The "Artes Liberales" Academy is open to those students who have been accepted for their first year at one of the participating universities and had top marks on the recruitment lists, or those who completed their first year of university with very good marks. To become a student of the Academy requires going through a qualifying procedure.

Those interested send a special questionnaire to the Academy Office (the form is available from the office, the student's home university or on the Internet). The first qualifying stage involves assessment of the students' questionnaires by a group of professors from different universities. Each questionnaire is assessed by two independent reviewers. Only those questionnaires that are complete and filled by persons beginning their studies or having finished their first year at a university taking part in the Academy are sent to reviewers. The second stage is a qualifying interview. An invitation to such an interview is issued only to those students who obtained the greatest number of points in the first stage, i.e. received the highest average from the marks given by the reviewers. The qualifying interview is conducted by a specially appointed commission made up of Council members and professors from different universities participating in the Academy. The topics of this interview are practically the free choice of the candidate (as specified in the questionnaire), but they have to concern several (2-4) selected academic disciplines that are not equivalent to secondary-school subjects. The choice of literature on which the interview will be based is also up to the candidate.