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The provisions described here below concern non-Eu citizens living outside Italy, including those who benefit of scholarships autonomously attributed by the goverments of their home countries.
Such foreign citizens have access to Italian H.Ed. courses on the basis of quotas fixed by Italian H.Ed. institutions.
On the contrary, the following provisions do not concern those non-Eu citizens who benefit of a certain type of scholarships (go to special scholarships).
The procedures described in the following sections are equally applicable for pre-enrollment in degree programmes at universities or Afam institutions.
Before reading further, make sure that you know the exact name of the programme you have chosen and check to what cycle/level it belongs (go to Italian Higher Education to check cycles and programme typologies available; then check in the lists of university / AFAM programmes available online).
The list of all 1st cycle programmes offered by Italian universities -along with the quotas reserved by each institution- is available online in the websites of the:
Ministry of Education, University and Research-MIUR ( Study in Italy, or universitą > studenti stranieri),
Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MAE, politica estera >politica culturale > attivitą > cooperazione universitaria > iscrizione studenti stranieri).
The list will be made public also by Italian H.Ed. institutions and Italian diplomatic authorities outside Italy.
The list of all 1st cycle programmes in the arts and music in offer at Afam institutions (Corsi di Diploma Accademico di 1° livello-CDA1) is available online in the website of the Ministry of Education, University and Research, Afam section: Studenti stranieri.
Remember
If you may reply adfirmatively to both the above questions, you are eligible for pre-enrollment in an Italian 2nd cycle degree course. Take the following steps:
According to your personal situation, select the right item:
Here is the list of documents you have to attach to your pre-enrollment application.
Compulsory documents
a) School leaving qualification (diploma, certificate, etc., in the original or certified photocopy) or a substitutive document valid to all legal effects;
b) Dichiarazione di Valore in loco related to your school leaving qualification;
c) 2 passport-size photos, one of which certified;
Documents obligatory only in specific cases
d) Document stating that you passed the exams of academic suitability, only if that is the case in your country (go to exams of academic suitability for details);
e) university transcript recording the subjects and exams of the university studies you have already attended; the transcript is necessary only:
f) final qualification awarded by a post-secondary institution; this is necessary only in case you hold a secondary qualification awarded after 10/11 years of global schooling and have subsequently attended a post-secondary professionally-oriented programme;
g) certificate / diploma / other document giving evidence that you are competent in Italian (go to Competence in Italian); such a document may be evaluated by the Italian institution to exempt you from the Italian language exam.
In case you ask for enrollemnt in a programme/Faculty the admission to which in your own country is restricted by limitations, you are not obliged to give evidence that you have already passed the relevant selective exams; the italian host institution may provide for such exams to be taken in Italy.
Remember
Here is the list of documents normally requested in attachment to a pre-enrollment application for a 2nd cycle degree programme.
First of all, you have to select the right application form (go to Application Forms).
Then get hold of the following documents:
Remember
Contact the secretariat (Segreteria Studenti) of the university of your choice and ask for information on the type of documents they request for enrollment in the specific 3rd cycle degree programme you are interested in (database of Italian universities available at: Cerca universitą).
As to the legal format of your previous qualifications and related documents you have to attach to your application (go to Legalization of Documents, Consular Formalization of Documents, Legal Translations, Dichiarazione di Valore in loco).
At present no 3rd cycle programmes are in offer at Afam institutions.
Your pre-enrollment application, independently if addressed to a university or to an Afam institution, and independently of the cycle to which the chosen degree programme belongs, must be delivered to the competent italian diplomatic authority.
The actual enrollment of non-Eu citizens living outside Italy in the chosen Italian H.Ed. programme is subject to a few additional conditions mainly related to public order and social welfare, such as study visa, right to medical assistance, evidence of adequate financial resources, tuition fees, etc.
Summing up, you must:
Remember
Both at universities and Afam institutions, definitive enrollment may be subject to such preliminary conditions as the passing of an Italian language exam, admission exams and/or aptitude tests.
All foreign citizens wishing to attend H.Ed. programmes in Italy have to pass an Italian exam devised to check their level of competence in the language. The exam is usually organised and administered by individual institutions in the first days of September every year.
The Italian exam is obligatory for admission to any degree programmes, except for:
Foreign applicants may not be admitted to further competitve admission exams or aptitude tests (if any) for matriculation in 1st cycle programmes when they have not passed the Italian language exam.
As concerns matriculation in 2nd cycle programmes (60-120 ECTS credits), the responsibility to provide for the italian exam is left to the autonomous decision of individual Italian H.Ed. institutions.
Admission to certain degree programmes may be subject to limitations; when so, matriculation of all international candidates as well as of Italians is subject to the passing of aptitude and/or admission exams.
Entry conditions and related competitive admission exams may be decided locally by individual institutions or nationally by central authorities. For detailed information on the degree programmes subject to restricted admission go to Admission Exams & 2nd Placements.
On the fixed examination dates, non-Eu candidates who have just entered Italy have to go to the H.Ed. institution concerned and be ready to show their passports along with the study visa, or the stay permit in their names, or the statements issued by the local police stations (Questura) confirming their requests for the stay permit.
Applicants are just conditionally accepted to sit for the admission exams when:
As concerns letter a., should the time for the issue of the stay permits extend too long due to the specific reasons (e.g. necessity to submit foreign citizens to dactyloscopic tests), enrollment both in the admission test and in the chosen degree programme are carried out conditionally. The institutions concerned may:
Candidates who have passed all the required exams and have qualified for placements within the quotas may proceed to matriculate in conformity to the rules decided locally by H. Ed. institutions; information is available from the student secretariats (Segreterie Studenti) of the institutions concerned. Anyhow, definitive matriculation is possible only on condition that candidates submit the necessary stay permit.
Remember
If you do not succeed in getting enrolled, remember to ask for your documents back from the Italian institution concerned; this, in its turn, will inform the competent Italian diplomatic authority in your home country.
Those candidates whose applications were found not consistent with the present provisions will receive them back, along with all related documents, by 31 December of the year of the application delivery; the institutions have to motivate their refusals, and to return the documentations by insured surface mail or other equally reliable transmission means, except that candidates go personally -or send their delegates- before the mentioned date.
Candidates who have not passed admission exams or, classified as "idonei" (go to Admission Exams & 2nd Placements, and read the item "2nd Placements"), could not be admitted to another programme or assigned to another study site, must leave from Italy by the expiring date of their visa/stay permit for study purposes.
Only one exception is possible: it concerns those candidates who hold also another type of stay permit which allows them to live legally in Italy beyond the expiring date of the stay permit for study.
Are you an Italian citizen and do you hold a foreign school leaving qualification not yet legally recognized as equivalent to an Italian one?
And do you want to matriculate in a 1st degree programme at an Italian higher education (H. Ed.) institution?
You may enroll with no need for a statement of equivalence of your foreign secondary diploma to the Italian "Diploma di Esame di Stato conclusivo dei corsi di istruzione secondaria superiore" (formerly Maturitą).
You have to directly apply to the Italian H. Ed. institution of your choice (university or Afam institution) and comply with all the requirements, procedures and deadlines that it has autonomously determined.
You are eligible for admission if your foreign secondary qualification meets the indispensable minimum educational requirements; check them by going to admission to 1st cycle degree programmes.
Your enrollment application may be accepted only if you submit, along with your secondary qualification, also a consular statement confirming, on the basis of suitable documents, that you have completed your secondary studies in schools located abroad.
Remember
An exception to the above condition is possible only in case your secondary diploma was awarded by one of those: