University preinscripción in Spain and access with UNEDasiss

The preinscripción (or application for a place) is the procedure by which you request a place on a university degree. The public universities of each comunidad autónoma (Spanish region) form a single district: you file one application in which you list, in order of preference, every degree you want, among those offered by the universities of that region.

UNEDasiss is the UNED service that accredits access for students with a foreign school-leaving qualification or one from an EU education system. It issues a digital accreditation that sets your access mark and, where applicable, records the marks from the Pruebas de Competencias Específicas (PCE, the specific competence exams).

These are two separate, complementary steps. First you accredit access with UNEDasiss (if your school-leaving qualification is not Spanish) and then you apply for the place through the preinscripción. Managora coordinates both so that they arrive within the deadline.

You do not need it if you completed the Spanish bachillerato (upper secondary education) and hold the PAU (the Spanish university entrance exam, formerly Selectividad): you go straight through the single district of your region.

It is needed by students holding a school-leaving qualification from another country and by those coming from European Union education systems or from States with a reciprocity agreement with Spain.

Students from the EU or from a country with an agreement gain access with their academic record, without having the qualification formally recognised. Those from outside the EU without an agreement must first obtain homologación (formal recognition) of their school-leaving qualification from the Ministerio de Educación, Formación Profesional y Deportes (the Spanish Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sport), a step that Managora also handles.

The access mark runs from 5 to 10 points. For UNEDasiss students it is calculated from the average mark of the school-leaving qualification and, where required, from the Pruebas de Competencias Específicas (at least 4 subjects, with a mark of at least 5 in one of them).

The admission mark can reach 14 points. The weighting of up to two subjects linked to the degree is added to the access mark: each point in those subjects is worth 0.1 or 0.2, up to 4 additional points.

The weighting is set by each university and degree according to the field of knowledge. It is worth choosing the PCE subjects that carry the highest weighting for the degree you want, because that is where the admission mark rises.

The school-leaving certificate or qualification and the academic record, with sworn translation and legalisation or apostille where the country of origin requires it.

A valid identity document or passport. Students from outside the EU also need the homologación decision (or the interim slip) for their school-leaving qualification.

Proof of language level if the destination university requires it for the degree. Managora checks that the documentation is complete, translates and legalises it where needed, and files it with UNEDasiss and with the district.

UNEDasiss accreditation is applied for online from 4 February to 1 December 2026. The PCE have an ordinary session (May/June) and an extraordinary session (September).

Admission to public universities for international students is applied for until 7 July 2026, and outstanding documentation can be submitted until 31 July.

UNEDasiss decides within a maximum of 3 months, although it normally does so in about 3 weeks from receiving the documentation and payment. Apply at least 6 weeks in advance. The preinscripción dates for national students are set by each comunidad autónoma: the ordinary phase opens between June and July (in the Comunidad de Madrid, for example, from 5 to 26 June 2026) and the extraordinary phase in September.

Real Decreto 534/2024 (the Spanish royal decree on university access), as amended by Real Decreto 482/2025, applies: a common access framework, the rules on the university entrance exam (commonly known as PAU) and basic admission rules for the whole country.

The single district system remains in place, as does the access mark from 5 to 10 and the admission mark of up to 14 points with weightings.

For students from the EU or from a country with an agreement, since 2025 the UNEDasiss accreditation does not expire, while the PCE and the recognition of subjects remain valid for three academic years. You can confirm the detail on the procedure page.