Medicine and Surgery (Single Cycle Degree, English-taught)

About the course

This six-year single-cycle degree (class LM-41) is taught in English in Bologna and combines bachelor’s and master’s-level medical training. Entry is restricted at national level and decided by the IMAT.

Entry requirements for Irish students

• The university assesses the Irish Leaving Certificate individually and does not publish a fixed Irish requirement. Contact admissions to confirm. In general, you need a foreign secondary qualification that is equivalent to the Italian five-year diploma and gives access to university under Italian rules.
• The IMAT has 60 multiple-choice questions: 4 on general knowledge, 5 on logical reasoning, 23 on biology, 15 on chemistry and 13 on physics and mathematics. Your place depends on your IMAT ranking, not on your Leaving Cert grades.
• English at CEFR B2 or higher is required and is assessed through the admission test. A language certificate is not compulsory but can help break ties in the ranking.

Working in Ireland afterwards

Because your medical degree comes from an EU/EEA country, the Medical Council of Ireland can recognise it automatically under EU Directive 2005/36/EC, as long as it is listed in Annex V (point 5.1.1). If that listing says the degree must come with an internship or state-exam certificate from your home country, you need to have that too, and you must also show your current professional standing and meet the English-language requirements. Graduates of EU/EEA medical schools may apply to the HSE for Irish intern posts, but only if their home-country degree does not already count as complete training. In older HSE intern guides (e.g., the 2022 guide), only graduates from medical schools in Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Iceland and Slovenia could apply. Graduates from other EEA countries (and Italians holding the ‘abilitante’ degree) were told they are not eligible, because they qualify directly for General registration. Applicants who need no work permit were matched before those who do. Please check the current eligibility list in the HSE intern guide for the year you apply. We could not confirm it for the July 2027 intake because the current HSE guide pages are password-protected.

How to apply

1. Register for IMATRegister and apply on Universitaly and choose Bologna. In the 2026 cycle the window was 26 August to 9 September 2026 (15:00 Italian time).
2. Sit the IMATIn 2026 the test was on 29 September at Bologna Fiere. Prepare for the biology, chemistry, physics and maths, logic and general knowledge sections.
3. Enrol after the rankingIf you rank high enough, enrol and pay the first instalment by the deadline in the call, or you lose your place. Your Leaving Cert must be obtained by 31 December (2026 cycle).
4. Sort out fees and arrivalSubmit foreign-income documents for a reduced fee (in 2026 by 30 October) and activate your student career in Bologna (in 2026 by 26 February 2027).

Costs

• Bologna does not charge a flat fee. Every student pays a fixed amount of EUR 157.04 (first instalment, due 24 September 2026 for 2026/27) plus a variable contribution that depends on your family’s financial situation (ISEE, or the foreign-income documents that EU students submit). If you do not submit these documents, you pay the maximum all-inclusive contribution set for the programme plus the EUR 157.04. The programme maximums are listed in a separate university table that we could not open, so check it before you apply. For 2026/27 the income-document deadline was 30 October 2026 (or 16 November 2026 with a EUR 100 late fee), and the later instalments were due on 18 December 2026 and 15 March 2027. Any IMAT registration fee is paid separately through Universitaly.

At a glance