Admission to Masters and Doctoral studies

Obtaining a Masters degree from a university means you have successfully completed either a specialised or multi-disciplinary higher education course. To study a doctorate you must have the necessary competences and skills for top-flight scientific research.

The curriculum for the various Masters degrees requires the achievement of between 60 and 120 credits. In addition, to receive your degree you must complete and publicly defend a Masters project at the end of the course.
 
Access
 
To access a Masters degree you must fulfil the requirements described below.
 
1. If you come from an EU country you must have a bachelor's degree from a Spanish university, or from a university in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).

2. If you are a graduate from outside the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) you can access the university without the need to officially certify your degree, once the university to which you are applying has verified that your level of studies is equivalent to a bachelor's degree at a university in Spain. Access via this route does not in any case imply the official certification of your degree prior to starting your Masters course.
 
Each university applies its own admission criteria for students. We recommend that you consult the curriculum for each one, as this will list the admission requirements and procedures.
 
Using the university course finder of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture and Sport (www.universidad.es/qualifications) you will be able to find all the postgraduate courses offered in Spanish universities.

Doctoral courses are governed by their own regulations.

Access

To access a Doctors degree you must fulfil the requirements described below.

1. If you are from an EU country, you will have access if you hold a bachelor's degree, or equivalent, from a Spanish university or from a university in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and a university Masters degree.

You may also apply if you have a minimum number of 300 ECTS credits, of which at least 60 (one academic year) must be at Masters level. ECTS are credits recognised in the European Higher Education Area and are equivalent to 25-30 hours of work.
 
2. If you are a graduate from outside the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) you can access the university without the need to certify your degrees, once the university to which you are applying has verified that the level of studies is equivalent to a Masters degree at a university in Spain. Access via this route does not in any case imply the official certification of your degree prior to starting your Masters course.

To complete your doctoral studies you will need to present a doctoral thesis consisting of an original work of research by the student in any field of knowledge.

Each university will apply its own criteria and requirements to admit students to a specific doctoral course. We recommend checking the curriculum for each one.

You don't need to officially certify your bachelor's degree in order to be able to study a master's or doctoral degree in Spain (although we recommend that you check with the university where you want to study in case there are any exceptions).

All the documents you submit must be official and be issued by the competent authorities. Only a certified copy of these documents will be considered valid.

The EU member states or states belonging to the European Higher Education Area do not require the document to be legalised, only translated into Spanish.