University of PISA - Universita di PISA

Founded in 1343 and home to roughly 46,000 students across 20 departments, the University of Pisa is one of Italy's oldest public research universities — and one of the most misreported online. Almost every study-abroad page you'll find quotes a "39% acceptance rate." Pisa has never published one.

This page covers what an applicant actually has to decide: where the university stands, what a year costs after the reductions nobody explains, which programmes you can study without Italian, and the deadlines that quietly close seven months before classes start.

Where does the University of Pisa rank right now?

In the QS World University Rankings 2027, published in June 2026, Pisa sits at 341st globally and 7th in Italy — up two places from 343rd in the 2026 edition. Employer reputation moved up 49 positions and academic reputation up 6, out of a field of more than 8,800 institutions assessed.

Other bodies land in the same band:

What holds the number down is worth knowing before you apply. Research output and citation impact are Pisa's strongest indicators. Internationalisation is its weakest — THE records international students at around 7% of the body, wimatith a student-to-staff ratio of 17.2. If you're coming from outside Europe, you'll be in a genuine minority, and class sizes in Italian-taught courses are large.

One clarification that trips people up: Scuola Normale Superiore and the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies are separate institutions in the same city with their own admissions and their own rankings. They share facilities with Pisa under the Pisa University System, but a Scuola Normale ranking is not a University of Pisa ranking.

Is there a real University of Pisa acceptance rate?

No. Italian state universities do not publish institution-level admit rates, and the 39% figure circulating on aggregator sites has no source behind it. Admission at Pisa isn't decided at the university level at all — it's decided programme by programme, through one of four gates.

Open-admission bachelor's degrees (accesso libero). You sit a skills assessment, but the score doesn't block enrolment. A weak result assigns you OFA — additional learning obligations you clear during first year.

Regulated-admission degrees (numero programmato). A fixed number of places, filled by ranked competition. Medicine and similar programmes work this way, and here your test score is the whole story.

The non-EU reserved quota. Applicants who need a study visa compete for a separate ring-fenced allocation of places in each programme. To be placed on that reserved ranking list you must complete pre-enrolment on the Universitaly portal by the deadline in the call. Miss it and you're moved to the general list — competing against domestic applicants for the open places.

English-taught master's. No entrance exam. A programme board scores your bachelor's CGPA, how closely your transcript matches the target degree, and any relevant work or research on your CV.

So the useful question isn't "what percentage gets in." It's: is my programme capped, am I on the reserved list, and does my transcript match the subject?

What will a year at Pisa actually cost?

The €2,900 you see everywhere is the maximum all-inclusive annual fee for 2026–27 — a ceiling, not a price. Very few international students pay it.

Since 2025/26, students whose income and assets are held abroad are automatically assigned a flat-rate fee: a fixed coefficient tied to your country of origin is applied to the €2,900 figure. You don't apply for this; it's assigned.

The alternative route usually costs less. You can request a reduction based on the ISEEU Parificato, an income assessment calculated free of charge by a CAF office affiliated with the university. If your assessed ISEE comes in at €26,000 or below and you're on track with exams, your entire annual bill is €140 regional tax plus a €16 stamp duty in your first year.

A few mechanics that catch people out:

• Everyone pays a first instalment of €390 at enrolment. If your bracket qualifies, €250 of it is refunded later.
• The merit-based reduction does not apply if the qualification you were admitted on was earned outside Italy.
• Non-EU students residing abroad are exempt from the surcharges Italian students pay for inactivity, but also lose the discounts for out-of-town students and siblings enrolled at Pisa.
• Students on a study visa must pay the first instalment by 31 December 2026 for the 2026–27 year.

Is there a University of Pisa application fee?

Yes — and it's recent enough that most guides still say there isn't one.

Applicants holding a foreign qualification who apply to English-taught master's programmes through applymscenglish.unipi.it pay a €30 application fee. Three details matter:

1. Payment is taken on the portal after you complete the application and before it reaches the evaluation committee. No payment, no submission.
2. You may submit up to two applications, and the fee is charged per application — two programmes means €60.
3. It applies only to foreign-qualification holders, and only to that portal. Space Engineering and Materials & Nanotechnology run their own separate application routes.

Budget separately for academic document verification. You'll need either a Declaration of Value from the Italian embassy in your country, or a CIMEA Statement of Comparability requested through the DIPLOME platform, which is a paid service. Start whichever you choose early — the embassy route is free but slow.

How many programmes are actually taught in English?

Seventeen master's degrees and two bachelor's degrees. That's the honest answer, and it's the single biggest reason applicants waste a cycle.

Bachelor's, in English:

• International Programme in Humanities (IPH)
• Management for Business and Economics

That's the full list. Every other bachelor's degree at Pisa is delivered in Italian, and non-EU applicants seeking a visa for an Italian-taught programme must demonstrate B2 Italian proficiency.

Master's, in English:

Engineering — Aerospace Engineering; Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering; Bionics Engineering (run jointly with Sant'Anna's BioRobotics Institute), Communications Engineering, Computer Engineering, Cybersecurity, Engineering of Paper and Cardboard, Exploration and Applied Geophysics, Materials and Nanotechnology, Nuclear Engineering.

Sciences — Computer Science (with tracks in Software, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and ICT); Data Science and Business Informatics; Informatics for Digital Health; Biotechnologies and Applied AI for Health; Neuroscience.

Social sciences — Economics; Digital Intelligence and Change Management.

Across the full catalogue Pisa offers 59 bachelor's, 73 master's, 9 single-cycle master's and 25 PhD programmes — the overwhelming majority in Italian.

When do applications open and close?

Earlier than almost anyone expects. Here is how the 2026–27 cycle actually ran, which is the pattern to plan against:

For the computing and engineering programmes, non-EU decisions were issued by 9 March 2026 and classes began in mid-September 2026 — a seven-month gap between deadline and first lecture. Enrolment in Pisa had to be finalised by 31 December 2026.

Bachelor's degrees run on a different calendar: enrolment in open-admission bachelor's and single-cycle programmes for non-EU applicants ran from 8 July to 31 December 2026.

Expect the 2027–28 portal to open in late November 2026 with the same early-February cluster. Confirm on the programme's own call for applications before you commit — Cybersecurity alone proves the dates aren't uniform.

How do you apply, step by step?

English-taught master's, foreign degree:

1. Pick the programme and read its prerequisites and study-plan rules — subject match drives the decision more than raw grades.
2. Create an account on applymscenglish.unipi.it, upload your transcript, degree certificate, CV and motivation.
3. Pay the €30 fee and submit. Two applications maximum.
4. On admission, complete pre-enrolment on Universitaly, then book your visa appointment immediately.
5. Enrol in Pisa after arrival, with your Declaration of Value or CIMEA statement, Italian tax code (codice fiscale), residence permit application receipt and high school details.

Bachelor's:

1. Check whether your programme is open-admission or regulated.
2. For Italian-taught programmes, prepare B2 Italian evidence.
3. Complete Universitaly pre-enrolment to reach the reserved ranking list.
4. Register on the Alice portal, sit the assessment or admission competition, then enrol.

One warning comes from the university's own call for applications, not from us: admitted students have repeatedly failed to enrol because their visa didn't arrive in time — or at all. Treat your admission letter as the trigger to book the consulate appointment that week, not the moment to start researching the process.

Why does Pisa outperform its ranking in computer science?

Because the discipline started here. Pisa hosted Italy's first computer science department in 1969, growing out of the CEP project, the country's first electronic computer, built at the university. Six decades on, the Department of Computer Science runs three of the English-taught master's programmes outright and co-runs Cybersecurity with Information Engineering.

The city compounds it. National Research Council institutes sit alongside the university, and the information-technology cluster that grew around Pisa in the 1960s and 70s still supplies internships and thesis placements. In QS's 2026 subject tables, Pisa placed around 234th worldwide and 7th in Italy for engineering and technology — comfortably ahead of its overall institutional position.

For applicants targeting AI, data science, cybersecurity or digital health, the departmental reputation with European employers runs ahead of the number on the league table. For most other subjects, the institutional ranking is the fairer guide.

How do students end up paying almost nothing?

Through DSU Toscana, the Tuscany regional agency for the right to study — and this is where the most money is left on the table, because DSU is a separate institution from the university with its own website, its own portal and its own deadline.

For 2026–27, applications ran from 20 July to 7 September 2026, 13:00, with eligibility set at ISEE up to €27,000 and ISPE up to €60,000. Awards are open to students of any nationality, including those who have not yet enrolled.

Winners receive a cash contribution, free meals in university canteens, exemption from tuition and from the regional tax, and either a free room — Pisa has 1,705 places for the coming year — or, if places run out, a rent contribution of up to €3,150 for off-site students holding a proper lease. Eligible applicants who don't win a room can still take one at a reduced monthly rate.

Note also that the University of Pisa itself funds no fellowships for international students. Money comes from DSU, from MAECI ministry scholarships, or from the Invest Your Talent in Italy programme — never from a university-branded international scholarship, whatever an agent tells you.

Quick answers

Is the University of Pisa hard to get into?

For open-admission bachelor's degrees, no — the barrier is language and paperwork, not selection. For regulated-admission degrees and the non-EU reserved quota, it's genuinely competitive. For English-taught master's, a solid CGPA in a closely matching subject is usually enough.

Do I need Italian?

Only for Italian-taught programmes — where non-EU visa applicants must show B2. The 19 English-taught degrees have no Italian requirement, though you'll want some for daily life.

Will I pay €2,900?

Almost certainly not. That's the ceiling. Between the country-coefficient flat rate and the ISEEU Parificato reduction, most international students pay a fraction of it, and DSU winners pay €156 in total.

When should I start?

Twelve months before your intended start. Document verification, the visa appointment and the DSU application each have independent timelines, and none of them can be compressed.

Your next step: if you're enrolling for 2026–27, the DSU application closes at 13:00 on 7 September 2026 — that's the deadline worth acting on today. If you're targeting September 2027, put a reminder for late November 2026, when the English-taught master's portal reopens, and start your Declaration of Value or CIMEA request now.

Fees, deadlines and quotas are set annually. Always confirm against the specific call for applications on unipi.it before paying anything.