NARIC guide on Higher Education Systems in the European Union

(a) SS courses
They are all subject to numerus clausus regulations, therefore, prospective students must hold a laurea or an equivalent
second level foreign qualification; they must also pass a selective entrance examination.
As for foreign degrees, to avoid the time-consuming, bureaucratic complications of formal academic recognition, their holders
may take advantage of a simplified procedure by requesting the evaluation of their degrees ‘to the end of admission only to
the SS’ of their choice. The university authority responsible for such a procedure is the director of the SS concerned who
normally takes the advice of the teaching staff.
This procedure, however, cannot be considered the usual, legal form of academic equivalence: as a matter of fact, in such
cases the teachers’ purpose is not to analyse and compare curricula in detail, looking for a high level of correspondence
between courses and syllabuses, but rather to globally evaluate — in terms of content and level — the foreign degrees in order
to verify their holders’ suitability for the advanced studies in question. That is why this type of evaluation does not result in
the awarding of the comparable Italian laurea degrees and therefore does not produce the juridical effects inherent in them.
The entrance exam includes a written paper and an oral interview. When assessing the candidates’ performance, the relevant
board also evaluates their previous academic work and qualifications (e.g. a laurea
thesis on a subject closely related to the specilisation field of the school concerned; grades obtained in the final laurea
examination; marks obtained in those disciplinary exams of their laurea curricula which are connected with the new specialist
studies).
(b) DR programmes
They are open only to postgraduate students, i.e. holders of a laurea degree (or an equivalent foreign qualification at second
university level).
In addition to the possession of an adequate academic qualification (that is, second level), admission is also subject to a
concorso, a public competition organised on a national basis, which consists of a very selective written and oral examination.
Candidates must also give evidence of mastering a foreign language, both orally and in writing.
Both the written and the oral part of the competitive admission examination are graded on a 0 to 60 scale, with 40 as the
lowest passing mark.
The national concorso, announced in May or June every year, takes place in the following November or December.
Italian and foreign holders of foreign degrees are allowed to participate in DR competitive entrance examinations only after
their degrees have been recognised as comparable to the relevant Italian laurea; to such an end, they too may ask for the
application of the simplified recognition procedure already described in relation to enrolment in SS courses.
The university authority responsible is the director of the DR programme concerned, who consults the teaching staff.
Being requested and given ‘to the end of admission to the DR entrance competitive examinations only’, that sort of
recognition does not produce the same legal effects as formal academic recognition (called equipollenza).
CPs (advanced courses)
The most frequent condition required for admission to a CP is a laurea degree in a related field; there are also CPs accepting
holders of lower or even different qualifications (e.g. a first degree like a DU, or a post-secondary non-university
qualification), provided they rank at university level.
II.2. Intermediate qualifications in
higher education