Gomel Engineering Institute

The admission procedure on the Ministry of Education's portal asks for the education documents with their supplement and a notarised translation into Russian if they are in another language.

The same page spells out that the education document goes in with the supplement listing the subjects taken and the marks or scores received.

Every document in a foreign language is accompanied by its translation into Russian, and every translation except the passport must be notarised; the notarised translation of the passport is done after arrival in Belarus.

The recognition page states that education documents drawn up in foreign languages and needing a notarised translation into one of the state languages of Belarus are subject to legalisation — either consular legalisation or an apostille — in the state that issued the document.

A copy of a passport valid for the whole period of study, with a translation into Russian if the passport is not in Russian.

Six photographs of 3x4 centimetres go into the application file.

The portal's five steps say that on entering Belarus you must have the sum needed to pay a year of tuition, plus the cost of medical insurance from 46 USD and of the transfer. No bank statement is named as a document, so this is money to have rather than a certificate to file.

The language of the programme is what the admission interview tests. Neither the portal nor the admission pages name a test or a level, so no score is stated here — the university judges the level at the interview.

Admission is settled by an interview, not by a written entrance examination: the interview establishes the level of command of the language in which the educational process is conducted, in a volume sufficient to master the content of the programme.

The HCCH status table shows both countries as parties to the 1961 Apostille Convention — in force for Belarus on 31 May 1992 and for Uzbekistan on 15 April 2012 — so the legalisation Belarus asks for is an apostille put on the document in Uzbekistan.

A medical conclusion on the state of health — the 086/h form — with a translation into Russian. The portal states that the medical conclusion is valid for six months.

A certificate that an HIV test has been taken, with a translation into Russian; the portal states that this certificate too is valid for six months.

The university runs a preliminary expert review of the submitted education documents and selects applicants on four things: whether the applicant can work through the admission rules and fill in the forms unaided, the level of previous education matching the chosen programme, academic performance, and knowledge of the language the programme is taught in.

The portal prices the first stage of higher education by specialty and length of study: from 2500 USD a year in the full-time department and from 1400 USD a year in the part-time one.

The portal splits the procedure in two. For visa countries the university issues an invitation to study and the applicant gets a study visa at the Belarusian consulate where he lives; where Belarus has no mission, the visa can be obtained on arrival at Minsk National Airport. For visa-free countries the applicant simply arrives during the entrance interviews, from mid-August to mid-October, with the document set. Ask the Belarusian embassy in Tashkent which of the two applies to you.

After arrival the student passes a medical examination at the student polyclinic and holds a policy of compulsory medical insurance, which is arranged at the university or at the International Relations Centre of the Ministry of Education.

Foreigners who have arrived in Belarus must register within ten days at the registration authority for the place where they are actually staying; the page warns that having no registration breaks Belarusian law and can end in an administrative penalty or deportation. Registration through the single portal of electronic services is free, unlike registration at a citizenship and migration department. The university is given three more photographs, a completed application form, the foreign passport with the study visa, medical insurance and the receipt for the registration state duty.

Admission ends with a contract of study and its payment: tuition is paid in Belarusian roubles under the study contract, at the National Bank exchange rate of the day of payment, and you become a student once the tuition is paid.

Foreign citizens are admitted to a preparatory department in order to study Russian and the school subjects needed for admission in the chosen profile of education. On completion a certificate of the established form is issued, which gives the right to continue studying on higher education programmes — bachelor, master or postgraduate. Admission of foreign citizens to university preparatory departments may be carried out throughout the year.

The recognition and establishment of equivalence of foreign education documents is carried out by the Document Recognition Centre of the Republican Institute of Higher School, which is Belarus ENIC. The page advises contacting the Centre before arrival to find out whether recognition is needed at all — it is not needed for every document — and says the review normally takes no more than a month from the moment all documents are received.

A copy of the birth certificate with a translation into Russian is listed for minors only, so an applicant who is already 18 does not submit it.