Ukraine's Krok and EDKI: the exams that stand between students and a diploma

Medical and health education in Ukraine

Medicine in Ukraine is a six-year Master’s programme in general medicine, taught at around twenty medical universities, including Bogomolets National Medical University in Kyiv, Kharkiv National Medical University, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Lviv, Odesa, Vinnytsia and Ternopil. The Ministry of Health sets professional standards, and the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance (NAQA) handles accreditation. Dentistry and pharmacy are five-year degrees. Before the war, Ukraine hosted a large international cohort, including thousands of Indian and Nigerian students, in English-medium programmes.

The national exams are built into the degree: the Unified State Qualification Exam (EDKI) and the Krok series, with Krok 1 and Krok 2 sat during studies and Krok 3 by interns after graduation. An internship of one to two years traditionally follows. Since 2022, many programmes have run in hybrid or online form, and students who moved to other countries have been handled under special arrangements that change over time. A Ukrainian degree does not by itself license foreign graduates at home: Indian graduates sit the FMGE (its planned successor NExT has been deferred) and must satisfy NMC rules on course and internship; Pakistani graduates sit the NRE; Nigerians sit the MDCN assessment. Confirm current rules with your regulator.

An exam system built around students, not graduates

The distinctive feature of Ukraine is timing. Elsewhere you finish training and then sit a licensing exam. Here the exams sit inside the degree. A medical student meets Krok 1 in the third year, long before clinical rotations are complete, and the result decides whether progression and the final diploma are possible. The Testing Board reports tens of thousands of examinees a year across all Krok exams, which is why the format is stable and the booklets are widely studied.

The second distinctive feature is the foreign cohort. Ukrainian universities have taught large numbers of international students in English, from India, Africa and the Middle East, and the Testing Board runs separate sessions for them. Sessions abroad have also been arranged for students displaced by the war. If you are coming to this page as one of those students, the practical question is not "Do I need a licence?" but "Which Krok do I sit next, and in which language?"

Who sits what

• Medicine, paediatrics, medical psychology (master's): Krok 1 and English test in year three; Krok 2 and OSCE in year six.
• Dentistry: Krok 1 plus English in year three; Krok 2 plus OSCE in year five.
• Pharmacy and industrial pharmacy: Krok 1 plus English in year three; Krok 2 in year five; Krok 3 for interns.
• Nursing (bachelor) and junior-level nursing: Krok B or Krok M.
• Midwifery (junior specialist): Krok M.
• Physical therapy and ergotherapy: an EDKI session; item count not verified.
• Laboratory diagnostics: Krok B, and an EDKI session.

Doctors

Regulator. The Ministry of Health of Ukraine, with the Testing Board administering the tests.

Format. Krok 1 and Krok 2 are multiple-choice, computer-based or paper-based depending on the session. The English-for-professional-purposes test is a separate component of the EDKI. Krok 2 is paired with an OSCE in medicine. After the degree, interns sit Krok 3, a computer-based MCQ exam required to complete the internship. Internship and residency placement is linked to EDKI results.

Foreign students. Separate sessions are run for foreign citizens. Examples from 2025: Krok 1 Medicine for foreign citizens on 24 and 25 June, and Krok 2 on 20 and 21 May. Treat those dates as an illustration of the pattern, not a calendar for future years.

1. Confirm your category. Ukrainian citizen, foreign citizen, or student displaced by the war: each has its own register and session.
2. Register through your university. Students are normally entered for the EDKI by the institution.
3. Choose the language. Foreign candidates may choose English or Ukrainian.
4. Sit Krok 1 with the English test. Third-year milestone.
5. Sit Krok 2 and the OSCE. Final-year milestone.
6. Internship and Krok 3. Required to complete the internship.

Nurses and midwives

Krok B (Сестринська справа) is the bachelor-level nursing exam: 150 items, five options, a single answer, in 2 hours 30 minutes, with 99 booklet variants. Krok M covers the junior specialist level. Ukrainian citizens sit in Ukrainian only; foreign candidates may choose Ukrainian or English. The Testing Board publishes the previous three years' booklets. Midwifery (Акушерська справа) is listed under Krok M in the Ministry of Health's EDKI schedule; the item count was not verified for this page.

Pharmacists

The ЄДКІ in Pharmacy uses Krok 1 and an English test in the third year, Krok 2 in the fifth year, and Krok 3 for interns. In 2025 the record lists Krok 1 Pharmacy on 10 and 11 June and Krok 2 on 28 May, with additional sessions for foreign students enrolled before 1 March 2020.

Dentists

Stomatology follows Krok 1 plus the English test in the third year and Krok 2 with an OSCE in the fifth. The 2025 record lists Krok 1 on 8 April and Krok 2 on 27 May, with English sessions for the large foreign cohort.

Physiotherapy, rehabilitation and laboratory diagnostics

Graduates in Physical Therapy and Ergotherapy sit an EDKI session (6 May 2025, plus sessions abroad on 5 to 11 May). The format is computer-based MCQ; the number of items was not confirmed. Laboratory diagnostics has its own Krok B and an EDKI session recorded for 14 January 2025.

Comparison table

Studying for Krok: what the published booklets allow

The Testing Board releases booklets from the previous three years, and for Krok B there are 99 variants in circulation. That is a large public bank, so nearly every candidate has seen the style. The advantage goes to candidates who study by topic and understand the reasoning behind each answer, rather than memorising booklets.

Two practical points. Ask your faculty for the current pass threshold rather than relying on rumour. And because Krok 1 comes in the third year, basic sciences (anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology and microbiology) carry the exam. Leaving that revision to the clinical years is a risk.

Language and recognition

Ukrainian citizens sit in Ukrainian. Foreign citizens can choose English at the Testing Board. An English exam track for national assessments is unusual in the region. Recognition of foreign diplomas for practice in Ukraine is handled separately and the sources we hold do not cover it; check with the Ministry of Health. Many international graduates of Ukrainian programmes plan to practise at home, so they also prepare for their home-country licensing exam after the Krok series.

Last reviewed October 2026