How these universities are ranked
20 of these universities hold a QS World position, from #87 (Politecnico di Milano) to #580 (Polytechnic Institute of Bari); they are listed first, in that order. The rest are ordered by research impact. Sapienza University of Rome has the largest research record in this group, with 21,051,911 citations and an h-index of 1,089. 18 universities have neither a QS position nor a research record yet and appear at the end, marked "Not yet ranked".
Public, private and where they are
The split is 98 public to 0 private institutions. By location, Lombardy (1), Lazio (1) and Emilia-Romagna (1) account for the most of those we can place. The oldest is University of Bologna, founded in 1088. Sapienza University of Rome is the largest, with 112,000 students.
Levels, lengths and start dates
By level: 402 bachelor's, 340 master's, 27 phd / doctorate and 27 professional. The most common subjects are Engineering (140), Business & Management (106), Arts, Design & Architecture (74) and Social Sciences & Psychology (63). The usual length is 4 years and 1–2 years. 99% are full-time and 1 can be studied online. Start dates lean to Fall (98% of courses with a stated intake) and Spring (91% of courses with a stated intake). University of Calabria offers the widest choice, with 69 of these courses.
What it costs
We hold indicative fees for 5 of these universities. University of Padua is the least expensive at USD 2,800 a year and Politecnico di Milano the most at USD 4,200; the middle of the range is about USD 3,000. Check each university's own fee page before you budget — figures change every year.
