Italy funds international students through three separate routes: regional DSU grants based on family income, MAECI government scholarships based on merit, and Invest Your Talent in Italy for master’s students from listed countries. Most applicants chase the two merit routes and miss the first one. DSU (Diritto allo Studio Universitario, the right to university study) pays a cash grant, removes tuition and adds housing and canteen support, and the scheme never asks for top grades. A student from a low-income family in any country can qualify on income evidence alone in the first year. Preparation decides the outcome: the students who win are usually the ones who legalised their family income documents months early. This guide explains scholarships in Italy for international students with verified 2026/27 figures, the document chain and the exact order of applications.
Quick Facts
- Main routes: DSU regional grants, MAECI government scholarships, Invest Your Talent in Italy (IYT)
- DSU basis: Family income only in year one; grades do not decide eligibility
- DSU cash grant: Up to €7,171.11 a year (Emilia-Romagna, 2026/27, non-resident students, lowest income band)
- DSU income ceiling: ISEE €25,000 and ISPE €50,000 (ER.GO, 2026/27)
- MAECI grant: €10,800 for 9 months, equal to €1,200 a month (2026-2027 call)
- IYT grant: €1,200 a month for 9 months plus full tuition exemption, listed countries only
- Extra DSU benefits: Full tuition exemption, dormitory place, discounted canteen meals
- Application order: University admission, Universitaly pre-enrolment, merit calls in spring, DSU call in summer
Why Study in Italy on a Scholarship
Public tuition in Italy is income-based and low by Western European standards, so a grant stretches further here than in most study destinations. State universities set each fee from the family economic indicator, and annual fees commonly run from under €200 to about €4,000. Hundreds of degrees run entirely in English, and the Universitaly portal lists every programme by language of instruction. Italy’s biggest scheme ignores grades in year one and reads your family’s income file instead. That single design choice puts scholarships in Italy for international students within reach of families who could never compete for a grades-only award in London or Amsterdam.
Route 1: DSU Regional Scholarships
DSU is a regional right-to-study package that pays enrolled students a cash grant, full tuition exemption, a dormitory place or housing support, and discounted meals at university canteens. Italy’s regions run the scheme through local agencies: ER.GO in Emilia-Romagna, EDISU Piemonte in Piedmont, DiSCo in Lazio and DSU Toscana in Tuscany. Your agency is the one where your university sits. Sapienza students apply in Lazio, while a Politecnico di Torino student applies in Piedmont. Distance from home then fixes your category:
- In sede (resident): your family home sits in the same municipality as your course.
- Pendolare (commuter): your family home sits near enough for a daily trip to lectures.
- Fuori sede (non-resident): you move to the university city and hold a registered rental contract, or an agency dormitory place, covering at least 10 months of the year.
The 2026/27 ER.GO call for Emilia-Romagna pays these maximum cash amounts to students in the lowest income band, with an ISEE (Indicatore della Situazione Economica Equivalente, equivalent economic situation indicator) up to €16,666.67:
| Student status | Who counts | Maximum cash grant, ER.GO 2026/27 |
|---|---|---|
| Fuori sede (non-resident) | Lives in the university city on a 10-month contract or in a dormitory | €7,171.11 |
| Pendolare (commuter) | Travels to lectures daily from the family home | €4,190.71 |
| In sede (resident) | Family home in the same municipality as the course | €2,890.16 |
Higher ISEE values earn reduced amounts on a sliding scale up to the €25,000 ceiling. ER.GO raises the grant by 15 percent for students with an ISEE at or below €12,500, and women enrolled in science and technology courses receive a 20 percent increase. Every eligible student also receives full exemption from university tuition fees, and cash arrives in instalments across the year.
The ISEE Parificato, Step by Step
Non-EU students cannot produce an Italian ISEE, so the system converts foreign family finances into an equivalent value called the ISEE Parificato. The document decides both your DSU eligibility and your tuition band, and one missing certificate can void the whole file. ER.GO’s 2026/27 rules require papers issued by the competent authority where the income was earned, translated into Italian and legalised by the Italian consulate, or apostilled. Self-declarations are never accepted. Build the file in this order:
- Request a family composition certificate naming every member of your household.
- Collect an income certificate for each adult member covering the reference year (2025 income for 2026/27), plus proof that any non-working member earns nothing.
- Obtain a property certificate listing every building the family owns, with the surface in square metres, plus bank balances and assets held on 31 December of the reference year.
- Legalise the full set at the Italian embassy or consulate in your home country, then translate every page into Italian through an official translator.
- After arrival, take the legalised set to a CAF (Centro di Assistenza Fiscale, tax assistance centre) affiliated with your regional agency, which calculates and issues the ISEE Parificato.
Start step one at least three months before the regional deadline. Consulates in high-demand countries release legalisation appointments weeks ahead, and the file must be complete, translated and legalised by the application deadline, not started by it.
Route 2: MAECI Government Scholarships
MAECI (Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale), the Italian foreign ministry, pays €10,800 over 9 months, equal to €1,200 a month, for master’s, PhD, research and Italian language programmes. The 2026-2027 call closed on 26 March 2026 at 2 p.m. Italian time, and applications ran only through the Study in Italy portal. Money reaches an Italian bank account in three instalments: €5,500 after enrolment, €2,300 from February and €3,000 after you prove 27 CFU (Crediti Formativi Universitari, university credits) of academic progress. Health and accident insurance contracted by MAECI covers the funding period. AFAM (Alta Formazione Artistica e Musicale) academies for art, music and dance qualify alongside universities. Tuition treatment is weaker than applicants expect: the call leaves exemption to each university’s own rules, and the regional tax stays payable. Age caps bite hard: master’s and AFAM applicants must be 28 or younger at the deadline, PhD applicants 30 or younger, and research applicants 40 or younger. English-taught programmes require a B2 English certificate, while Italian-taught programmes require B2 Italian. One ban shapes the plan: a MAECI grant cannot be held together with a DSU grant or any other Italian public scholarship.
Route 3: Invest Your Talent in Italy
Invest Your Talent in Italy (IYT) combines a €1,200 monthly allowance for 9 months, a full tuition exemption and a curricular internship inside an Italian company, for master’s students from a fixed list of about 23 countries. The 2026-2027 call ran from 20 April to 11 May 2026 and covered English-taught master’s degrees in engineering, architecture, design, economics and management. Listed countries include India, Brazil, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Türkiye and Vietnam. Every scholar attends an Italian language course, and renewal for year two requires at least 30 credits. Applicants record a one-minute motivation video and prove English at B2 level or higher. Students already enrolled at an Italian university cannot apply, so the programme funds newcomers only.
Other University Scholarships
Individual universities run smaller merit awards alongside the three routes above. The University of Padua’s International Excellence Scholarship pays €8,000 a year plus a fee waiver to bachelor’s and master’s applicants, scored on the admission file. Bologna’s International Talents @Unibo grants pay €6,500 a year plus full tuition exemption for two years to master’s students. Both schemes read grades, unlike DSU. Read the funding page of every university on your shortlist before you assume DSU is your only route.
Eligibility
Each route tests a different part of your profile: DSU tests family income, MAECI tests age and academic merit, and IYT tests nationality and field of study.
- DSU: a confirmed place at a covered university in the region; an ISEE at or below the regional ceiling (ER.GO: €25,000, ISPE €50,000, for 2026/27); any nationality; any age; no grade threshold in year one.
- MAECI: citizenship of a country on the call’s eligible list; age 28 or younger for master’s and AFAM programmes, 30 for PhD, 40 for research; a B2 language certificate for taught programmes; entry into the first year of the programme; no other Italian public grant.
- IYT: citizenship and residence in a listed country; a bachelor’s degree; English at B2; a place on a participating English-taught master’s degree; no current enrolment in Italy.
Documents Required
One document set, built once and legalised once, serves all three routes.
- Valid passport
- Degree certificate and full transcripts, translated into Italian or English as each call requires
- The family income set for the ISEE Parificato: composition certificate, income certificates, property certificate, bank and asset statements
- Language certificate at B2 level or higher, matching your programme’s language
- Curriculum vitae (CV) in European format
- Supervisor invitation letter and research project, for MAECI research applicants
- One-minute motivation video, for IYT applicants
Keep certified copies of everything: regional agencies can demand the original paper documents during checks at any point in the year, and a failed check cancels benefits already paid.
How to Apply Step by Step
The sequence is fixed: admission and pre-enrolment first, merit applications in spring, the DSU call in summer, and the ISEE Parificato finished before the DSU deadline.
- Shortlist universities and check each programme’s language and entry rules on Universitaly.
- Apply for admission to the university. Non-EU students then complete pre-enrolment on Universitaly, the summary the Italian consulate uses to process the study visa.
- While admission runs, build the family income set at home and legalise it at the Italian consulate.
- File the merit routes in spring: MAECI on the Study in Italy portal (2026-2027 deadline 26 March 2026), IYT on its own portal (2026 window, 20 April to 11 May).
- Apply for the study visa with your pre-enrolment summary and admission letter.
- In summer, submit the DSU application on your regional agency’s portal inside the bando window (ER.GO ran 23 June to 24 August 2026) and upload the foreign income documents.
- After arrival, collect your codice fiscale (tax identification number), open an Italian bank account and sign a registered rental contract, so your fuori sede status holds.
- Watch the agency’s ranking lists in autumn and complete enrolment by the university deadline, or the award lapses.
Application Timeline
One calendar drives all three routes, and the DSU leg always falls in summer.
- January to March: university admission rounds for autumn entry; the MAECI call opens and closes (26 March 2026 in the last cycle).
- April to May: the IYT window (20 April to 11 May 2026); Universitaly pre-enrolment for students who need a visa.
- June to September: DSU calls open region by region (ER.GO closed on 24 August 2026; EDISU Piemonte closed on 4 September 2026).
- October to November: provisional and final ranking lists appear; dormitory places are assigned.
- December onward: first grant instalments reach Italian bank accounts.
Common Mistakes
Most failed files break on documents or deadlines, not on ability.
- Starting the ISEE Parificato after arrival. Income and property certificates exist only in your home country, and consular legalisation queues stretch for weeks in peak season.
- Applying to the wrong agency. The agency follows the region of the university: Turin files with EDISU Piemonte, Rome with DiSCo Lazio, Bologna with ER.GO.
- Missing the bando deadline. ER.GO states in its guide that late applications are never taken into account, and no appeal reopens a closed call.
- Assuming MAECI removes tuition. Exemption depends on the host university’s rules, the regional tax is always due, and MAECI money cannot be combined with DSU money.
- Ignoring the credit rule after winning. DSU renewal checks the credits recorded by 10 August each year; a second-year bachelor’s student needs 25 CFU, with up to 5 bonus credits usable once, and a shortfall sends the first instalment back.
- Skipping pre-enrolment. Without the Universitaly summary, the consulate cannot issue the study visa.
Conclusion
The DSU route decides most outcomes in Italy, because the scheme funds ordinary students at public universities on income evidence alone. Merit routes reward a small number of files each spring; the regional grant quietly covers tuition, housing support and living costs for every enrolled student under the ceiling, which is why scholarships in Italy for international students turn on paperwork more than on interviews. The ER.GO call for 2026/27 closed on 24 August 2026 with a €25,000 ISEE ceiling and a €7,171.11 maximum grant for non-resident students.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can international students apply for the DSU scholarship?
Yes. DSU grants are open to enrolled students of any nationality, including non-EU students. Eligibility rests on family income proven through the ISEE Parificato, not on citizenship or grades.
How much money does the DSU scholarship pay?
Amounts vary by region and status. Emilia-Romagna’s ER.GO call for 2026/27 pays up to €7,171.11 a year to non-resident students in the lowest income band, plus full tuition exemption and canteen discounts.
What is the ISEE Parificato and how do I get one?
The ISEE Parificato converts a foreign family’s income, property and assets into Italy’s economic indicator. You legalise home-country certificates at the Italian consulate, translate them into Italian, and a CAF office in Italy issues the value.
Do I need top grades to win a scholarship in Italy?
No for DSU, which judges family income alone in the first year. MAECI, Invest Your Talent in Italy and university awards rank applicants on academic records, so strong grades matter there.
When do scholarship applications open in Italy?
MAECI opens in spring (the 2026-2027 call closed on 26 March 2026), Invest Your Talent in Italy follows in April and May, and DSU calls run from June into September.
Does the MAECI scholarship fund bachelor’s degrees?
No, new bachelor’s degrees sit outside the call, apart from first-cycle AFAM programmes in art, music and dance. Master’s degrees, PhD programmes, research projects and Italian language courses carry the funding.
Which scholarships in Italy for international students require no Italian language?
Programmes taught in English need no Italian certificate. Invest Your Talent in Italy funds English-taught degrees only, MAECI asks for B2 English on English-taught programmes, and DSU follows the degree you enrol in, whatever its language.
Apply through official channels only: the Study in Italy portal carries the current MAECI call, ER.GO publishes the Emilia-Romagna DSU call, and Universitaly handles pre-enrolment. Compare Italy with every other destination in our guide to fully funded scholarships for international students, where the deadlines for the major 2027 awards sit in one table.
