Master's Degree in Italy for African Students

What a master’s degree in Italy looks like

The degree is the Laurea Magistrale, the second cycle of the Italian system: 2 years and 120 ECTS after a first degree, closing with an original thesis. Teaching starts in September, October and the national intake is Autumn (late September/October). Non-EU applicants resident abroad are generally restricted to that first intake, so there is no February entry.

Check the name of the qualification before you pay anything: a Master universitario di primo or secondo livello is a one-year, 60-credit course, not a second-cycle degree, and it gives no access to a dottorato. Only the Laurea Magistrale does.

English-taught choice is real at this level, which is not true of Italian bachelor’s degrees. Sapienza lists 45 English-taught master’s, the University of Milan 40, Politecnico di Torino 30, Padua 28, Turin 21, Pisa 17 and Tor Vergata 17. Bologna, Politecnico di Milano and Bocconi each teach many of theirs in English.

Is an African bachelor’s accepted?

Three-year degrees are accepted as the rule. The circular requires the foreign first degree to be Bologna first cycle and EQF level 6, awarded by an institution that permits local progression to the next level, with no substantial difference under the Lisbon Convention and CIMEA methodology. Nigerian, Ghanaian, Kenyan and Egyptian four-year bachelor's degrees qualify comfortably. South Africa is the exception in practice: Politecnico di Milano accepts only the NQF Level 8 Honours degree and states that holders of a Level 7 qualification will not be evaluated, because the three-year SA Bachelor does not give local access to a master's.

Bologna wants three or more years and 180 ECTS coherent with the master’s. The University of Milan, Padua, Politecnico di Torino, Tor Vergata and Bocconi accept a three-year first degree once a Dichiarazione di Valore or CIMEA statement confirms it. Sapienza generally wants four years, and for Nigeria and Ghana accepts an HND plus two or three further years.

There is no national minimum grade, so the real bar is each programme’s own curricular requirements. No national minimum. DM 270/2004 art. 6 c.2 requires each university to set requisiti curriculari (a minimum number of CFU in named SSD subject areas) plus a check of the adeguatezza della personale preparazione. Published country thresholds exist at institution level: Politecnico di Milano requires 65/100 for Egypt and 3.0/4.0 for Italy. Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Morocco carry no published Polimi threshold. A second class upper / 3.0 GPA profile is the safe working target.

Recognition runs through Consular Dichiarazione di Valore (DoV), or CIMEA Statement of Comparability as an accepted alternative, and your degree and transcript must be apostilled or legalised.

How much a master’s costs in Italy

Public master’s fees run €200–4,200 per year, and your band is set by your country’s income classification, not by your grades. Sapienza charges €300 per year, the University of Milan €346–402 per year, Bologna €600–1,400 per year, Turin €500–1,650 per year and Pisa €290–2,900 per year. Padua charges a flat €2,790–2,990 per year, and Politecnico di Milano puts unfunded non-EU entrants in the top band at €3,943.04 per year. Private universities are a different market at €7,280–18,550 per year.

Every student also pays the regional right-to-study tax and stamp duty, €140–160 per year, charged once a year. Add health cover at €135–700 per year and the residence permit at €116.46.

Living costs decide the budget, not tuition. The national estimate is €900–1,300 per month, but Pisa runs €750–1,150 per month and Milan €1,050–1,550 per month. A realistic first year is the fee band, the regional tax and twelve months of rent and food. Full breakdown on our cost of studying in Italy page.

English requirements for a master’s

There is no national English law in Italy: each university sets its own bar, and our dataset records a working floor of IELTS 6 at master’s level. Politecnico di Torino and Sapienza ask IELTS 5.5, Politecnico di Milano 6, and Bologna, Milan, Naples Federico II, Padua and Pisa 6. Bocconi and Tor Vergata are the highest at 6.5. TOEFL equivalents run from 72 at Politecnico di Torino to 90 at Pisa.

A medium-of-instruction letter is accepted at Politecnico di Milano, the University of Milan, Padua, Pisa and Turin, weighed case by case at Bocconi, Politecnico di Torino, Sapienza and Bologna, and refused at Naples Federico II. Ask for that letter before you book a test. Italian-taught master’s need Italian at B2 on a CELI, CILS, PLIDA or CERTIT certificate, checked at pre-enrolment. See study in Italy without IELTS.

Universities to look at for a master’s

Sapienza University of Rome, at #111 (QS 2027), is the cheapest serious option: €300 per year and 45 English-taught master’s, in a city that costs €950–1,400 per month. The University of Bologna, #123 (QS 2027), charges €600–1,400 per year with no application fee, and Bologna itself runs €850–1,300 per month.

Politecnico di Milano is the highest-ranked at #87 (QS 2027), but non-EU master’s entrants without a scholarship pay the top band of €3,943.04 per year in Italy’s most expensive city. Politecnico di Torino, #206 (QS 2027), is the engineering alternative: 30 English-taught master’s at €600–3,600 per year, with Turin at €750–1,150 per month.

The University of Padua, #204 (QS 2027), lists 28 English-taught master’s at a fixed €2,790–2,990 per year. The University of Milan, #270 (QS 2027), is the opposite trade: €346–402 per year for 40 programmes, but Milan rent of €390–704 per month. The cheapest total in our table is a low-fee public university in a small city, not a low-fee university in Milan.

The University of Pisa, #343 (QS 2026), pairs 17 English-taught master’s at €290–2,900 per year with the cheapest city in the dataset. Bocconi in Milan is the business-school option, asking IELTS 6.5 and charging €3,710–18,550 per year depending on the aid waiver, plus an application fee of €100. Profiles for all of them are on our Italian universities page.

Scholarships for a master’s

Two schemes fund master’s study, and all nine of our countries are eligible for both. The Italian Government Scholarships for Foreign Students (MAECI) pays €1,200 per month, caps applicants at 40, asks for B2 in the language of instruction and needs no admission letter first. The last call closed 26 March 2026 for the cycle 2026/27 — the 2027/28 call had not been published as of 2026-09-10, so watch the Study in Italy portal from January 2027.

Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters covers tuition in full and pays €1,400 per month; you apply to the consortium, not to an Italian university. University waivers move more money than either scheme for most applicants: Politecnico di Torino offers a certificate-conditional full exemption to applicants from Uganda and Zambia. See our Italy scholarships page.

How to apply for a master’s in Italy

1. Confirm the programme is a Laurea Magistrale, not a one-year Master universitario, and read its requisiti curriculari — the named subject credits it demands from your bachelor’s.
2. Order recognition documents early: a Dichiarazione di Valore from the Italian mission, or a CIMEA Statement of Comparability, plus apostille or legalisation.
3. Apply through each university’s own call. First intake closing Apr-Jun 2027; 31 Oct 2027 is the MUR national visa deadline for 2027/28.
4. Prove your language: IELTS 6 as the working floor for English-taught programmes, or a B2 Italian certificate for Italian-taught ones, or a medium-of-instruction letter where the university takes one.
5. Pre-enrol on Universitaly (national pre-enrolment platform for international students) at https://www.universitaly.it/ once you hold an offer. No pre-enrolment, no visa.
6. Build the money file: €10,179.85 per year evidenced by bank statements, a notarised sponsor affidavit or a scholarship award, plus travel medical insurance of at least 30,000 euro.
7. Book the consulate or VFS appointment. The student rate is €50, biometrics are taken, and processing runs 6 to 13 weeks — see the Italy student visa.
8. After you land, apply for the permesso di soggiorno within eight working days at a post office, at €116.46.

After the master’s

A Laurea Magistrale graduate converts the study permit into the Permesso di soggiorno per attesa occupazione (job-seeker permit), converted from the study permit and stays 12 months to find work or start a business. The conversion uses the same postal kit at a post office and costs €116.46. During the degree you may work 20 hours/week maximum with no separate permit, at €5.20–7.07 per hour.

The strongest route out of a master’s is a funded dottorato, not a job search. A doctoral scholarship pays €1,354 per month against tuition of €156–157.04 per year. Our PhD in Italy page has the calendar.