Medicine and Surgery (taught in English)

About the course

A 6-year single-cycle degree in Medicine and Surgery (360 ECTS) taught in English at Tor Vergata in Rome. The course includes Italian language classes so that students can talk to patients.

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. The call has a separate annex (Allegato B) on foreign qualifications that lists the documents you need.
• Entry is by the IMAT, set by Italy’s Ministry of University and Research. It has 60 multiple-choice questions in 100 minutes: 4 on reading skills, 5 on logic, 23 on Biology, 15 on Chemistry and 13 on Physics and Maths. Each correct answer earns 1.5 points and each wrong answer loses 0.4. EU applicants need at least 20 points and are ranked nationally.
• All IMAT questions are in English. The call does not list any separate English test or interview.

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 the IMATRegister on Universitaly and pay the test fee while the window is open. In 2026 it ran from 26 August to 9 September. Choose Tor Vergata among your preferred universities.
2. Prepare documentsRead Tor Vergata’s call and Allegato B (foreign qualifications) and gather the documents they ask for to support your Leaving Certificate.
3. Sit the IMATIn 2026 the test was on 29 September. There are test centres in Italy and abroad.
4. Enrol from the rankingNamed national rankings are published on Universitaly (26 October 2026 last cycle). If you are allocated Tor Vergata, you have up to 4 working days to enrol. Keep checking the ranking updates if you are waiting for a place.

Costs

• Tor Vergata’s 2026/27 Student Handbook says that international students (and Italians with income earned abroad) whose family income cannot be assessed under the Italian ISEE system pay a fixed all-inclusive contribution of 2,500 euro a year for the English-taught Medicine and Surgery degree. This is likely to be the rate for most Irish students. Students who are assessed under ISEE pay according to income. The course is in contribution Class 6, which ranges from 0 to 7,250 euro a year at the ordinary rate. A regional tax of 140 euro and stamp duty of 16 euro are added every year. The IMAT registration fee is paid through Universitaly. Its amount is set when registration opens and is not stated in the decree. Confirm with the university which fee category you fall into, and check the 2027/28 handbook when it is published.

At a glance