Published:
If you are applying for a Master’s program in Poland with a Kazakhstani Bachelor’s diploma, you do not have to pay for nostrification. A diploma that in Kazakhstan gives the right to apply for the next cycle gives the same right in Poland. Paid nostrification is a different procedure, for different purposes, and in 2026 it costs up to 4 825 zlotys. Working out which of the two you need is worth doing before you pay anyone.
Two different procedures that share one word
In Russian-language articles “diploma nostrification” means both of them. In Polish law these are two unrelated mechanisms.
Access to study. Your diploma lets you submit documents for a Master’s program or a doctoral school. No separate decision is required for this, the right follows from the law.
Nostrification (nostryfikacja dyplomu). Establishing the Polish equivalent of your diploma: the procedure is carried out by a university, it is paid, and it is needed where formal equivalence to a Polish diploma is required.
The confusion costs money in one direction only: someone with a Bachelor’s degree pays around 4 825 zlotys for a procedure that admission never required.
Why nostrification is not required for a Master’s program
The rule is worded like this: if a diploma gives access, in the country that issued it, to the next level of higher education or the right to apply for a doctoral degree, then in Poland it also gives the right of access to the corresponding level, that is, to the second cycle and to a doctoral school.
This is Article 326(2) of the law of 20 July 2018 on higher education and science (Dz.U. 2024, poz. 1571). This provision requires no administrative decision, no fee and no application to a separate body.
For a Master’s program you need a diploma of completion of at least the first cycle, and the law does not require you to present a school certificate. The route with a certificate is covered separately: NAWA or the kuratorium.
Two things must not be confused here. Paid nostrification is not needed for admission, but the free written information from NAWA about the diploma will definitely be needed, and these are different documents. Details below.
The university is required to ask for the NAWA information about the diploma
The right of access follows from the law, but the same law obliges the university to request the document that confirms this right. The wording is direct: “uczelnia wymaga”, that is, the university requires, not may require.
The rule works like this. Article 326(1) lists the diplomas that confirm the level of education automatically, and those are only diplomas from universities in the higher education systems of EU, OECD and EEA countries. Kazakhstan belongs to none of these groups, and the agreement on the equivalence of documents covers only documents obtained before 29 September 2005. So a Kazakhstani diploma gains access to a Master’s program under Article 326(2), not under paragraph 1.
For such diplomas Article 70(5d) applies: in admissions the university is required to ask for the diploma together with the written information from the director of NAWA about that diploma confirming the right to apply, and it is required to check command of the language of instruction at a level no lower than B2. The university may set a level higher than B2, not lower. That is how it is written in the University of Warsaw admission rules for 2025/2026, with a reference to the same provision.
The practical conclusion: the NAWA information is a mandatory step, not an “if they ask” step. It is free, but it has to be obtained, and NAWA does not commit itself to a deadline. The document list is still checked on the admission page of your own university, but you should count on the information being needed.
The right to apply is not the same as being admitted
Article 326(2) gives the right to take part in admissions. It does not oblige the university to accept you and does not cancel its own conditions: the competition, language requirements, subject requirements, sometimes an exam or an interview. The university may ask for information about your diploma in order to understand what the qualification is. The admission decision remains with the university.
When a diploma does not give access after all
The same law also implies the reverse. A diploma does not give access to further study in Poland if:
- the institution was not an accredited university on the date the diploma was issued, or the program did not have accreditation on that date
- the institution is not part of the higher education system of any country
- the program or part of it was delivered in breach of the laws of the country where the study took place
This is not a formality. The accreditation of your program on the date the diploma was issued has to be checked before you apply, not after a refusal. If you hold a diploma from a private university and are not sure of its status in that year, that is the first thing to find out.
Separately on old documents: recognition of Kazakhstani education documents obtained before 29 September 2005 rests on the agreement between the governments of the Polish People’s Republic and the USSR of 10 May 1974. A diploma obtained after that date is not covered by the agreement, and the general rule above applies to it.
The NAWA information about a diploma: free, but with no known timeframe
If the university asks for confirmation of what qualification you hold, there are two routes.
The KWALIFIKATOR database. It lets you check how a given type of foreign diploma is recognized. Fast and with no application.
Individual written information from the director of NAWA. Issued free of charge, in Polish, as a PDF with an electronic signature, after a complete set of documents is submitted through the SYRENA system. For admission to a Master’s program with a Kazakhstani diploma this is a mandatory document, not an option.
The timeframe is worth knowing in advance, and here NAWA has two different messages. When it announced the transfer of powers in 2025, the agency named a period of up to 60 days from the moment a complete set is sent through SYRENA, and with formal deficiencies the count starts from the day they are corrected. The current FAQ no longer contains a figure: the information is issued in the order complete sets arrive, as quickly as possible. So there is no commitment to a timeframe now, the 60 days is a reference point from the announcement, and more slack is needed. The practical conclusion is one: the application is submitted at the start of preparation, not two weeks before the deadline.
One more detail that people learn about late: documents submitted to NAWA on paper are not returned, regardless of the submission date. Originals you will need later are not sent back by post.
What paid nostrification costs and who needs it
Nostrification is needed not for admission but where the Polish equivalent of your diploma has to be established: for professional recognition, for regulated professions, for an employer or an authority that needs formal equivalence.
How the procedure works:
- it is carried out by a university, not by NAWA
- the university must hold scientific category A+, A or B+ in the relevant discipline
- the legal basis is the regulation of the Minister of Science and Higher Education of 28 September 2018
- the fee is capped at 50 percent of a professor’s salary. The minimum salary of a professor at a public university is 9 650 zlotys, so in 2026 the upper limit of the fee is 4 825 zlotys
- the university may waive the fee in justified cases, and the university itself sets the waiver procedure
- if the university establishes that it has no competence to carry out the procedure, no fee is charged
Amounts differ between universities but cannot be above the cap. The University of Gdansk charges exactly the cap, 4 825 zlotys, and requires payment within 14 days of the date the procedure starts. At another university the fee is lower, 4 685 zlotys. You check with your specific university, not with someone else’s article.
What this means for your case
A short guide:
- You are applying for a Master’s program. Paid nostrification is not needed. What you need is the Bachelor’s diploma with its annex, legalization or an apostille with a sworn translation, a language certificate from B2 and the free NAWA information about the diploma. Check the exact list with your own university.
- You are applying to a doctoral school or a postgraduate program. The NAWA information is not required in admissions, and this is stated directly by the Polish consulate. The university’s own requirements still stand.
- You are applying for a Bachelor’s program with a school certificate. That is a completely different route: the written information from the director of NAWA about the certificate is mandatory, and it is free. In detail: certificate nostrification.
- You need professional recognition of the diploma. Nostrification is needed, up to 4 825 zlotys, through a university with the right scientific category.
As for the documents: the apostille and the sworn translation are a separate layer of requirements, and that layer depends on where exactly you are applying. Its logic is the same for a certificate and for a diploma, and it is covered here: apostille and sworn translation.