When a foreign citizen decided to enter into Belarus, he/she must take two major steps: choose university and speciality that corresponds to his/her chosen field of study, prepare documents for arrival in Belarus and go through the admission process. The forthcoming paperwork can be scaring and may seem difficult. We asked Justin Obanor, a BSUIR student from Nigeria, whether it is true that the process is so complicated.
He decided to come to Belarus in order to have experience of studying and living abroad. It was his friend who helped him to choose specialization: he advised him to pay attention to software engineering by saying that it was an interesting direction. So Justin decided to try.
At first, he entered preparatory courses at Belarusian State University. For this purpose he had to get invitation, visa and prepare a lot of documents. But it didn’t become a problem for him. Justin turned to a company that helps foreign applicants with applications. Manager accompanied him all the way to his enrollment. Justin only brought originals of the documents. The rest was on the employee from the company. As you can see, all the paperwork can be avoided if there is a specialist who will break it down for you.
When he completed his education at the preparatory department of BSU, the student decided to go to a field-oriented university. First he wanted to apply to BNTU, but then he found BSUIR and decided that this university would suit him better as a future software enineering, and he was right. Justin works in a prestigious IT-company and will soon become a graduate in the field of software engineering.
Now let's take a closer look at how Nigerian students start their successful education in Belarus.
Choose university and education program
Let's decide right away on the level of education. To apply for Bachelor's degree (the first level of higher education) you need to have general secondary education as it’s in Belarus. For Master’s degree you need to have diploma of Bachelor's degree. There must be confirmed equivalence of diploma to the corresponding Belarusian education.
Be attentive when choosing education area, ensure that it is useful and not just for the sake of appearance. A full list of educational programs for foreigners is available on our website. You can choose the university and program by indicating your education area in the search criteria. If you have chosen a field of higher education and there is a specialised university, you should pay attention to it. For instance, the Belarusian National Technical University can help you to become a good architect. The Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics is considered to be the best IT university in the country. Good choice is opened for future doctors – there are several medical universities in Belarus.
In comparison with Belarusian applicants foreigners don’t usually have to pass exams for the admission into university. While applying for Bachelor's program, applicants need to take English or Russian language test – depends on the language of education program.
! The exceptions are design, architecture and medicine specialities. When such situations you have to take an entrance exams at the university.
Start admission process
The basis for getting entry visa to Belarus is invitation from the university. In order to get it you need to send copies of the passport, birth certificate, education documents including the transcripts with the grades received for the entire period of study. Then we will send your application to the university.
! Not all Nigerian citizens are approved with invitation for education in Belarus. There are age limitations. For instance, if a 35-year-old Nigerian citizen wants to enter Belarus for the Bachelor’s degree (in general, the age of applicants is 17-20 years old), he may be rejected with invitation. The reason for that – frequent cases of Nigerians immigrating to the EU countries through Belarus.
Visa for the Nigerian citizens is usually issued either at the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in Nigeria or upon arrival at the airport in Minsk. We warn about such options in advance so that it wouldn’t be shock for the applicant. The place of obtaining visa depends on various factors, including the university that considers invitation.
The list of documents for obtaining visa at the embassy can be found on our website.
Before arrival in Belarus you need to book a place at student dormitory. If you use the service of personal manager, he will tackle the issue.
Also, while the applicant is at home, he needs to prepare documents to bring to Belarus for submission to the admission board. The list of the documents can vary from university to university. Our managers take this into account and notify the client about any changes during the consultation.The list of the documents that you will definitely need is here.
You arrived in Belarus – what's next?
In a nutshell, you have to submit your documents to the admission board. For this you need to go from the airport to the dormitory and education building. It is often difficult to take in the situation quickly, especially at a new place. That's why we have a personal manager service. He meets a student at the airport, gives a SIM-card with unlimited Internet access and takes soon-to-be-student to the dormitory.
The procedure of registration of a foreign citizen is obligatory: we immediately register the applicant at the Department of Citizenship and Migration for the term of visa.
The manager checks the admission documents and sends them to translator. All certificates must be translated into one of the official languages of the Republic of Belarus – Belarusian or Russian. Then all the translations are notarized and the documents are submitted to the admission board.
If an applicant applies for a preparatory course it is enough to submit documents to the International Department or Dean's Office (depends on the university structure), sign a contract and pay tuition fee for the first semester. After receiving the payment the university enrols the student to the preparatory department.
To be enrolled for the Bachelor’s, the applicant must pass the language interview after which the admission board will decide on admission.
You've been enrolled! You're almost there
Before start of education every foreign student must have medical check up. Our manager accompanies the student to clinics and helps him or her to get medical examination. Then you need to get registration for the education period.
! You can’t miss the deadline for applying to the Department of Citizenship and Migration. It’s an administrative infraction and you can get fine. Myuniver specialist supervises you, prepares all documents and helps with the payment of the fee.
From the moment the applicant arrives in Belarus until his or her enrollment the manager doesn’t only deal with the paperwork and submission of the documents. He helps a foreigner to adapt to new conditions: shows him where the main university buildings are, tells him how to get to the dormitory, etc.
Even after all the obligations have been fulfilled, we don’t disappear, but keep in touch, remotely consult on different issues, if possible help to deal with coming out of the blue difficulties.
If you still have questions about how a Nigerian citizen can enter into Belarusian university, you can get your answers here.
