How to Get Into University in Laos: Requirements, Exams and Deadlines
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Aug 07, 2026 • Study in Southeast Asia
Getting into a public university in Laos means finishing Grade 12, then passing a national entrance exam split into a science group and a social science group. Selective faculties like medicine and engineering add their own cutoff scores on top, while students with a provincial government scholarship placement can sometimes skip the exam entirely.
🎓 Requirement: Grade 12 completion certificate
📩 Entrance exam: Group A (science) or Group B (social science)
💵 NUOL exam fee: 40,000 LAK
⏱️ Selective faculties: add their own cutoff score
Step 1: Finish upper secondary school
You need a completed upper secondary education (through Grade 12) with your final school certificate before you can apply to a Lao public university. Your school records and this completion certificate form the base document every university and every entrance exam registration asks for.
Step 2: Register for the entrance exam
Most public universities in Laos, including the National University of Laos (NUOL), use a written entrance exam rather than admitting students on school grades alone. At NUOL, the exam divides into two tracks, according to the university's official admission page :
| Group | Track | Subjects tested |
|---|---|---|
| Group A | Natural sciences | Mathematics, Physics, Lao language and literature, Chemistry, Biology, English |
| Group B | Social sciences | Mathematics, Lao language and literature, Geography, History, English |
You choose the group that matches the faculty you want to enter. The exam registration fee at NUOL is 40,000 LAK. Other public universities, such as Souphanouvong University and Champasak University, run their own admission processes along similar lines, so confirm the exact subjects, fee, and format directly with the university you are targeting rather than assuming every school matches NUOL exactly.
Step 3: Sit the exam and check your placement
Exam results decide both whether you are admitted and, at many universities, which faculty or program you are placed into, since higher-demand programs draw from the top scorers first. Check the result announcement through your school or the university's own channels, and keep your admission documents ready to submit quickly once you are placed, since registration windows for a confirmed seat are often short.
Step 4: Meet extra requirements for selective programs
Medicine, engineering, and other high-demand faculties commonly set a higher cutoff score on top of the general pass mark, and some add a further interview or additional subject test. If your target faculty is competitive, prepare specifically for its heavier subjects (biology and chemistry for medicine, mathematics and physics for engineering) rather than studying evenly across the whole exam.
Step 5: Scholarship and quota routes that skip the exam
Students who receive a government scholarship placement through their home province are sometimes exempted from sitting the general entrance exam, since the scholarship process already includes its own selection step. If you come from a province with this kind of quota arrangement, ask your provincial education office early, since the scholarship application timeline usually runs separately from, and often earlier than, the general university entrance exam.
Building your timeline
Universities publish their entrance exam schedule ahead of the academic year, which for NUOL starts in September, with the exam registration and sitting period falling in the months before that. Treat the following as the sequence to plan around rather than fixed dates, since exact calendar dates shift year to year and each university announces its own:
Finish Grade 12 and collect your school completion certificate.
Watch for the university's entrance exam registration announcement and register within the stated window.
Sit the exam for your chosen group (A or B), or confirm your scholarship exemption if you have one.
Check your result and complete enrollment paperwork quickly once placed, since confirmed-seat deadlines tend to be short.
Because exact dates change every year, check the current announcement on your target university's website, or with your school's guidance office, rather than relying on last year's schedule.
How students prepare for the entrance exam
Private tutoring and exam-prep classes are common in the months before the entrance exam, especially for students targeting competitive faculties like medicine or engineering. Past exam papers, where your school or a tutoring center can provide them, give the clearest sense of question style and difficulty, since the subjects tested (mathematics, sciences, Lao language and literature, English) map closely to the standard Grade 12 curriculum. Group study with classmates aiming at the same faculty is common too, since you can split subjects and quiz each other on weaker areas.
If you do not pass on your first attempt
A low score on the entrance exam does not close off higher education permanently. Options include retaking the exam in a later intake, applying to a less competitive faculty or a different public university where the cutoff is lower, or starting at a private institution or technical and vocational institute and transferring credits later if the receiving program allows it. Ask your school's guidance office about the specific retake rules at your target university, since these differ by institution.