NARIC guide on Higher Education Systems in the European Union

II. Qualifications and diplomas
Non-university sector
The three types of institution for non-university higher education already discussed (Fine Arts Academies, ISIAs and ISEFs)
exclusively operate in vocational areas which are not included in the university sector. This fact implies that their
qualifications do not enter into competition with university degrees, but, at the same time, that no academic recognition of
such diplomas is possible in order to pursue further studies by transferring from a non-university to a university institution.
Anyhow, most non-university higher education qualifications, when awarded by State or legally recognised institutions, have
legal validity as basic requirements for access to related occupational opportunities.
University sector
University qualifications, provided they are conferred by State or legally recognised institutions and fall within the national
regulations system, may entitle their holders either to enter the labour market or to pass on to more advanced university
studies; some of them lead to both academic and professional opportunities at the same time.
The laurea, for instance, which still is the best-known Italian university degree, especially abroad, has legal validity for the
following: eligibility for postgraduate studies; admission to competitive examinations for appointment to the highest careers in
the civil service; admission to State examinations for the practice of self-employed professions.
II.1. Qualifications for admission to
higher education
Diploma di maturità
As a rule, the basic requirement for access to higher education — both university and non-university — is a diploma di
maturità (shool-leaving
or maturity diploma) i.e. the Italian upper secondary school leaving qualification which is generally awarded after the
completion of 13 years of schooling (five at primary level in scuole elementari, three at lower secondary level in scuole medie
inferiori, five at upper secondary level in scuole medie superiori or istituti secondari superiori) and the successful passing of
the so-called esami di maturità (maturity examinations). When based on a five-year course of upper secondary education
(USE), the diploma is also referred to — in speach, at least — as maturità quinquennale ( 1 ).
At present, there are just three exceptions to the the rule of the five-year maturity: namely, the maturità artistica, I sezione
(artistic maturity, first section), the maturità artistica, II sezione (artistic maturity, second
section), and the maturità magistrale (i.e. the qualification entitling the student to teach in primary schools), all of them
awarded on completion of a four-year upper secondary course (at a liceo artistico and at an i stituto magistrale, respectively).
The corresponding diplomas are
conferred only if the relevant examinations have been successfully passed.
In accordance with their traditional purposes, USE institutions used to be divided into two main categories: the first one
included institutes aiming exclusively at preparing students for university studies, whilst the second offered vocational courses
to those who would take up a job immediately after completion of USE. The first category consisted of the classical and
scientific secondary institutes; the second was made up of the teacher training schools, the technical institutes and the
vocational ones. In the 1970s, however, the above distinction disappeared almost completely in the sense that the possibility of
access to H. Ed., university and non-university, became almost general.
There is considerable diversity in the structure of USE as regards its institutions, the corresponding curricula and the way in
which its final qualifications are accepted by the business world.