Riga Stradins University February Intake: Deadlines and Fees

For an Indian applicant, the Riga Stradins University February intake closes on 1 November 2026, and studies begin on 2 February 2027. Applications open on 4 September 2026, so the window is just under two months long. There are 240 places on the Medicine programme for that intake.

Those dates are the whole reason this page exists. Riga Stradins University runs three different application deadlines for the same February intake, depending on which country an applicant comes from, and Indian applicants are regularly given the wrong one. This page sets out which deadline applies to you, what the intake costs, and what has to be ready before you can submit. For the university itself, its hospitals and its history, see our full guide to Riga Stradins University.

Riga Stradins University February intake: what are the key dates?

These are published on the university's own when to apply page, which is the page to check each year because the calendar is reissued for every intake.

Which deadline applies to an Indian applicant?

The 1 November deadline. Not 1 October.

The earlier 1 October date applies only to applicants from what Latvian law calls additional assessment countries. That list comes from Latvian Cabinet of Ministers regulation, not from the university, and India is not on it. An Indian applicant therefore has the full window to 1 November 2026.

That extra month is worth having, because the slowest part of the process is not the application form. It is getting your documents recognised, and that runs on its own clock, described below.

What does the February 2027 intake cost?

Rupee figures are converted at approximately Rs. 109 to the euro and move with the exchange rate. The euro amounts are the ones the university publishes, on its tuition fees for studies in English page.

The EUR 1,800 registration administration fee applies to Medicine and Dentistry only, and it catches families out because it falls due at the same time as the first tuition payment. Budget for it as part of the first year rather than as an afterthought.

Who is eligible?

The Medicine programme at Riga Stradins University leads to the degree of Medical Doctor (MD), runs six years across twelve semesters, carries 360 ECTS credits and is taught entirely in English. The programme is accredited until 28 May 2030. Full details sit on the university's Medicine programme page.

To be considered, an applicant needs the following.

• Secondary education with the right subjects. Biology, Chemistry and English are each required at a minimum of 70 per cent. Mathematics is compulsory as a subject, and Physics is preferred. The thresholds are set out on the university's general requirements page.

• Proof of English. IELTS at 6.0 overall or TOEFL iBT at 80 are the usual routes, and the certificate must have been issued within the last five years. Applicants from outside the European Union cannot substitute their school English grades for a test certificate, which is the detail most Indian applicants get wrong. The accepted tests and scores are on the English proficiency requirements page.

• NEET. An Indian student who intends to return to India to practise must have qualified NEET, because NEET qualification is what makes a foreign medical degree usable for registration in India. Our NEET guide covers the exam.

There is no written academic entrance examination. Admission is decided on your school results, your English certificate and an interview.

What documents do you need, and which one takes longest?

Start the document work before you start the form. The university lists what is needed in its application guide and document forms, and two items on that list are not things you can produce in a week.

1. An apostille on your school leaving documents. India is party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so your Class 12 certificate and marksheet carry an apostille rather than consular legalisation. This is done in India before the documents leave the country.

2. A certified English translation of any document not already issued in English.

3. Academic recognition by the Latvian ENIC-NARIC centre. The university sends your qualifications for evaluation, and that evaluation takes up to one month in the ordinary case and can run to four. This is the single step that decides whether a 1 November application is comfortable or frantic.

4. A valid passport, with enough validity left to cover the visa and the first residence permit.

5. Two letters of recommendation and a motivation letter, both written on the university's own forms rather than free-form.

6. Proof of the EUR 100 application fee.

Applications are submitted through the university's online admission portal. They are assessed on a rolling basis as they arrive, and a decision follows within two months of a complete application. Applying in September rather than in the last week of October is therefore not just about nerves. With 240 places and rolling assessment, earlier is materially better.

What happens in the interview?

Every applicant to Medicine sits a motivational interview, conducted online. There is no academic entrance test alongside it, so the interview carries real weight in the decision. It covers why you want to study medicine, why Latvia, and what you understand about the six years ahead. The university sets out how it is run on its additional admission procedures page.

What happens after the offer: visa and residence permit

An offer is not the end of the process. Two further steps run between acceptance and arrival, and both have their own money requirements.

The visa requirements for Indian nationals are published by the Embassy of Latvia in New Delhi, and the residence permit requirements by the university's immigration procedure page. A visa interview at the embassy is part of the process.

Working backwards from a 2 February 2027 start, with a 1 November application deadline, a decision up to two months later and a visa taking around 15 days, the schedule is tight but it works. It stops working if the apostille is left until October.

Is the February intake different from the September one?

No, and the university says so directly. In its own words: "There is no difference between both admissions and between the study programmes offered, except for the start date and, accordingly, also the date of graduation as well as the number of incoming students admitted."

Same degree, same curriculum, same teaching staff, same accreditation. What changes is when you start and when you finish. For a student who missed the September cycle, or who got their NEET result and their plans settled late, February is a full intake rather than a second-best one.

What does studying there look like?

Riga Stradins University has 3,275 international students from 82 countries, which its admissions statistics page records. The English-taught programmes are not a small side operation at this university; they are a substantial part of what it does, which is why an Indian student arriving in February finds an established international cohort rather than an isolated one.

For the wider picture of studying medicine in the country, including the second English-medium state university, see our guide to MBBS in Latvia. For what happens when you return to India with the degree, our piece on the current NExT and FMGE rules sets out the screening requirement as it stands.