Checking that a programme is really taught in English

Why this goes wrong

Nobody sets out to mislead in most cases. A programme is genuinely English-taught in its core modules, and then the elective you wanted is offered only in the local language, the laboratory demonstrator works in Hungarian, the compulsory placement is in a hospital or a school where nobody speaks English, or the thesis regulations quietly require the local language for one component.

The result is the same as a lie: a student arrives, discovers a third of the programme is not accessible, and cannot change country afterwards.

The four places that hold the answer

The national portals are the starting point and each of the nine has one: Studyinfo (Opintopolku) for Finland, Universitaly for Italy, University Admissions for Sweden, and DreamApply for many Hungarian and Bulgarian institutions. These carry a language field because the state needs it, not because marketing chose it.

The module-level check, which is the one that matters

A programme page says "taught in English". A course catalogue says, per module, which language it runs in. Find the catalogue — it is usually linked as the curriculum, study plan or programme structure — and read the second and third year, not the first. First years are almost always fully in English; the divergence appears later, in electives and specialisations.

Four specific things to look for:

1. 1Elective lists. Count how many electives are offered in English. If the answer is two, your choice is not a choice.
2. 2Laboratory, workshop and studio modules. These are taught by demonstrators and technicians rather than by the professor who wrote the English-language syllabus.
3. 3Placements, internships and clinical rotations. The single biggest source of surprise. A placement happens in a workplace that runs in the local language, whatever the programme's language is. In clinical medicine this is not an exception at all but the norm — see how much local language you need in Hungary, Greece and Bulgaria.
4. 4Thesis regulations. Ask explicitly whether the thesis may be written and defended in English. Most English-taught programmes allow it; assume nothing.

The email that settles it

Send this to the programme coordinator, not to a general admissions inbox, and keep the reply with your offer letter:

For [exact programme name] starting [intake], could you confirm: are all compulsory modules across all years taught and examined in English? Approximately how many elective modules are available in English each year? Are any laboratory sessions, placements or internships conducted in another language? And may the final thesis be written and defended in English?

Four questions, one paragraph, and it takes an admissions officer two minutes. A reply that answers only the first question is itself informative.

Red flags worth acting on

• The programme is advertised by an agent's website and does not appear in the university's own catalogue or in the national portal.
• The catalogue exists only in the local language and no English version is published, while the programme claims to be entirely English-taught.
• The programme page has no module list at all, only a paragraph of description and an apply button.
• The coordinator will not answer the placement question in writing.

Two of those are also the tells of a bigger problem — an offer or an institution that is not what it appears — which is covered in checking that an offer letter is genuine and checking a private university or college.

If you only find out after you arrive

It happens, and the situation is not hopeless. In order:

1. 1Get the facts in writing from the programme office — which modules are affected, in which semesters, and what alternatives exist. Sometimes the answer is a small number of electives and the problem solves itself.
2. 2Ask whether an English-language substitution is permitted. Many programmes allow an equivalent module, a project or a reading course in place of a local-language elective, but only if you ask before the registration deadline.
3. 3Ask about the placement specifically. Where a compulsory placement runs in the local language, the department has usually met the problem before and has a placement it uses for international students.
4. 4Enrol in the free language course immediately, because a year of A2 changes what is possible in the third year.
5. 5Only then consider transferring, which has visa consequences — see dropping out or transferring university in Europe.

What not to do is stay silent for a semester. Every one of those options has a deadline attached.

One more reason to do this

Language of instruction is not only about your comprehension. It is the evidence base for a future medium-of-instruction claim of your own, if you go on to a further degree elsewhere, and it is what appears in your diploma supplement. A programme whose records say English is one you can prove; one that never wrote it down anywhere is one you cannot.

The wider comparison between English-taught and local-language study is in English-taught versus local-language programmes, and you can browse programmes on the university matcher.