Is a medical degree obtained abroad recognized in Italy?

The time is approaching when you have to take the fateful entrance exam for the faculty of medicine and surgery, dentistry, nursing, and other health professions. How likely are we to succeed? Maybe in high school we were top of the class and probably think that if anyone deserves that spot, it’s us.

Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. There’s no point dwelling on the issue of recommendations and “already assigned spots,” let’s go straight to the practical side: if I don’t pass the test, what do I do? Try again next year, obviously. Or, if we’ve been trying for too many years without success or don’t want to waste any more time, we can consider the possibility of studying and/or graduating abroad. But be careful, it’s not all that simple. A medical degree obtained abroad, in order to be recognized in Italy, must meet certain requirements.

Becoming a doctor in Romania, Spain, Bulgaria, or Albania: more and more foreign universities are offering degrees, with prices starting from 3,500 euros per year (for the state university of Timisoara, in Romania) and going up to over 15,000 euros (for the one in Madrid), offering alternatives to all those courses in Italy with limited enrollment. The medical degree program, for example, also lasts 6 years in Romania, but there you get much more practical experience.

Once you’ve chosen this path, what can you do? There are two alternatives:

1) After the first year of university abroad, return to Italy and continue your studies at an Italian faculty. However, the University of Rome La Sapienza emphasizes that it is absolutely not possible to avoid the admission test: to return to Italy, even for years after the first, you still have to take the entrance exam. The test is therefore mandatory.

2) Graduate abroad and have your degree recognized in Italy. A degree obtained from a faculty in a European Union country is comparable to the Italian title (through application and obtaining a certificate of equivalence) but, in the case of a medical degree, you must always obtain a license to practice, for which the approval of the Ministry of Health is required.

Furthermore, for the recognition of the degree in Italy, it is necessary that the foreign university where you studied is recognized and authorized to issue academic degrees (reference regulations: Dpr 189 of 2009 and directive 2005/36/EC).

For further details and assistance, you can contact the Foreign Student Admissions Office of the European Study Center