Second Degree in Italy: Your Options as a Graduate

Three ways to study in Italy when you already have a degree

You have three questions to settle. Whether Italy will let you take a second bachelor’s. Whether you can move into a new field at master’s level. Whether an HND or diploma buys you entry part-way through a degree.

The answers are short. A second bachelor’s is allowed — the rule is yes — with no national quota, no surcharge and no age limit. A conversion master’s in the British sense does not exist: a Laurea Magistrale in a new field opens only when you meet the programme’s published credit requirements, and the repair for a shortfall is single course units taken before you enrol. A top-up into the final year does not exist either; the Italian equivalent places a diploma holder into year two or year three of the full Laurea.

The honest default: if your degree sits in or near the field you want, apply straight to a Laurea Magistrale — 120 ECTS over 2 years at €200–4,200 per year; if it sits in a different field, budget one extra year for the missing credits, or start a full Laurea. Both routes run through the same national portal, the same single intake — Autumn (late September/October) — and the same ministerial visa deadline.

A second bachelor’s in Italy

Italy has no equivalent of the German second-degree quota. No national quota, cap or surcharge exists for a second first-cycle degree. Enrolling is an ordinary immatricolazione governed by each university’s regolamento didattico, so a graduate is assessed like any other applicant and pays the same public fee, €200–4,200 per year, plus the regional right-to-study tax and stamp duty of €140–160 per year. Universities charge a small one-off fee to assess the academic career you already hold; Milan and Bologna both publish one.

What the first degree buys you is time, not a discount. Credit is recognised through abbreviazione di carriera, which can place you directly into the second or third year of the 180-ECTS Laurea. Recognition is decided by the receiving university, course by course against its own syllabus, so one transcript can produce year two at one university and year one at another. There is no national cap on academic credit carried over; the statutory cap in Italian law bites only on certified professional and non-academic learning.

A second bachelor’s earns its cost when you need the Italian qualification itself — a regulated profession, a real change of field, a degree Italian employers read — and not when you are hoping to shorten a programme whose credits will not transfer. Entry rules for each of our nine origin certificates are on our Italy bachelor’s guide.

Changing field with a conversion master’s

The mechanism has a name, and it is not a conversion year. Italy has no formal conversion master's. Admission to a Laurea Magistrale in a new field runs through requisiti curriculari under DM 270/2004 art. 6 c.2: each programme publishes a minimum number of CFU in named SSD subject areas. A candidate short of those CFU earns them before enrolling by taking corsi singoli (single course units) at an Italian university, which non-EU applicants resident abroad can pre-enrol for on Universitaly and enter on a study visa. Padua charges EUR 200 per course, capped at five courses; Sapienza about EUR 107 per course. This typically adds one academic year. Two traps: credits used to satisfy requisiti curriculari cannot later be reused for abbreviazione di carriera, and corsi singoli exams do not count towards the degree average.

So a field change is paid in a year, not in a fee — and you pay it before the master’s starts, living in Italy at €900–1,300 per month.

English-taught master’s places make the switch realistic without Italian. Sapienza lists 45, the University of Milan 40, Politecnico di Torino 30 and the University of Padua 28. Public fees stay low: €300 per year at Sapienza against €3,710–18,550 per year at private Bocconi. The English bar differs too, IELTS 6 at Bologna against 6.5 at Tor Vergata. Compare them on our Italian universities page; entry rules sit on our Italy master’s guide.

HND and diploma holders: top-up routes

Not available in the British sense. Italy awards no top-up degree; the equivalent is abbreviazione di carriera, in which the holder enrols in the full Laurea and is placed into year 2 or year 3 by credit recognition, receiving the ordinary Laurea. Recognition is by CIMEA (attestato di comparabilita) with the receiving university deciding the year of entry. For the Nigerian HND the MUR/CIMEA country focus states that the National Diploma, Certificate in Education and Higher National Diploma give access with an abbreviazione di corso; no official CIMEA statement was found comparing an HND to an Italian Laurea, so an HND opens the abbreviazione route into a Laurea rather than direct entry to a Laurea Magistrale. Ghana's MUR/CIMEA summary covers WASSCE and degrees only, with no HND section.

Read that as an open door on a lower floor: the HND gets you in and shortens the degree, but it does not stand in for a bachelor’s at master’s level. Recognition runs through Consular Dichiarazione di Valore (DoV), or CIMEA Statement of Comparability as an accepted alternative, and apostille is required: yes. No APS certificate is needed: no.

Two alternatives often work better. Convert the HND into a full bachelor’s at home first, then apply straight to a Laurea Magistrale. Or apply for the Laurea and ask the admissions office, before paying for legalisation, which year it would place you in — Ghana’s MUR and CIMEA summary has no HND section at all, so a Ghanaian holder cannot assume the Nigerian precedent applies.

Visa, age and funding for a second degree

The study visa treats a second degree as a fresh purpose of stay. You need admission, accommodation, insurance and money: €10,179.85 per year, shown by bank statements, a notarised sponsor affidavit or an awarded scholarship. The visa costs €50 and takes 6–13 weeks; the residence permit after arrival costs €116.46. Italy’s age limit for a second degree is none.

The risk is coherence, not eligibility: no rule bars a same-level second degree, but the consulate is instructed to weigh how well the chosen course fits your earlier studies and circumstances, so admission is necessary and not sufficient. Italian law allows enrolment in two courses at once, yet the visa and the permit stay tied to one. For postgraduate courses the consulate also asks for evidence of professional training and its fit with the course. Our Italy student visa page lists the documents, and proof of funds explains how to place the money.

Funding is the weak point. The Italian Government (MAECI) scheme funds no first-cycle degree at all and imposes hard age caps, the highest being 40 for research projects and lower at master’s and doctoral level; its prior-degree exclusion applies only to Italian qualifications, so a Nigerian or Ghanaian bachelor’s does not disqualify you. Regional DSU scholarships exclude anyone already holding a qualification of equal or higher level, in Italy or abroad. Erasmus Mundus stays open, covering tuition in full plus €1,400 per month, unless you have held one before. See Italy scholarships. Work rights do not change: 20 hours/week maximum, and a separate permit needed, no.

How to apply with a degree in hand

1. Get the degree assessed first. Order Consular Dichiarazione di Valore (DoV), or CIMEA Statement of Comparability as an accepted alternative, and start legalisation and apostille alongside it; this decides which routes are open.
2. Ask two or three admissions offices, in writing, which requisiti curriculari you are short of and which year of the Laurea they would place you in. Answers differ on identical files.
3. Choose the route from those answers. Close subject fit means a Laurea Magistrale; a credit shortfall means corsi singoli for a year first; no usable credit means the full Laurea with abbreviazione di carriera.
4. Apply to the university’s own call. Master’s applicants work to the first intake, First intake closing Apr-Jun 2027; 31 Oct 2027 is the MUR national visa deadline for 2027/28: non-EU applicants resident abroad are generally restricted to it.
5. Pre-enrol on Universitaly (national pre-enrolment platform for international students) at universitaly.it, which gates the visa. Second-bachelor applicants also face the ministerial date: 31 Oct 2027 (MUR national visa deadline for 2027/28); university calls close Mar-Sep 2027.
6. Hold the certificate the course demands. The common floor is IELTS 6 for a master’s; Italian-taught courses need B2, checked at pre-enrolment. See Italy without IELTS.
7. Place the funds, buy the insurance, then book the consulate or an authorised visa centre at home, with cover of at least 30,000 euro and a reason for the second degree that matches your record.
8. Apply for the residence permit within days of landing, paying €116.46, and show the funds again at the Questura.