IELTS and TOEFL for a European MiM: Scores, Waivers and Which Test to Take

The degree itself is in English almost everywhere in Europe — but if English isn’t your first language, you’ll usually have to prove it before you can enrol. For most international applicants that means an IELTS or TOEFL score, and the questions that follow are practical ones: what score do you actually need, do the sub-scores matter, can you get a waiver, and which test should you sit? This guide answers each, so the English requirement becomes a box you tick cleanly rather than a late-stage scramble.

The typical scores you’ll need

Across English-taught European MiMs, the requirement clusters in a fairly narrow band:

• IELTS Academic — usually 6.5 to 7.0 overall. The more selective schools tend to ask for 7.0.
• TOEFL iBT — usually around 90 to 100. Stricter programmes specify 100.
• Alternatives — many schools also accept the Cambridge English exams (C1 Advanced / C2 Proficiency) and, increasingly, the Duolingo English Test. Which ones vary, so check.

Two important caveats sit under those headline numbers, and they’re where applicants slip up.

Sub-scores matter as much as the overall

A common mistake is aiming only for the overall figure. Many schools also set minimum sub-scores — for example, “no individual band below 6.0,” or a specific minimum on writing or speaking. You can hit a 7.0 overall and still miss a requirement if one section dips below the floor.

So read the requirement in full, not just the headline number, and — if your overall masks a weaker section — prepare specifically for that section. A balanced score across all four skills is safer than a lopsided one that happens to average out.

Who qualifies for a waiver — and the assumption that breaks

Two conditions appear on almost every school’s page:

• You’re a native English speaker, or a national of a majority English-speaking country.
• You completed your bachelor’s degree taught entirely in English — evidenced by a medium-of-instruction letter from your university.

The second one is where applications come apart, because at a lot of schools the condition is not “taught in English.” It is “taught in English in a majority English-speaking country.” Those are different rules, and the difference lands almost entirely on applicants from India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Bangladesh — countries where English-medium degrees are ordinary, and which do not appear on the list schools use.

That list is the UK Home Office’s, published by UK Visas and Immigration, and several European schools point straight at it. As London Business School prints it, it is: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Ireland, Jamaica, Malta, New Zealand, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, the USA and the UK.

What thirty-one schools actually require

Each of these was read on the school’s own page — the first nine on 5 September 2026 (St Andrews on 4 September), the six UK universities, the University of Twente and six more Dutch schools on 6 September 2026, Católica Porto the same day, ISM Vilnius and Alba Athens on 7 September 2026, and Cranfield, Lancaster, Henley and University College Cork on 9 September 2026. Two Dutch schools are listed at the bottom as unread, because their pages could not be fetched and a guess would be worse than a gap:

School	Does an English-taught degree waive the test?
London Business School	Only a degree “undertaken entirely in English, in a majority English-speaking country” — full-time, and completed no more than 5 years before the start date. An exchange year there doesn’t count, and a degree completed in Canada is assessed individually.
University of Manchester	Nationals of — or holders of a bachelor’s or higher from — the UKVI countries “may be exempt.” Manchester notes the list “is not defined by The University of Manchester.”
University of Edinburgh	The UKVI countries, or a named list of approved universities elsewhere: 31 Indian institutions, 8 Nigerian, and none at all in Pakistan or Bangladesh. India carries its own warning — “We have approved the named university only. Affiliated colleges and other related institutions are not covered, and an English language test is still required.” If you aren’t a national of a majority English-speaking country, the degree must be no more than five years old.
University of St Andrews	For degrees from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and ~30 other listed countries, a paid ECCTIS report confirming CEFR C1 — which “cannot be used if you are still studying for your degree.”
Goethe University Frankfurt	Only a degree “from an institution with English as the sole language of instruction and from a majority English speaking country.” Otherwise TOEFL iBT 95 or IELTS Academic 7.0, certificate at most five years old.
RSM Erasmus University	Only a diploma taught in English obtained in the “USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or within the EU/EEA including Switzerland.” A two-language EU/EEA bachelor needs proof that at least 120 EC were taught in English.
KU Leuven	Only “a previous diploma in a programme taught in English in Australia, English-speaking Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom or the United States of America.” Everyone else submits a test.
WHU – Otto Beisheim	Yes, with no country condition. “Not required if your undergraduate or secondary education was completed entirely in English. In that case, please submit proof (e.g., IB diploma, certificate of medium of instruction).”
Bocconi	Yes, with no country condition. A “university qualification (or secondary school diploma) awarded in English” satisfies the B2 requirement — and it’s an enrolment requirement, not a selection one, so a missing certificate needn’t hold up your application.
University of Nottingham	Yes for much of Africa, and conditionally for India and Pakistan. Beyond the Home Office list Nottingham publishes a table of countries that “are not on the Home Office list” but whose degrees it accepts anyway, because “the International Student Recruitment team has agreed” they are “an acceptable alternative to B2 level English.” All recognised institutions: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Mauritius, Seychelles, Barbados, Anguilla, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, the British and US Virgin Islands, and Canada (non-bilingual institutions). Selected institutions only: India, Pakistan, Singapore, parts of Europe — and those lists sit on a staff-only page, so you must ask admissions whether yours is on it.
University of Bath	Yes, and it names the countries. Nationals of India, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda are exempt on a degree “at an institution in India where the medium of instruction was English” (and likewise for the other five), awarded within 5 years, with an official medium-of-instruction document. Indian nationals must also show Core English in the Indian 12th Standard — 75% (CBSE/ISC/CISCE) or 80% (state boards) against a course asking IELTS 6.5. The trap: submit a test score below the course requirement and “you will not be exempt.”
King’s College London	No. Every route runs through the UKVI list: a university qualification from one of those countries within 5 years, a year of study under way at a NARIC-recognised university in one, or nationality plus permanent residence there. The medium-of-instruction letter exists — but only for “applicants who do not require a Student visa.”
Durham University	No. You are exempt if you are from, or “recently completed a qualification equivalent to a UK degree in”, one of the 18 UKVI countries/areas, or are a Canadian national. Durham lists Indian Standard XII English (80%, nine named boards) and West African NECO/WAEC/WASSCE among other qualifications, but says these are “normally only acceptable for undergraduate study” because they must be under two years old.
University of Glasgow	Not stated. The one exemption sentence on its page is a country rule attached to the visa requirement — nationals of, or degree-holders from, a UKVI majority English-speaking country. It publishes no separate academic waiver for an English-taught degree, so get any waiver in writing.
University of Strathclyde	Not published at all. Its English language pages list accepted tests and scores and state no exemption route — no country list, no medium-of-instruction clause. Applicants with an unlisted qualification are told to contact the Recruitment & International Office.
University of Twente	Yes for West and Southern Africa, no for South Asia — the mirror image of Bath. Its exemption tool names three groups: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the USA (three-year degree, studied there physically for three years; Canadian degrees need “at least 50% English instruction”); then a mixed European and African list — Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Surinam, Zambia, Zimbabwe plus 14 EU/EEA states — where “the language of instruction should be stated on your degree certificate, official final transcript of records or diploma supplement” and “a statement or a proficiency letter from your university is not sufficient”; and everyone else, who takes a test. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Tanzania are on none of them. Twente closes the door on appeals: individual waiver requests outside the stated exceptions “cannot be considered, as the University of Twente does not offer English waivers.”
Utrecht University	Yes, and it is the widest list in the Netherlands. You are exempt at EMI-experienced level if you hold “a fully English-taught Bachelor’s or Master’s degree from a country in the European Union” or from a list of roughly fifty more — which includes Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mauritius, Singapore, South Africa and most of the anglophone Caribbean. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Malaysia and the Philippines are on none of it. Proof is due only once you are conditionally admitted.
Radboud University	Only inside the EU/EEA — but that clause is the Nijmegen School of Management’s own. Radboud accepts, in place of a test, a bachelor’s from a Dutch research university or from one in “Australia, Canada (excluding Québec), Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, or the United States of America”; NSM, which runs its MiM, adds “An English-taught Bachelor’s diploma from an institution from an EU/EEA country.” Nothing reaches South Asia or Africa. NSM also halves the life of a Cambridge certificate — five years elsewhere at Radboud, two here. The policy page’s own stamp reads “Valid: 01 September 2024 - 31 August 2025”, so confirm it in the application.
VU Amsterdam	Three geographies for three levels of study. A secondary or higher education fully taught in English in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK or the USA; a higher education fully taught in English in Singapore or South Africa; a bachelor’s or master’s fully taught in English within the EU/EEA. Plus the IB and the Dutch VWO. If the diploma does not say it was English-taught, VU wants “an official statement with stamp and signature from your previous university.”
University of Amsterdam	No, and it says so in one sentence. Exemption is for previous education obtained in “the Netherlands, Australia, Canada (with the exception of Quebec), Ireland, Malta, New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States of America” — followed by “This only applies to these countries, no other exemptions are made.” UvA does mention an English-taught academic degree, but read the clause it sits in: it applies to someone who “[has] an English proficiency test older than 2 years” and wants that expired score accepted. It is not a route for an applicant who has never sat the test.
University of Groningen	No — and the university does not apply one rule to itself. University-wide, you are exempt only as a “native speaker” with a full secondary education, or with a three-year bachelor’s, from “the USA, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and Canada (only when taught fully in English)”, plus the VWO and EB. There is no medium-of-instruction route at all. Faculties may add: the Faculty of Law adds twenty countries including Jamaica, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guyana and Barbados; the Faculty of Economics and Business, which runs the MiM, adds exactly one — Groningen’s own English-language Pre-MSc.
Nyenrode Business University	Not published at all — the Dutch Strathclyde. Its programme page lists thresholds (IELTS Academic 6.0, the lowest here; TOEFL iBT 4.5 on the post-January-2026 scale; Cambridge 176; PTE 61; LanguageCert 65; TOEIC 865+335) and no exemption route of any kind: no country list, no medium-of-instruction clause, no native-speaker carve-out. The only “exemption” on the page governs its pre-master, not its English test.
Maastricht University	Could not be read, and we will not guess. The School of Business and Economics puts its rule behind an interactive questionnaire — “Answer the questions below to find out if you meet the language requirements” — that is assembled in the browser, and the university’s central language-requirements page returns HTTP 403 to every route we tried. All the page states in plain text is “We accept TOEFL and IELTS tests as proof of your English proficiency.”
Tilburg University	Could not be read. The whole tilburguniversity.edu estate returns HTTP 403 to an automated fetch and to a browser-agent request, so its exemption rule is unknown to us. Its published bar, from an earlier reading, is IELTS 6.5 (6.0 in writing and speaking) or TOEFL iBT 90.
Católica Porto	There is nothing to be exempted from. Alone in this table, Católica Porto does not require a certificate at all: its checklist puts an “Official English language certificate at level B2 or higher according to The Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (or equivalent, e.g., TOEFL, IELTS, FCE or CAE)” under “Optional documents that may strengthen your application”. No country list, no medium-of-instruction clause, no minimum band — because none is needed to qualify. The application must still “provide evidence … of the command of the English language”, so a certificate is the simplest way to do that; it is just not demanded. Note the scoping: three of its five specialisations are English-taught, two are mostly in Portuguese.
ISM University, Vilnius	Yes with no country condition — and then a committee decides. ISM’s 2026 admission regulations exempt an applicant holding “a document confirming secondary or higher education completed in English”, with no list attached, alongside four routes almost nobody else publishes: six months of Erasmus or bilateral exchange carrying “at least 30 ECTS credits in English”, an employer’s certificate covering “at least six months of work experience in a position where English is the official language”, a mixed-language workplace certificate covering a year “in which at least 70% of daily communication was conducted in English”, and a six-month internship abroad conducted in English. Two conditions ride on all of it. Every route is granted “based on the admission committee’s decision” rather than by entitlement, and ISM “reserves the right to request applicants to take an additional ISM or other recognized English language test after a motivational interview, regardless of the English proficiency document submitted.” Certificates themselves must be “taken no earlier than two years before the start of studies” — a shorter life than the five years several schools above allow.
Alba Graduate Business School, Athens	Yes, with no country condition at all. Alba’s 2026-2027 applicant document exempts anyone who has “completed a bachelor’s degree at a university or business school where the medium of instruction for all courses was English” — no list, no country, no five-year limit. Its admission-requirements page states the same exemption slightly wider still, as “Native English-speakers and graduates of under/graduate degrees taught exclusively in English.” Where a test is needed the bar is high but the menu is broad: a Cambridge, Michigan or MSU Proficiency, TOEFL 100, IELTS 6.5, or the Duolingo English Test at 125. One oddity worth knowing before you plan around it: Alba does not publish a language of instruction for the degree itself anywhere on its site — the English requirement applies to every applicant, Greek citizens included.
Cranfield School of Management	No, and there is no medium-of-instruction route at all. Two exits only: being “a national of the UK, or a country on the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) list of majority English speaking countries”, or holding a higher-education qualification “within five years of the start of your course” from one of them. The course page states the requirement universally — “you will need to demonstrate that you can communicate effectively in English” — not as a rule for non-native speakers. Canada carries the usual footnote: a test is required “if your studies were not taught and assessed in English.”
Lancaster University	No — and Lancaster is the only school here that refuses the route in writing. Exemption needs country and duration: “at least 2 years of your undergraduate degree”, or “at least 1 year if you studied a postgraduate degree”, in an accepted majority English-speaking country (plus a separate route for Canadian nationals). Then, in one sentence: “We cannot accept medium of instruction in English or degree studies in English if this is not completed in the UK or one of our accepted majority English-speaking countries.”
Henley Business School	Different question entirely — and the most generous answer in this table for South Asia. Henley publishes no country list and no native-speaker rule; its course page only says “If your English language ability is below the minimum requirement, we may ask for evidence of proficiency.” Reading’s admissions policy then accepts school-leaving qualifications instead of IELTS at Henley’s 6.5/5.5 band: Indian Standard XII English at 70% (CBSE/ICSE/All India/HSSC) or 75% (state boards), Nigeria’s NECO Senior School Certificate at Grade C, the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education at Grade C, plus Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius, Tanzania, Zambia, Malaysia and IGCSE English. This is a qualification tier, not a country tier — and it is the one school here where an Indian applicant may need no test at all. Verify with admissions first; NECO certificates need a token and registration number.
University College Cork	Yes for much of Africa — the widest country list here, and it is Irish, not British. UCC’s wording is genuinely first-language (“applicants who are non-native speakers”, and “If Gaeilge (Irish) is your first language these requirements do not apply to you”), but the operative test is country: a level-8/9 qualification “taught in a country deemed by UCC to have English as its acknowledged primary language”. The list runs to 49 entries — Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Gambia, Mauritius, Seychelles and Singapore among them. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are not on it. A discretionary route exists for 2 years of professional practice worked through English in one of those countries, and UCC reserves the right to “require further evidence”.

The split isn’t about how selective a school is — and, read across thirty-one schools rather than nine, it isn’t about country either. The nine-school version of this table supported a tidy generalisation: the UK universities and the German, Dutch and Belgian publics tie the waiver to a country list, while the continental privates accept a medium-of-instruction letter. The six UK universities added on 6 September 2026 break that. Bath and Nottingham are UK publics that name India and Nigeria explicitly and accept their English-medium degrees, on conditions; King’s and Durham are UK publics that do not. Two more, Glasgow and Strathclyde, publish no academic waiver at all — Strathclyde publishes no exemption rule of any kind. The UK is not one rule. It is roughly twenty-five rules, and they disagree with each other.

Nor is the Netherlands — and the Dutch spread is the widest of any country here. Eight Dutch schools, and no two of them answer the same way. Utrecht waives the test for a fully English-taught degree from any EU country and about fifty more, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Twente waives it for eleven of those, RSM for South Africa and the EU/EEA only, VU for Singapore and South Africa at higher-education level and the EU/EEA for a degree, Radboud — through the Nijmegen School of Management’s own extra clause — for the EU/EEA and nowhere else. UvA closes the door in one sentence: “This only applies to these countries, no other exemptions are made.” Groningen has no medium-of-instruction route at all — and does not even apply one rule to itself, since its Faculty of Law adds twenty countries while its Faculty of Economics and Business, which runs the MiM, adds exactly one route and it is Groningen’s own Pre-MSc. Nyenrode publishes no exemption of any kind, and sets the lowest bar on this page (IELTS 6.0) instead.

Two consequences worth planning around. A Nigerian or Kenyan applicant with an English-medium degree is exempt at Utrecht, exempt at Twente, and not exempt at Groningen, UvA, Radboud or RSM — four schools inside one small country, an hour apart by train. And an Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan applicant is exempt at none of the eight: the Netherlands is the one country on this page where every school we could read says no to South Asia. If that is you, budget for the test and stop looking for the waiver — but do check Bath and Nottingham in the UK rows above, which say yes.

A third consequence, added 9 September 2026: the exemption is not always a country rule at all. Henley publishes no country list and no native-speaker clause — the University of Reading, which sets its admissions policy, simply accepts a school-leaving English qualification in place of IELTS at Henley’s band. An Indian applicant with 70% in Class 12 English (CBSE/ICSE/All India/HSSC boards, or 75% from a state board), a Nigerian with NECO at Grade C, or a Kenyan with KCSE at Grade C may not need a test here at all. That is a different axis from every other row in this table, it is the single most generous rule we have found for South Asian applicants, and it sits on a page no course listing links to. Set against it, Lancaster — a school of similar standing, in the same country — writes the opposite rule down in one sentence: “We cannot accept medium of instruction in English or degree studies in English if this is not completed in the UK or one of our accepted majority English-speaking countries.” Same degree, same applicant, opposite answers, two English universities. That is the case for checking all of them rather than any of them.

So if you’re applying from South Asia or West Africa, the safe planning assumption is still that your English-taught degree will not waive the test unless a specific school’s own page says it does. But the corollary now cuts the other way too: do not assume it won’t. Two of the six UK schools we read on 6 September accept exactly the degree an Indian or Nigerian applicant is holding, and neither of them advertises that fact anywhere an applicant would look — you find it on an admissions-policy page, not on a course page. Check each school; don’t generalise in either direction.

Three mechanics decide the rest, once you know a school’s rule:

• A few waive automatically; many require you to request the waiver and provide proof.
• Several attach a recency window to the degree itself — five years at Edinburgh, LBS, Goethe, Bath and King’s; two years at Bath for a degree from a UKVI country, and under two years for Durham’s school-leaving qualifications.
• A few require a test regardless of your background.
• A second condition can sit behind the first. Bath’s Indian route needs a 12th-Standard Core English mark on top of the degree; Nottingham’s Indian and Pakistani route needs your institution to be on a list you cannot see; King’s medium-of-instruction letter is only for applicants who don’t need a visa.
• Submitting a weak test score can cost you a waiver you already qualified for. One school in seventeen says so in writing — and the next section is about what the other sixteen say, which is nothing.

Can a weak test score cancel a waiver you already qualified for?

At one school of the seventeen we could read, yes — and it is the only one that tells you.

Bath publishes the rule twice on its postgraduate English-language page, once under the country-and-degree exemption and once under the medium-of-instruction route, in the same words both times: “If, as part of your application, you have provided an English language test result that does not meet the requirements of your chosen postgraduate course, you will not be exempt.” The sentence immediately after it is the half that usually gets lost, and it is the difference between a nuisance and a disaster: “You will instead need to provide an English language test result that meets the entry requirements of your course.” So a low score does not sink the application — it converts you from an applicant who never needed a test into one who must now pass a specific band, mid-round, with a slot to book and results to wait for. Both sentences were still on the page when we re-read it on 12 September 2026.

Sixteen other schools’ own English-language pages were read the same day, looking for the same rule, and not one of them publishes it. In the UK and Ireland: Manchester, Lancaster, King’s College London, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Strathclyde, Cranfield, Durham — on both its recognised-countries page and its separate exemptions page — Reading, which sets Henley’s rule, and University College Cork. In the Netherlands: Utrecht, Twente and RSM. Plus WHU in Germany and Bocconi in Italy. Every one of them states when an exemption is granted. Not one states what happens to that exemption when a test result is already sitting in the file.

Read that as a silence, not as a permission. A page that says nothing has not promised to ignore a weak score, and nothing about Bath’s rule is peculiar to Bath — it is the sort of thing an admissions office can apply whether or not it is published. What is unusual is that Bath wrote it down. So the planning rule is the same at all seventeen: if you qualify for a waiver, claim the waiver. A below-requirement score helps you at none of these schools, and at one of them it demonstrably costs you an exemption you already held. If you want the reassurance of a test anyway, sit it early enough to score above the course requirement — an unsent weak result is worth more to you than an uploaded one.

The trap is assuming a waiver applies, then discovering in the middle of a round that you need a test slot you never booked. Budget for a test until a page tells you otherwise — and, since two of the six UK schools read on 6 September do waive it for Indian and Nigerian degrees, spend ten minutes on each shortlisted school’s admissions-policy page before you pay for one.

Sources, all read 5 September 2026: LBS — Proving your English language ability · Manchester — English language requirements · Edinburgh — English language entry requirements and its approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries · St Andrews — providing evidence of English language ability · Goethe — M.Sc. Management Science application · RSM — is previous education in English sufficient proof? · KU Leuven — language requirements · WHU — MiM application and admissions · Bocconi — language requirements for MSc/MA programs.

The six UK universities were added on 6 September 2026, read on their own pages that day: Nottingham — Quality Manual: Alternative English Language Qualifications · Bath — Postgraduate Taught courses: English language requirements for international students · King’s College London — English language requirements · Durham — Recognised English Speaking Countries and Other English Language Qualifications · Glasgow — English language requirements · Strathclyde — English language requirements and its recognised English language qualifications. Added the same day: University of Twente — Am I exempted from taking an English test? and its Business Administration admission page for international students. The six other Dutch schools were read on 6 September 2026 on their own pages: Utrecht — English language requirements, EMI-experienced · Radboud — Language requirements for English-taught programmes · VU Amsterdam — Language proficiency requirements for Master’s degrees, whose per-programme scores are in its English Language Proficiency Overview 26-27 PDF · University of Amsterdam — Exemptions to English language proficiency requirement, MSc Business Administration · Groningen — Master’s language requirements and exemptions · Nyenrode — MSc in Management (full-time), admission section. Two Dutch schools could not be read and are recorded as unread rather than assumed: Maastricht University, whose SBE rule sits behind an interactive questionnaire assembled in the browser while its central language-requirements page returns HTTP 403; and Tilburg University, whose whole estate returns HTTP 403 to both an automated fetch and a browser-agent request. One more UK school could not be read and is recorded as unread rather than assumed: UCL returns HTTP 403 to both an automated fetch and a browser-agent request. Correction, 9 September 2026: this paragraph previously also listed Leeds and Exeter as pages “assembled in the browser”. That was wrong. Both are fully server-rendered — Leeds’ course page returns ~21 KB of readable text to a plain browser-agent request, and Exeter’s had simply moved, 301’ing from the old path to /masters-degrees/msc-management/. The mistake was a diagnosis, not an observation, and it cost Leeds a full fee cycle of staleness before it was caught. Neither school’s exemption rule is in this table yet; both are re-read targets rather than unreadable pages.

The four schools added on 9 September 2026 were read on their own pages that day: Cranfield — Entry requirements and its Management MSc course page · Lancaster — Postgraduate English language requirements · University of Reading — acceptable English language qualifications at the 6.5/5.5 band, which governs Henley’s MSc Management · University College Cork — Postgraduate English Language Entry Requirements. Also attempted and recorded as unread: Dublin City University, whose course page answers HTTP 202 with a 58-byte body to a browser-agent request — a challenge page, not a rendering failure.*

The weak-score question was swept on 12 September 2026 across seventeen schools’ own English-language pages — the sixteen named in that section plus Bath, whose two sentences were re-read the same day on its postgraduate English language requirements page. Durham was read on both Recognised English Speaking Countries and Exemptions for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught. Each of the sixteen is recorded on its own profile as a dated silence on this question, not as a school that permits a weak score — the distinction matters, and re-checking it is one fetch per school.

Católica Porto was added on 6 September 2026 from the school’s own Masters admissions page, read that day: Católica Porto Business School — Masters applications 2026/27. It is the only school in this table with no English requirement to waive, which is why it is worth checking a page rather than assuming: the planning rule below is a default, not a law.

Which test to take

There’s no single “best” test — there’s the one that fits your target list and your strengths:

• IELTS Academic and TOEFL iBT are accepted almost everywhere and are the safest default. Pick whichever format suits you (IELTS has a face-to-face speaking section; TOEFL is fully computer-based).
• The Duolingo English Test is cheaper, shorter and taken at home, and a growing number of schools accept it — but not all, so only rely on it if your specific programmes list it.
• Cambridge C1/C2 is accepted by some schools and never expires, which can suit applicants who already hold it.

The practical move: list your target schools, check which tests each accepts, and choose the single test that covers the most of them so you only sit one. (Our guide on how to build your MiM shortlist helps you fix that list first.)

Timing, validity and retakes

A few logistics that quietly cause problems:

• Validity. IELTS and TOEFL scores are generally valid for two years. The result must still be valid when you apply — and sometimes when you enrol — so don’t sit it too early.
• Book early. Test slots and result turnaround can take weeks; the English test should be on your calendar alongside the GMAT/GRE and not left to the last round. Map the whole sequence with our month-by-month application timeline.
• Retakes. There’s no limit on attempts, so if you fall short of a school’s minimum you can retake — which is another reason to sit the test with a buffer before your deadline rather than at the wire.

If you fall short

If your score lands below a target school’s minimum, you have options: retake (focusing on the weak section), apply to schools with a lower or waived requirement, or check whether the school offers a conditional offer or a pre-sessional English course. What you shouldn’t do is submit a score you know is below the bar and hope — the threshold is usually a firm gate.

The bottom line

The English test is one of the more controllable parts of a MiM application: the bands are predictable (roughly IELTS 6.5–7.0 / TOEFL 90–100), and you can retake if needed. The part that is not controllable is the waiver — it is narrower than it looks, and at most of the schools above it turns on the country your degree came from rather than the language it was taught in. Treat it like any other deliverable — check each school’s exact requirement and waiver rule, pick one widely-accepted test, sit it early with a buffer, and mind the sub-scores. Do that and it never becomes the thing that holds your application up. Remember, too, that the test is the only language hurdle: you can study a European MiM entirely in English without speaking the local language.

Sources & how to confirm

The score bands and validity rules described here are the general patterns across English-taught European Master in Management programmes, synthesised from the published English-proficiency requirements across the schools in our catalogue and summarised in our application requirements checklist. The exact IELTS/TOEFL threshold, the accepted tests and the sub-score minimums all vary by school and change between cycles — none of it is asserted here as a universal rule, and no per-school cut-off is invented.

The waiver table is different: every cell in it is quoted from the named school’s own page — the first nine read on 5 September 2026 (St Andrews on 4 September) with their links directly under it, and each row added since carrying its read date and its own profile, where the source is cited in full. We deliberately do not generalise those nine into a European rule, because the reason this section was rewritten is that there isn’t one — the previous version of this page said waivers were “common if you studied in English”, which is true at WHU and Bocconi and materially wrong at the other seven.

Always confirm the current English requirement and any waiver on each programme’s official admissions page, and ask the admissions office if your eligibility is unclear, before you book a test. Last checked September 2026.