Medicine and Surgery – International Medical School (IMS)

About the course

A six-year single-cycle master’s degree in Medicine and Surgery, taught in English at the University of Milan’s International Medical School and delivered in person. Admission is through Italy’s national English-language medicine admission test, set by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR). EU applicants compete on a single national ranking list, and Ireland is one of the countries where you can sit the test.

Entry requirements for Irish students

• The call asks for an upper secondary school diploma, or a foreign qualification earned after 12 years of schooling that gives access to university in the country where it was awarded. The Irish Leaving Certificate is assessed as a foreign qualification, and there is no published Leaving Cert grade or points requirement. Places go by your test score only. Check the document rules in the call.
• Admission test: a national test organised by the Ministry (MUR), with 60 multiple-choice questions in 100 minutes on general knowledge, logical reasoning, biology, chemistry, and physics and maths. You get 1.5 points for a correct answer, lose 0.4 for a wrong one and get 0 for a blank, with a maximum of 90. EU candidates need at least 20 points to be admitted, and places then go in order of rank. For 2026/27 the test could be taken in Italy or at centres abroad, including Ireland and the UK.
• Students admitted with low scores get extra study requirements (OFA). The programme page refers to a total under 45/90 and a biology score of 13.5/27. You must clear the OFA before sitting certain first-year exams.
• English requirement: the 2026/27 call asks only non-EU applicants who need a visa for an English certificate (B2 or higher). It does not ask EU applicants, including Irish citizens, for one. No Italian is needed for admission.

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. Read the callDownload the official call for applications for Medicine and Surgery – IMS from the programme’s Enrolment page. For 2026/27 it was published on 31 August 2026 and set out 60 EU places, the dates and the document rules.
2. Register on UniversitalyRegister for the national test on www.universitaly.it, choose your universities in order of preference and a test centre (for 2026/27 this included Ireland), and pay the test fee. For 2026/27 registration closed at 3:00 pm Italian time on 9 September 2026.
3. Sit the admission testTake the 60-question, 100-minute test. For 2026/27 it was held on 29 September 2026. You need at least 20 out of 90 to be eligible.
4. Check rankings and enrolThe national ranking list is published on Universitaly (26 October 2026 for the 2026/27 intake). If you are offered a place at Milan, enrol on the University of Milan student portal within the short deadline, usually 4 working days.

Costs

• About EUR 4,247 a year for 2026/27. Every student pays a first instalment of EUR 146 (regional tax and stamp duty). The second instalment depends on income. Students who cannot get an Italian ISEE income certificate are charged by country group, and Ireland is in Group C. Medicine (IMS) is an ‘Area B’ programme, so the Group C second instalment is EUR 4,101.12 for students on track with their exams. The no-tax area (ISEE up to EUR 30,000) applies only to families with an Italian ISEE. There is also a fee for the national admission test, paid through Universitaly. The call does not state the amount. Check the 2027/28 fees page before budgeting.

At a glance