Master’s in Italy: Admission, Fees & Scholarships

About the Italian Master’s Degree

What the qualification is

The Italian second-cycle degree is the laurea magistrale: two years, 120 credits, ending with a thesis that is defended in front of a commission. It is the direct equivalent of a master’s degree elsewhere in Europe and the standard qualification for entering a doctorate.

The name trap

Italy also uses the word “master” for something else. A master universitario di primo livello or di secondo livello is a one-year professional course, not a second-cycle degree. Both are legitimate, but they are not interchangeable: a master universitario does not give access to a doctorate in the way a laurea magistrale does.

How the two years are organised

The first year is taught, the second increasingly given over to the thesis, and in many programmes to an internship (tirocinio) with a company or laboratory. Assessment is dominated by oral examinations — an Italian speciality that catches newcomers out. You sit them individually, often facing the professor across a desk, and you can usually refuse a mark and resit in a later session.

Finding the Right Programme

Where to search

Start with Universitaly, the ministry’s official portal, which lists accredited programmes and is also where your visa pre-enrolment will happen. Cross-check anything you find elsewhere against it: if a programme does not appear there, question what qualification it actually awards.

How to choose

Three filters matter more than any ranking. Language — confirm the programme is taught entirely in English if you need that, not just partly. Credit fit — Italian admission turns on whether your previous degree contains the right credits in the right subject areas. City cost — the gap between Milan and a southern university city is larger than most fee differences.

Which universities are strong in what

Admission Requirements

The basic requirement

A first-cycle degree comparable to the Italian laurea, normally three years and 180 credits, in a subject related to the master’s you want. Italian universities assess foreign qualifications individually and may ask for a declaration of value or a comparability statement issued in your country.

Credit requirements decide most applications

Italian programmes publish requisiti curriculari — a minimum number of credits in named subject groups. These are checked strictly, and a strong degree in a neighbouring field will be refused if it lacks the stated credits.

Worked example. A data science master’s requires a set number of credits in mathematics and statistics and another block in computer science. An applicant with an excellent economics degree but only a single statistics course will fail the curricular check, while a weaker applicant from an engineering degree that covers both blocks will pass it. Read the requirement list before you read anything else about the programme, and count your own transcript against it honestly.

Documents you will need

• Degree certificate and full transcript, with official translations
• A declaration of value, comparability statement or equivalent document, where the university requires it
• Proof of language — English or Italian, depending on the programme
• Passport, CV and, for many programmes, a motivation letter

What is not usually required

The GRE and GMAT play little part in Italian public university admission, though some private business schools use them. Work experience is rarely required for a laurea magistrale.

How to Apply

Italy runs a two-track process: the university’s own admission, and the ministry’s visa pre-enrolment. Both must succeed.

1. Check the curricular requirements and language rules.Count your credits against the programme’s published minimums before anything else.
2. Apply directly to the university.Most institutions run their own online application for international candidates, with their own deadlines — usually far earlier than the start of teaching.
3. Prepare your documents and translations early.Declarations of value and legalised translations take weeks and are handled in your own country.
4. Receive admission, then pre-enrol on Universitaly.Your university validates the pre-enrolment on the ministry’s portal. Without that validation, no student visa can be issued.
5. Apply for the type D student visa.Book the consulate appointment early and prove financial means of €10,179.85 for the year.
6. Apply for your income assessment and for the regional scholarship.These have their own deadlines in late summer and early autumn — missing them costs you both the fee reduction and the grant.
7. Arrive, then apply for the residence permit within eight working days.Collect the yellow kit from a designated post office and attend your police appointment.

The sequencing mistake to avoid

Students routinely treat the income assessment and the scholarship as paperwork to sort out after arrival. Both have deadlines that fall around the start of the academic year, and both need documents issued in your home country. Starting them after you land usually means paying the maximum fee for your first year and missing an entire scholarship cycle.

Studying in Italian or English

How large is the English-taught offer?

At master’s level, substantial. Several hundred English-taught degree programmes run across Italy, concentrated in engineering, computer and data science, economics and management, international relations, and design. At undergraduate level the choice is much narrower.

What score you need

Each university sets its own English requirement under its own autonomy, so there is no single national threshold. Most programmes publish an IELTS or TOEFL minimum; many accept a previous degree taught in English instead. Check the specific programme page rather than assuming an institutional standard.

Italian for everything else

An English-taught master’s does not require Italian for the degree, but it does not remove Italian from your life. The residence permit office, the tax code, the housing contract, the part-time job and most internships all run in Italian. Two years is enough time to reach a genuinely useful level if you start at the beginning, and most universities provide free or low-cost courses for their international students.

Fees, Scholarships and Budget

What you will actually pay

At a state university, tuition is calculated from your household’s assessed economic situation, not your nationality. The national band runs from roughly €156 to about €4,000 a year, and below the university’s no-tax threshold you pay nothing. If you submit no financial assessment, you are placed in the top band automatically.

The regional scholarship is the bigger prize

The national minimum for a student living away from home is €7,171.11 a year, and winning the grant normally carries a full tuition exemption, subsidised meals and priority for university housing. For a self-funding international student this is worth more than any fee reduction on its own — the full mechanism is in our ISEE and DSU scholarship guide.

A realistic two-year budget

Worked example. A student in a mid-cost Italian city with a mid-band assessment pays perhaps €1,200 in tuition plus around €150 in regional tax, and spends roughly €850 a month on living costs over ten months. That is about €9,850 for the year. The same student who secures a regional scholarship as a fuori sede student sees tuition removed and receives over €7,000 — turning a €9,850 year into a largely funded one.

Working alongside

Your permit allows up to 20 hours a week and 1,040 hours a year. Useful as a supplement — but earnings cannot count toward the financial means you must prove before the visa is issued.

After Your Master’s

Staying to find work

Graduates of recognised Italian institutions can apply for a residence permit to look for work or start a business, granted for no less than nine and no more than twelve months and not renewable. Apply before your student permit expires.

Be careful with the name: this is the permit for job search or entrepreneurship for students, not the attesa occupazione permit that most websites describe, which exists for workers who have lost a job. Filing under the wrong category delays the file.

Making the window count

Nine to twelve months sounds generous and disappears quickly. The graduates who convert it into a job almost always started during their thesis year — through the internship built into many programmes, a thesis project with a company, or a professor’s industrial contacts. Italian recruitment is relationship-heavy, and an internship is the most reliable door.

Continuing to a doctorate

A laurea magistrale is the qualification that opens the Italian doctoral competition, where places come with a tax-exempt scholarship. See the PhD in Italy guide, browse live openings on the UpperCareers jobs board, and identify potential supervisors with the Supervisor Finder.

Official Websites for Master’s Applicants

Bookmark these before you shortlist a single programme — they are the primary sources behind this guide.

Every site above is run by an Italian ministry, a public agency, or a regional public body. Because fees, scholarships and permits are administered at university and regional level, your own institution’s and region’s pages are the final authority on anything that varies.

Frequently Asked Questions