University of Milano-Bicocca
Milano-Bicocca is Milan's youngest public university, established in 1998 specifically to relieve an overcrowded University of Milan, which had swelled to roughly 90,000 students at the time. Rather than a slow, organic institution, it was built deliberately and quickly, on the former Pirelli industrial site in the north of the city — an integrated university, research, and housing district redeveloped by architect Vittorio Gregotti.
- City
- Milan
- Type
- Public university
- Official site
- Visit website
- Admissions
- How to apply
About the university
That newness shows up in how it's run as much as how it looks: Times Higher Education ranked it Italy's #1 (and 21st worldwide) university under 50 years old in 2014, and it now takes in around 2,200 international students a year, supported by roughly 100 dedicated Bicocca International Scholarships across its English-taught programmes (a B2 English level is required to apply).
It teaches across sciences, medicine, economics, sociology, law, and psychology — a genuinely comprehensive range, built from scratch rather than inherited faculty by faculty, which gives it a more modern campus and facilities than many older Italian universities working with historic buildings.
Admission for international students generally runs through the standard route: Universitaly pre-enrolment, a Declaration of Value or CIMEA comparability statement for your prior qualification, and — depending on programme — an entrance test, language requirement, or the university's own online application portal for its English-taught tracks.
See the Milan city guide for what studying here actually costs and looks like day to day — rent by neighbourhood, getting around, and settling in.
Living in Milan
Rent, transport, and settling in
How applying here works
- 1
Universitaly pre-enrolment
Your application to Italy, filed on the government portal.
- 2
Declaration of Value or CIMEA
Your prior qualification, made readable to an Italian university.
- 3
Entrance test or language check
Where the faculty asks for one — this is what preparation is for.
We walk you through each step inside the portal. How the application service works, or see the full 20-step journey.