Italy is a country of diverse beauty, culture, and history. Education in Italy is highly esteemed with a wide range of excellent academic institutions spread across the country where international students are warmly welcomed. Italy has played an important role in academia, fostering the reform of European higher education through the Bologna Process. Students pursuing an education in Italy will gain valuable knowledge in the classroom, and important cultural competency in one of Europe’s youngest republics.

Italy’s universities are some of the oldest in Europe and in the world. The University of Bologna was founded in 1088, the University of Padua in 1222, and the University of Naples in 1224. The education system in Italy has followed the Bologna system since 1999. With such longstanding higher education institutions, Italian student traditions are equally as historic! Depending on the region and institution you’re studying in, students at your university may partake in any number of student life traditions specific to Italy. Upon graduating from an Italian university, students across Italy have a green laurea wreath (symbolizing knowledge) placed upon their heads by someone already holding a degree. Some higher education institutions have goliardia (like fraternities or sororities in the United States), and you may end up defending your thesis in front of a panel of professors and an audience of friends and family members in order to graduate.