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

About the course

A six-year, 360-ECTS single-cycle degree in medicine and surgery, taught in English in Rome. Clinical practice begins in third year, and students train within UCBM’s university hospital, with the sixth year focused on full involvement in clinical activity.

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 requires a school-leaving qualification from at least 12 years of schooling, with either a Declaration of Value (Dichiarazione di Valore) from the Italian diplomatic representation or a CIMEA comparability certificate. Places are ranked on the test score alone, so your Leaving Cert grades do not affect your ranking.
• Admission test (2026 cycle): taken entirely in English, 60 multiple-choice questions (20 Biology, 20 Chemistry, 20 Physics) in 100 minutes. Scoring is +1 for a correct answer, -0.2 for a wrong answer and 0 for a blank, with a minimum score of 12/60. There is no interview. Ties are broken by the Biology score, then Chemistry, then Physics, then the younger candidate. A free online test simulator is available.
• English requirement: B2 (CEFR), shown by a certificate on the university’s approved list (for example IELTS, TOEFL or Cambridge English). Candidates who attended a secondary school or university entirely taught in English for at least one academic year are exempt. For 2026 proof was due at registration or by 1pm on 19 June 2026.

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. Prepare documentsGet a Declaration of Value or CIMEA comparability certificate for your Leaving Certificate, and a B2 English certificate unless you qualify for the English-medium school exemption.
2. Register and pay onlineRegister on the UCBM admissions portal and pay the EUR 170 fee. In the 2026 cycle applications ran from 29 October 2025 to 1pm CET on 6 February 2026. Watch for the 2027/28 call.
3. Sit the test in RomeTake the Biology, Chemistry and Physics test in person in Rome, held on 19 February in the 2026 cycle. Practise with the official simulator.
4. Enrol and payIf you rank high enough, enrol in Phase I (2 to 10 March in 2026) and pay the EUR 8,000 first instalment, then complete formal enrolment in Phase II (10 to 24 July in 2026) and pay the EUR 140 regional tax. Remaining places go to later ranking rounds, with about 24 hours to accept.

Costs

• UCBM is a private university and its published fees make no distinction between EU and non-EU students. For 2026/27 the fee is EUR 19,000 a year plus a EUR 140 Lazio regional tax for the right to higher education. It is paid in three instalments: EUR 8,000 at the first enrolment phase (March), EUR 5,500 by 25 January 2027 and EUR 5,500 by 12 April 2027. The call says the EUR 140 regional tax is paid at the second (formal) enrolment phase in July. The university says fees are subject to inflationary increases in future years. The application and test fee is EUR 170 per course applied for. For each course, the first winning candidate in the ranking with an Italian ISEE certificate of EUR 28,000 or less gets a 50% fee exemption for six years.

At a glance