Practising in Serbia: the state professional exam and how nostrification works

Medical and health education in Serbia

Medicine is a six-year degree at the faculties in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac and Priština (based in Kosovska Mitrovica). Dentistry and pharmacy are five-year programmes at several of the same universities. Nursing, midwifery and physiotherapy are taught at universities and at higher health schools (visoke zdravstvene škole).

Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš and Kragujevac offer English-language medicine, and a significant number of students come from the Middle East, Africa, Greece and the diaspora. The curriculum is the same as the Serbian-language one, but the stručni ispit is held in Serbian, so a foreign graduate who wants to practise at home in Serbia has to pass in the local language.

Graduation and licensing are separate. After the diploma, the graduate completes an internship (pripravnički staž), sits the state exam and then applies to the chamber for a licence (licenca). Licences are time-limited and renewed through continuing education, so keep your chamber record up to date.

Most international graduates plan to leave Serbia. For them the Serbian exam is irrelevant and the exam that matters is the one in their destination: PLAB for the UK, AMC for Australia, USMLE for the US, Dataflow plus a Prometric exam for the Gulf, the NMC screening test for India, or the national registration exam for Pakistan. Check each regulator's current school and eligibility rules.

Where Serbia differs from its neighbours

Serbia sits between the EU systems to the north and the smaller Balkan systems to the south, and its rules look like both. The exam is oral or written depending on the profession and commission. The Ministry of Health, not the chamber, holds the exam. The chamber licence follows as a separate administrative act. That split catches people out: passing the exam does not mean you can start work. Allow time for the licence application.

Who needs the stručni ispit

All six professions in this site's scope take it. Locally trained graduates sit after the internship. Foreign-trained candidates first complete nostrification (recognition of the foreign diploma by a Serbian faculty) and sometimes differential exams in subjects missing from the original degree. The faculty decides which exams, and the list is individual.

Doctors: Ministry exam and Lekarska komora Srbije

The doctor's exam is organised by the Ministry of Health. It has a general part on law, the organisation of health care and patients' rights, and a professional part on clinical practice. The commission is appointed by the minister. The Serbian Medical Chamber (Lekarska komora Srbije) issues the licence.

1. Finish the degree and internship. Complete the six years and the supervised internship.
2. Apply to the Ministry. Submit the application with the diploma and internship record.
3. Sit both parts. The commission examines the general and professional parts.
4. Apply for the licence. Register with the Chamber and pay the licence fee.

Specialty training is a separate route. The Ministry of Health announces a competition for specialisation places, and candidates are ranked by a mix of criteria that includes marks and, for some places, a test.

Pharmacists, dentists, nurses, midwives and physiotherapists

Each of these professions sits its own stručni ispit after an internship, and each has a chamber: Farmaceutska komora Srbije, Stomatološka komora Srbije, Komora medicinskih sestara i zdravstvenih tehničara Srbije, and Komora zdravstvenih radnika for midwives and physiotherapists. The reported format is a written part and an oral or practical part. We have not confirmed the current regulation for each profession, so treat that as a likely format and get the programme from the chamber.

Serbian exams at a glance

Language and recognition routes

Serbian is the language of the exam and of clinical work. Foreign graduates should plan for language study alongside nostrification. Serbia is not covered by Directive 2005/36/EC, so a Serbian diploma does not get automatic recognition in an EU state. Each destination assesses it individually, often asking for a language certificate, a knowledge test or a period of supervised practice.

That has a practical effect on planning. A Serbian graduate heading to Germany, for instance, normally faces a document review, language certificate and a knowledge examination, rather than a simple registration.

A realistic timeline for a foreign graduate

Candidates often underestimate how many offices are involved. A foreign doctor who wants to work in Serbia deals with the faculty (nostrification), the Ministry of Health (exam admission), a language assessor and the chamber. Each step has its own paperwork and waiting time. Start with nostrification, because the faculty's decision on differential exams sets the length of everything after it.

1. Collect documents. Diploma, transcript, certificates and sworn translations into Serbian.
2. Apply for nostrification. A Serbian faculty compares your programme with its own and lists any missing exams.
3. Pass the differential exams. These are ordinary faculty exams in the subjects the faculty names.
4. Apply for the state exam. The Ministry admits you and sets a date.
5. Obtain the licence. Apply to the chamber once you have passed.

Using your Serbian years well

If you study in Serbia and intend to practise elsewhere, treat the internship as a chance to build the clinical judgment that international exams test. If you intend to stay, the state exam deserves its own preparation: learn the health-law material properly, because the general part is the one many clinicians underestimate.

Last reviewed October 2026