Slovenia

• Full-time bachelor tuition is free for EU/EEA citizens - the same deal Slovenian students get
• Living costs are low: a student meal costs about EUR 4.37, but university dorms take private international students only in Maribor, so budget for the private market
• One central application portal, eVS, handles everything including the recognition of your IB Diploma
• University of Primorska in Koper has ten English-taught bachelor's, including mathematics, computer science and bioinformatics
• Ljubljana is small, walkable and an hour from both the Alps and the Adriatic

• English-taught bachelor's are very thin: 10 at Primorska, 5 at Maribor, 1 at Nova Gorica, and 1 at Ljubljana that the 2026 call opened only to non-EU applicants
• Private international students are generally not eligible for university dormitories except in Maribor - dorms are reserved for exchange and scholarship students
• IB-specific minimum points and a mapping onto the Slovenian Matura are not confirmed here; ask the ENIC-NARIC Centre or the faculty directly
• Whether your IB Diploma needs a formal recognition procedure depends on which official page you read, and the two do not agree - see the recognition notes. Do not assume either answer without getting it in writing.
• Some published non-EU fee figures are old (Primorska's range is labelled 2021/2022), so treat fee pages with suspicion
• Applying is not enrolling. Slovenia decides the first round on 24 July and expects you to enrol at the faculty by mid-August, and both of those dates land inside the Danish summer holidays.

Accepted

Yes

• Two official Slovenian pages disagree about whether an IB Diploma needs a formal recognition procedure (priznavanje), so do not assume the more comfortable answer.
• The University of Ljubljana’s own Slovene admission leaflet for 2026 says it is not needed: "Diploma o mednarodni maturi (International Baccalaureate - IB) in zakljucno spricevalo Evropske mature (European Baccalaureate Certificate) sta enakovredna maturitetnemu spricevalu v RS in zanju ni potreben postopek priznavanja tujega izobrazevanja." The same paragraph says the exemption is for the Diploma: "Kandidati z IB certifikatom morajo dokazila prilozit sami in tudi opraviti postopek priznavanja izobrazevanja" - a candidate holding IB certificates rather than the full Diploma does have to run the procedure.
• The national Study in Slovenia portal states the obligation flatly and names no exemption at all: a candidate who finished school abroad "is obliged to acquire a decision on the recognition of the foreign education, if they have not obtained one already". It does not mention the International Baccalaureate anywhere.
• Read together, the most likely reading is that the leaflet states a specific exemption the national portal simply does not mention. That is the convenient reading, which is exactly why it should not be relied on: get it in writing from the faculty, or from recognition@uni-lj.si, before you plan around it. If recognition does turn out to be required, the leaflet warns a decision can take up to two months from a complete application, and the first-round selection on 24 July only covers candidates whose recognition decision has already been issued.
• The higher education institutions themselves are the competent bodies for the recognition procedure. The Slovenian ENIC-NARIC Centre, inside the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, is the national information point (enic-naric@gov.si, +386 1 478 46 00). Where recognition is required the application is submitted together with the study application through the eVS portal.
• IB-specific minimum points, an HL/SL mapping onto the Slovenian Matura and a grade conversion table are not confirmed here. Contact the ENIC-NARIC Centre and the specific faculty before you rely on anything here.
• For domestic applicants the access requirement is the Matura, a final examination taken before 1 June 1995, or a vocational Matura plus an additional general Matura subject. How an IB Diploma is scored against this for capped programmes is not documented publicly.

1. Wait for the joint call for enrolment (skupni razpis za vpis) for your year. It has been published at the end of January two years running and it sets the deadlines, the programmes and the number of places.

2. Create a SI-PASS login and open an application in the eVS portal at portal.evs.gov.si.

3. Apply in the first period, which closed on 18 March in the 2026/2027 cycle. Name up to three programmes in order of preference - the order decides which one you get.

4. Ask the faculty in writing whether your IB Diploma needs a recognition decision. If it does, start it immediately: a decision can take two months and the July selection round only covers candidates who already hold one.

5. Get every document uploaded within days of IB results. In the 2026/2027 cycle the cut-off for the 24 July decision was 10 July; the outer deadline for that year’s school-leavers was 31 July, and so was the deadline for proving Slovene at B2.

6. If you are admitted on the July decision, enrol at the faculty itself before the mid-August deadline. Being selected is not being enrolled, and the enrolment window is about three weeks long.

Programmes with more applicants than places apply "omejitev vpisa" - an enrolment limitation - and rank applicants on points. Whether a cap applies is decided by 25 March, after the March application deadline has already closed, and the number of applications per programme is published the same day, so you commit to your three choices before you know how competitive they are. The exact points formula, and how IB grades are converted into it, is set out in each faculty’s razpis for the relevant year. No separate application fee for eVS is published.

English-taught bachelors

Very limited. About 17 English-taught bachelor programmes across the four public universities: University of Primorska 10 (Tourism; Tourism destination management; Anthropology; Cultural Heritage; Academic Bachelor in Management; Bioinformatics; Computer Science; Mathematics; Mathematics and Computer Science; Wood Innovation for Sustainability); University of Maribor 5 (Contemporary Tourism Practices; Economic and business sciences; Business administration; Economic and Technical Logistics; System logistics); University of Nova Gorica 1 (Physics and Astrophysics); University of Ljubljana 1 (Business and Economics; students schooled abroad choose the English version when enrolling). Colleges and private institutions add about fifteen more, among them Alma Mater Europaea (eight), the College of Management Bled, the Academy of Visual Arts, NOA and GEA College.

Local language needed?

Yes, for most programmes

• Slovene is not required for the specific English-taught programmes listed, but it is required for the overwhelming majority of bachelor teaching in the country.
• Whether IB English A or B counts as proof of English, and the IELTS/TOEFL thresholds, are not confirmed here. Check with each faculty for the programme you want.
• The programme list above comes from the national Study in Slovenia portal rather than from each faculty, so confirm the programme still runs in English before applying.

Tuition, EU/EEA

Free. The University of Ljubljana states there are 'No tuition fees for full-time bachelor's and master's studies' for Slovenian citizens and 'students from EU countries, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway'. University of Primorska confirms 'full-time study at the 1st and 2nd level of study is free from tuition fee'. University of Nova Gorica lists EUR 0.00 per year for full-time EU/Slovenian citizens. Part-time study is not free, even for EU citizens. (2025/2026 (Nova Gorica, stated explicitly); Ljubljana and Primorska pages undated)

Tuition, non-EU

Roughly EUR 2,000-11,000 a year for bachelor study depending on the programme, per the national portal. University of Primorska publishes EUR 2,400-3,750 a year, but that range is explicitly labelled 2021/2022 and is probably out of date. University of Nova Gorica publishes EUR 2,800-3,500 a year for 2025/2026, though its wording attaches that bracket to part-time study. University of Ljubljana publishes only faculty-specific PDF price lists. Treat all of these as indicative. (National range undated; Primorska 2021/2022; Nova Gorica 2025/2026)

Application fee

No application fee for eVS is published. University of Primorska charges a registration fee of approximately EUR 50 a year.

Living costs

Roughly EUR 400-650 a month. Student dormitory EUR 120-250; a double room in a private flat EUR 150-200; a single room EUR 200-350. Subsidised student meals: the state contributes EUR 2.63 and you pay up to EUR 4.37. Public transport: EUR 1.50 for a 90-minute ticket, EUR 25 for a monthly student pass. (Undated on the source page (as of September 2026))

• The subsidised student meal scheme ('studentski boni') is a real, significant saving and is one of the things that makes Slovenia cheap to live in.
• The free-tuition rule applies to full-time study only. If you end up studying part-time you will pay, EU citizen or not.

Funding you could actually get

• Ad futura international mobility scholarships, administered nationally.
• A Public Call for Scholarships for Foreign Citizens exists but is aimed at Western Balkan postgraduate students, so it is unlikely to help an IB applicant from an EU/EEA country.
• There is no general merit scholarship aimed at EU bachelor applicants - the funding story in Slovenia is that tuition is free, not that scholarships are plentiful.
• Danish SU can follow you here if you can claim it (Danish citizens, or EU/EEA citizens with equal status under EU rules) and meet the ties-to-Denmark requirement. The programme must be SU-approved, and outside the Nordics SU is capped at four years (48 klip). If you cannot claim SU, look first at your own country's student finance: several EU/EEA systems fund a full degree in another country.

Residency

As an EU/EEA citizen you must get a residence registration certificate within your first three months, applied for at the local administrative unit. You need a signed application, a biometric photo, a valid passport or ID, proof of address, proof of admission, proof of financial means of at least EUR 494.09 a month, and health insurance (EHIC). Fees are EUR 9.10 registration, EUR 4.50 application and EUR 12.32 for card printing, and renewal is typically by 30 September each year. Non-EU students must obtain a temporary residence permit before entering Slovenia, through a Slovenian diplomatic mission, and should get a police clearance certificate before travelling.

Working

Slovenia has an unusual system called studentsko delo - student work through official Student Services, using a referral document ('napotnica'). Minimum referenced pay is EUR 7.21 an hour, with a 15.5% pension and disability deduction for all students, leaving about EUR 6.20. Foreign students additionally have 22.5% withheld as income tax prepayment, reclaimable if your home country has a double taxation treaty with Slovenia. Weekly or monthly hour limits, and any EU/non-EU eligibility difference, are not published with these rates; ask Student Services before you count on the income.

Housing

This is the practical catch. Study in Slovenia states plainly that 'If you are coming as a private international student, unfortunately you do not have the option of staying in university student dormitories, except in Maribor' - the dorms are mainly reserved for exchange and scholarship students. In Ljubljana, dorm places where available are first-come-first-served at EUR 80-160 a month for a double room. Maribor opens applications after acceptance and emails information in July for the first semester; cost EUR 540-850 a semester. Primorska (around EUR 190 a month shared) and Nova Gorica (EUR 120-170 a month) send accommodation information about a month before the semester starts. Budget for the private market.

Healthcare

As an EU/EEA citizen you are covered for necessary care with an EHIC. Students without EU/EEA or bilateral-agreement cover must buy compulsory Slovenian health insurance at EUR 126.33 a month (8.2% of average gross earnings), and the national portal recommends supplementary private insurance on top because the compulsory cover is only partial.

Your IB is still a foreign qualification here, so the IB entry rules still apply to you.