Comenius University in Bratislava. (source: TASR - Dano Veselský)
In Austria or Germany, they were not accepted to study of medicine three or even five times. So they paid the agency SVM Bratislava to help them get a place at the medical faculty of Comenius University in the Slovak capital.
Foreign students usually need to obtain fewer points in entrance exams than Slovak students interested in studying medicine. Many Slovak secondary school graduates prefer to study medicine in the Czech Republic, and most will not return.
At Slovak medical faculties, the number of foreign students continues to increase year by year. Almost half of them study at Comenius University’s Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, central Slovakia. Bratislava is especially attractive to Austrians and Germans. Martin is more sought after by Norwegians and Icelanders.
In the European Union, Slovak medical faculties have become the top schools that educate foreign doctors who then return home with a degree.
This business is beneficial for agencies like SVM Bratislava as well as for medical faculties. The agencies earn thousands of euros from one foreign student, and the faculties use the money they receive from foreigners to subsidise, for example, the studies of Slovak medicine students. The state gives them less money than they ask for.
