Medicine and Surgery (LM-41, English-taught)

About the course

A six-year single-cycle degree in Medicine and Surgery taught in English at the University of Catania, with clinical training at the university hospital. Admission is through the national IMAT exam. The university doubled the intake to 80 places for 2026/27.

Entry requirements for Irish students

• The university assesses the Irish Leaving Certificate individually and does not publish a fixed Irish requirement. It asks for a secondary school diploma or an equivalent internationally recognised qualification. Italian universities normally also require a Dichiarazione di valore (from the Italian embassy) or a CIMEA Statement of Comparability, so contact admissions to confirm.
• Entry is decided by IMAT ranking. The multiple-choice test covers biology, chemistry, physics and maths, general knowledge and logical reasoning, and lasted 100 minutes in 2026. The exact question split, scoring and any minimum score are set each year by ministerial decree and the admission notice.
• English at B2 level (CEFR) is required. You are also expected to reach Italian at B2 level by the third year, before clinical placements; the University Language Centre offers Italian courses from the first year.

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. Check EU places and prepare documentsConfirm in the admission notice that places are open to EU applicants in your year, since in 2025/26 all places went to non-EU candidates. Then arrange a Dichiarazione di valore or a CIMEA Statement of Comparability for your Leaving Certificate, and have proof of B2 English.
2. Register for the IMAT on UniversitalyRegister and pay the test fee on Universitaly during the late-summer window (26 Aug to 9 Sep 2026 in the last cycle), choosing Catania as a preference.
3. Sit the IMATThe 2026 test was set for 29 September 2026 at 13:30 (100 minutes), covering biology, chemistry, physics and maths, general knowledge and logic.
4. Check the ranking and enrol quicklyAfter the national ranking is published, enrol on the university portal within the short deadline in the admission notice and pay the enrolment charges.

Costs

• Earlier drafts, based on the University of Catania’s 2026/27 admission notice, gave an annual all-inclusive contribution of about EUR 150 for students not resident in Italy. They also listed a fixed payment of about EUR 156 at enrolment (regional right-to-study tax plus stamp duty), making about EUR 306 in the first year. These amounts could not be re-checked against the official notice in this review, so treat them as indicative and confirm them in the admission notice before applying. Students resident in Italy pay a contribution based on their ISEE (family income) indicator. A separate IMAT test fee is paid on Universitaly, and the amount is published there when registration opens. 2027/28 fees are not yet published.

At a glance