date for a specific 2027/2028 programme can be named.

The apostille on the diploma and the question of translation

An apostille on a university diploma and an apostille on a school certificate are two different state services, with different providers and different processing times. The diploma goes through the Committee for Quality Assurance in Science and Higher Education and takes 20 working days, while the certificate takes 15 working days (rules for the diploma, rules for the certificate. Verified: 2026-08-31).

The state fee is 0.5 MRP per document, that is 2,162.50 KZT at the 2026 MRP of 4,325 KZT (the rules. Verified: 2026-08-31). The diploma annex is submitted together with the diploma. When you apply through the portal, the electronic copy and the payment come first, and then you have 4 working days to provide the originals.

There is no general answer on the sworn translation, and that is a finding, not a gap. The languages on a Kazakhstani diploma depend on whether it is a state-issue diploma or the university’s own: a state-issue diploma repeats its content in Russian and English, while on the university’s own diploma the university chooses the languages. Check your own document and your own university’s requirement before ordering a translation: apostille and sworn translation.