Study

CFUs are university credits and are the indicators by which, in Italian universities, the workload required of a student to attend classes and prepare for exams is measured.

The CFU allocated to a course will therefore be proportional to the effort required to prepare for the relevant examination

Qualifications obtained abroad are not automatically valid in Italy, but are assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Individual universities decide on the recognition of examinations taken at foreign universities or foreign degrees for the purposes of access, continuation and award of Italian degrees.

For further information on the recognition procedure, please consult the website of Cimea, the national information centre on the recognition of qualifications obtained abroad.

If you want to enrol at university, you do not need to submit a special application: your university qualification will be assessed during admission to the chosen course.
Recognition of any examinations taken abroad may be requested at the time of enrolment.

Non-European citizens residing abroad are also required to submit an online pre-enrolment application (for recognition of foreign qualifications) on the Universitaly portal.
The subsequent stages of pre-enrolment will be completed at the competent diplomatic and consular offices in order to obtain the relevant visa.

1. Where no other options are specified in the teaching regulations of individual courses of study, the organisation of the academic year conforms to the following general criteria:

a. irrespective of the number of credits, the courses are scheduled in semester blocks;
b. the normal days for classroom teaching are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, excluding public holidays.
Wednesday and Saturday mornings are reserved for other university activities (laboratories, seminars, conferences, educational visits, etc.) and any extra time that may be necessary;
c. the deans of the faculties allocate to each course year, on a permanent basis for the entire academic year, teaching spaces that can be used for no less than 18 hours per week;
d. It is forbidden to give lectures on the same subject for more than three consecutive hours;
e. Classes for the first semester must begin no later than October;
f. during the first semester, a break in teaching activities must be planned for the period between the third ten days of December and the first ten days of the following January;
g. The end of classes for the first semester must fall in the week in the middle of January;
h. Classes for the second semester must start between the last ten days of February and the first ten days of March;
i. Classes for the second semester must end no later than 15 June;
j. the winter session of examinations begins at the earliest on the 15th day following the actual end of the first semester’s classes in the course of study to which it relates, and is completed by the end of February.
This session is the first of the academic year in which it falls, while it is an extraordinary session for those enrolled in the previous academic year;
k. the summer session of examinations begins at the earliest on the 15th day following the actual end of classes for the second semester in the course of study to which it relates, and is completed by the end of July;
l. the autumn session of examinations takes place between 1 September and 31 October and includes an extraordinary appeal reserved for working students, repeaters, out-of-course students and undergraduates, identified by specific regulations.
m. in any session, a period of not less than 15 days must elapse between the conclusion of one call and the beginning of the next, relating to the same course.

2.  With the exception of the autumn session, the possibility of holding simultaneous examination sessions and teaching activities within the same course of study is excluded.

3. Dates of appeals must be published well in advance and on the basis of at least a quarterly schedule.

4. The study course councils, in consultation with the University’s Directorate-General, set the calendar for final examinations each year.

The relevant dates, with reference to the starting day, are published well in advance on the University’s website.