Study Medicine in Italy in 2026: IMAT or Semestre Filtro?

Ciao! Come state?

Allora, get a coffee. This one has numbers.

This year, 62,200 people enrolled in Italy’s new open semester for medicine, dentistry, and veterinary medicine. Reported figures put the places waiting at the end for Italian-language Medicine at public universities at 18,889.

Meanwhile, the English-language programmes kept a different door: the IMAT. Sixty questions, 100 minutes, one attempt a year.

Same degree. Two entrance systems. And a calendar for each…

I studied economics at UNIVPM in Ancona, not medicine. So I will not tell you what the five years feel like. This guide is about the rules, the dates, and the paperwork.

Everything below is updated to October 2026. Dates move every year, so check Universitaly before you plan anything.

Contents

• Two doors into medicine in Italy, and language picks the door
• Studying medicine in Italy in Italian: the semestre filtro
• Studying medicine in Italy in English: the IMAT
• Italian or English: how I would choose
• Four universities to look at (and one rulebook for non-EU students)
• What to do now if you want to start in 2027

Two doors into medicine in Italy, and language picks the door

At public universities, the language of the degree decides how you get in.

• Medicine in Italian: the semestre filtro (officially “semestre aperto”)
• Medicine in English: the IMAT
• Private universities: their own admission tests

The reform that created the semestre filtro came with Law 26/2025. It does not apply to degrees taught in English. Those who kept a separate national exam.

Dentistry follows the same split. The IMAT is one test for both Medicine and Dentistry, so one sitting can count for both. In 2026 it also covers Veterinary Medicine, but at registration you choose: Medicine and Dentistry together, or Veterinary.

Studying medicine in Italy in Italian: the semestre filtro

There is no entrance quiz anymore. Anyone with a secondary school diploma can enrol. You attend lectures, you sit three national exams, and a ranking decides who continues.

Numero chiuso did not disappear. It moved to the end of the semester.

What changed compared with the old test

The old system was one test, one day. The new one is a real first semester of university: 18 credits (CFU) across three courses.

• Enrolment is free of any prior test, with a flat contribution of 250 euro
• Attendance is mandatory, and only students who attend are admitted to the exams (each university decides how it counts presences)
• You can enter the filter semester a maximum of three times

If you followed the first year of the reform, 2026/27 brought a few changes. Each exam is now 31 questions in 50 minutes (21 multiple choice and 10 completion). Lectures run about three months instead of two. And when you sit the same exam twice, your best mark counts automatically.

The three exams and how the ranking works

You sit in Biology, Chemistry with biochemistry basics, and Physics. Each is worth 6 credits. Each has 31 questions, and you earn 1 point per right answer, lose 0.10 for a wrong one and get 0 for a blank. You need at least 18/30 for a mark to count. The maximum across the three exams is 93 points.

The exams are on paper, on the same day and at the same time all over Italy. The periodic table is not allowed in the room (so don’t build your Chemistry plan around it).

Then comes the part many people miss. The ranking has three sections:

• Three exams passed: +300 points
• Two exams passed: +200 points
• One exam passed: +100 points

Sections beat grades. A student with three minimum passes (300 plus 54) ranks above a student with two excellent marks (200 plus 62). The goal is to close all three exams, not to shine in two.

Which one is the wall? Physics. In the first year, reported figures showed about 10,000 valid Physics marks against about 21,700 in Chemistry.

Dates for the 2026/27 cycle

• July 13 to August 3, 2026: enrolment on Universitaly (closed), with the 250 euro paid by August 6
• September 1, 2026: lectures start
• December 10, 2026, 11:00: first national exam session (results December 23)
• January 11, 2027, 11:00: second session (results January 20)
• January 22, 2027, 16:00: national ranking published
• January 22 to 28, 2027: first enrolment window for those with a place

The next call is expected in July 2027. The official page is on the Ministry’s site.

If you are not in a winning position

You do not lose the year. Your credits can be recognised in a related degree such as Biotechnology, Biological Sciences or Pharmacy, and you can enrol in any other degree by March 12, 2027. Or you try again, up to three times in total.

Studying medicine in Italy in English: the IMAT

For English-taught Medicine and Surgery or Dentistry at public universities, the IMAT is the entrance exam. Only your IMAT score decides admission. Your school grades and other achievements do not count.

Format and scoring

The test has 60 questions, five options each, in 100 minutes:

• 4 on reading skills and general knowledge
• 5 on logical reasoning and problems
• 23 on biology
• 15 on chemistry
• 13 on physics and mathematics

You get +1.5 for a right answer, minus 0.4 for a wrong one and 0 for a blank. The maximum is 90 points. EU candidates need at least 20 points to enter the national ranking.

Let’s do the maths together (it helps to see the penalty). Say you answer 32 questions correctly, miss 12 and leave 16 blank. That is 48 points, minus 4.8, which gives 43.2. Blanks are allowed, and sometimes smart.

Dates for IMAT 2026

• August 26 to September 9, 2026: registration on Universitaly (closes at 15:00)
• September 29, 2026: the test, starting at 13:30 in Italy
• October 8, 2026: scores published
• October 19, 2026: you can view your paper and score in your Universitaly area
• October 26, 2026: national ranking published
• November 3, 2026: first scorrimento (the ranking “slides” as places free up)

The decree behind these dates is Ministerial Decree 1005 of August 6, 2026.

If you read this in early October 2026, this year’s test is already done. For 2027 I do not have official dates. For comparison, the 2025 test was on September 17, with registration from August 26 to September 9. So expect registration in late summer and a test in September.

Who competes where

EU citizens and non-EU students legally resident in Italy join a national ranking. You list universities in order of preference when you register, and the system assigns you according to your score and that order.

Non-EU students who need a study visa have a different path. They compete for reserved places and are ranked locally, at the one university where they applied. That is why the choice must be strategic.

Seats for English-taught Medicine in 2026/27 are 2,430 for EU and resident candidates and 1,362 for non-EU candidates abroad.

A language certificate (B2 or higher) is not an entry requirement. It works as a tie-breaker when two candidates have the same score.

Italian or English: how I would choose

Honestly… it depends on what you can do right now, not on what sounds nicer.

The Italian route asks you to live a real university semester: lectures, attendance, three exams and a ranking in January. If you apply from outside the EU and need a visa, you also need an Italian certificate at B2 level, which takes planning.

The English route compresses everything into one day and one score. It also gives you one shot a year, and biology weighs 23 questions out of 60.

Do not prepare for medicine in your spare hours. Neither door opens that way.

One more point, and I would ask each university directly: how do hospital placements work in an English-taught degree, and how much Italian do you need there? I would want that answer in writing before choosing.

Four universities to look at (and one rulebook for non-EU students)

I chose these because each one teaches you something different about the system. The seat numbers come from the 2026/27 allocation for English-taught Medicine, as reported after the decree.

Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona

Ancona is home turf for me (my degrees were here), but I did not study medicine, so I will stick to numbers. For English-taught Medicine, the 2026/27 allocation lists 30 places for EU and resident candidates and 50 for non-EU candidates abroad. A small pool for the first group, a large one for the second. Ancona is also listed as an Italian test venue for the IMAT.

University of Messina

Messina published its 2026/27 call for the English-taught degree, with 55 places for EU and resident candidates and 61 for non-EU candidates. Its IMAT page gives the test as September 29, with the competition area opening at 11:00 and the test starting at 13:30. It also says that candidates needed an application on both the university portal and Universitaly by July 20, 2026. Read that again: a university can add its own deadline before the national one. (Italian bureaucracy is its own sport… and the rulebook has two leagues.)

University of Bologna

Bologna lists 140 places for EU and resident candidates in English-taught Medicine, plus 20 for non-EU, the biggest of the public programmes in my list. For the Italian-taught route, Bologna sat in the “very high selectivity” group in the first year: the last student assigned at the first assignment held position 8,187. Use positions, not points, to compare, because the scoring scale changed this year. It is history, not a prediction.

Sapienza University of Rome

Sapienza shows how uneven the system is. Its places in the national ranking for Italian-taught Medicine grew from 1,658 to 1,832 this year, while Tor Vergata, also in Rome, went down from 703 to 573. For English-taught Medicine, Sapienza has 52 places for EU and resident candidates and 13 for non-EU. And for non-EU students applying to Italian-taught degrees from abroad, Sapienza explains the Italian language test (ITA L2, level B2), which is mandatory for them.

University of Turin: a good example of non-EU rules

Turin’s page for international students is clear. Non-EU visa applicants for Italian-taught programmes need a B2 certificate from the CLIQ system, obtained from 2023 onward. Their Universitaly pre-enrolment deadline for the semestre aperto was August 31, 2026, and for English-taught Medicine September 11, 2026. And on Universitaly you can apply for one programme only.

What to do now if you want to start in 2027

Start with the calendar, not with the books.

• Set a reminder for July 2027 for the semestre filtro call, and for late August for IMAT registration. Both appear on Universitaly.
• If you need a visa, check the pre-enrolment deadline and the language requirement of every university you like. They differ, as Turin and Messina showed.
• Decide your language route by early 2027, so your preparation matches the exam you will actually sit.
• Look at money early. Scholarships run on their own calendar, and I explain the logic in my guide to the DSU scholarship.

If you want the bigger picture of life as an international student here, my complete guide to studying in Italy is the place to start.

So, which door are you looking at: Italian or English? Tell me in the comments (and where you are writing from, I like to know).

Ciao cacao!