Advice on Entry to Italian Unis for Year Out

[Juja]

DD is studying Modern Languages and plans to spend next academic year 2025/26 in Rome. She has been in touch with Sapienza University and they say to join courses in Italian she needs to take the Italian Entrance Exam. She is hoping to take modules in law.

Has anyone any experience with obtaining admission to Italian Universities? The tests seem like II+ or SAT.

Her Uni (Oxford) doesn't have bilateral agreements with Italian Unis and no assistance is provided - students have to make their own arrangements. Seems bizarre given there are 40 Italian students each year but hey ho...

If she'd consider The University of Tuscia (there is a direct train to Rome!) then the admissions department are very helpful, and law + languages are in the same department. It's worth emailing them at [email protected], they'll set up an appointment for her to talk things through with them.

Could the Italian Institute in London be of any help with this?

Does she have citizenship of an EU country? If not, she will need a visa and a residence permit.

I'm sure they're across this stuff @unsync

Even if they don’t have a direct agreement, do they make use of the Erasmus scheme generally? She needs to ask the person responsible of that for the process.

I did my year abroad in Rome and I would say it is not advisable to consider Roma Tre or Tor Vergata universities - La Sapienza was a much better experience for all f the people I knew who did Erasmus. But, this was a number of years ago.

In fact, one of the friends I made who was at La Sapienza was at Oxford, so they must have had links at some time.

@Juja Oxford says it has links with the university of Sienna. What’s wrong with Sienna? Could she not talk to them about Sienna?

My DD (not Oxford) went to Bologna. They are a big uni. Her home uni had links with st least 6 Italian unis. Still does.

DD however, was not allowed to study law on her year abroad. She is now a barrister so was quite keen to do law modules. Her uni and the host uni had agreements on what students could reasonably study. Studying law with no home study of law was not permitted. Is your DD doing law here? If not, it’s hard! If she wants law in the uk, just convert.

Hi @xmasdealhunter @MollieSugdon @MopTopInAHop @TizerorFizz @unsync

Thanks for all your helpful responses. Yes one Oxford college does have an arrangement for 4 people to go to Sienna (out of 40 Italian students) but DD would much prefer to be in a large city than a small picturesque town. She had a super year in Marseille before uni and is keen to have another large city experience but didn't take to Milan and has ruled out Naples for a range of reasons.

@MopTopInAHop DD's tutor gave her the same advice - Sapienza is meant to be a better experience than Rome Tre. I'm sure other Oxford students have been to Spaienza before - just Oxford doesn't have bilateral agreements as I guess that means they'd have to take Italian students in exchange.... seems a bit mean spirited...

I'm particularly interested in learning about the entrance exams for Italian Unis - it seems each Italian Uni has separate admissions systems - nothing like UCAS.

Only 4 students @juja? I’m amazed. Do all
the other students have to take entry tests? Maybe ask y4 students what they did? I know the funding is now Turing but I’m truly amazed Oxford are not offering up more unis.

Sienna isn’t that small. Italy is poorly off for world ranking unis too. Bologna is top of a not very great pile of public unis. Does the uni not spell out what they need or Oxford give entry advice via dedicated study abroad staff? As I said before, law might be difficult if she’s not studying law.

Erasmus was an exchange system. That was the point of it. Brexit has messed it up and your DD is losing out.

@TizerorFizz Yes - so frustrating - we are all too well aware Brexit has messed things up big time. DD almost took up a place at Trinity College Dublin so she could after fiver years in Ireland get an Irish Passport and so be eligible to work in the EU... sadly our whole family are fully English ... no interesting or useful grandparents!

I'm afraid DD is not going to be convinced about Sienna - I've been to both and can see her point....Sienna is stunning but has a population of 53,000 and Rome of 2.8 million so they aren't really comparable.

Oxford has a level of arrogance on the Year Abroad that is breathtaking. it was very clear in their information evening a few weeks ago you are on your own and simply apply via each foreign Uni's online process. Some students do British Council teaching. others with EU passports can work. My DN at Edinburgh has it all organised by Edinburgh Uni - you rank your uni choices 1-5 and allocation depends on how you did in your first year exams.

But it clearly works as Oxford students find something each year....and to give them their due Sapienza have responded to an email from DD and say she can take the entrance exam in April - a bit like a SAT but in Italian. She also needs to provide B2 in Italian which should be fine. No guarantee she can study Law but what she is thinking of doing is taking the first year undergrad courses. Oxford don't require her to collect any credits.

Must go and do more Christmas cooking!

@Juja I remain stunned.

I think DDs home uni retains links with a choice of unis in Italy but DDs units for the year were set and marked by uni staff here. She did History of Art and ab initio Portuguese. I think your DD should maybe try the test and see how she gets on. What else can she do? Plan B? Somewhere else? DD did take her Italian exams (another mix up there) but results meant nothing. The main reason for being there is to learn Italian. Is studying law going to help that?

I know Rome is bigger and Sapienza has 115,000 students. It’s vast. Siena has 16,000 undergrads who are 1/3 of the local population. Plenty of opportunity for friends and travel. You don’t need 2 million plus people for this. However she wants what she wants and Oxford don’t have many places at Sienna either.

One continual problem DD found was that Bologna was disorganised. Different members of staff contradicted each other. She still loves Italy but would never ever live or work there. We have no contacts or passports to be anything other than British. I wonder if too few at Oxford are in this position? Do most have contacts and EU passports?

Good luck with it all and enjoy your cooking!

Happy Christmas : just had a thought. As most MFL depts do have links with Italian unis if they offer Italian, I’m wondering how many dc ever need to take an entry test? They might be rare students! Aldo Italian law is not uk law. why does she want law? My DD would not have found it useful in hindsight,

This reminds me of my year abroad in the mid-1980s, pre-Erasmus. We were entirely on our own and the only requirement our university had of us was to write an entirely unsupervised extended essay which didn't count towards our degree.

One of our DC spent a gap year studying in Florence (where they passed a first year of a three year degree and have the corresponding transcript). Florence is a much more manageable city than Rome.

@Ceramiq Thank you for both your posts - yes DD's year out doesn't count towards her degree - it is purely to improve her language fluency. I think like your DC they will probably opt to do the first year of an Italian undergraduate degree.

Did your DC have to take an entrance exam to get into the university at Florence or was that via Erasmus?

My DC had to do an application procedure (personal statement and portfolio). It wasn't for Italian language purposes so different to your DD. We know students on Erasmus in Rome but none for the purposes of language acquisition which was assessed before acceptance for law/art history/economics etc.

Juja
DD almost took up a place at Trinity College Dublin

My friend's dd is studying languages at Trinity College Dublin (they live in Dublin). Apparently the Italian department there only offers 2 Erasmus exchange places per year to La Sapienza - plus they do require credits for the year (unlike Oxford) otherwise the year has to be repeated at Trinity.

TizerorFizz
Erasmus was an exchange system. That was the point of it. Brexit has messed it up

Looking at Oxford's pre-Brexit Erasmus programme, e.g. OXFORD ERASMUS STUDENT EXCHANGE PARTNERS 2017/18 they only offered one Erasmus partnership university in Italy (undergraduate modern languages exchanges or law) - UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI SIENA - the same partnership university they offer now?

@Clavinova
So are Oxford MFL degrees just three years with an optional year abroad? My DD got a place there but didn’t go so never got into this. It seems surprisingly casual!

Most unis still maintain academic links with unis abroad even with Turing. However for DD it was compulsory and the work required by home uni was compulsory too. Some students worked (far more difficult now) , others did British Council and others went to
unis from the list supplied. No entry tests but some courses were off limits. Law was. As she converted to law in the uk, Italian law would not have been much use as it turned out.

DDs old uni still has ties with Bologna, Pisa, Sienna, Turin, Venice, Milan, Naples. Verona and Palermo. So lots of choice. Obviously language skills are honed but it’s much more than that. It’s a chance to immerse into a culture, look after yourself and travel. DD was enthusiastic about history of art so took those modules at both Unis she went to (joint honours) Plus translation and Portuguese. It was competitive to get to Bologna but no tests set by Bologna. I assume the partner unis knew that after 2 years here a student was sufficiently proficient.

Clavinova has given somewhat misleading information above.

In Oxford, a year abroad adds to the length of a degree. A BA in Modern Languages with a year abroad takes four years rather than the standard three years at Oxford.

In Trinity, degree programmes (level 8) are four years long. Students of modern languages earn credit at the university abroad and study abroad does not add to the length of the degree. As Trinity is a very sought-after university for incoming Erasmus students, it easily finds places for its outgoing students. Students of Italian have several options available to study in Italy including Bologna, Pavia, Pisa, Trento, Trieste, Ca' Foscari (Venice) and Sapienza (Rome). Bologna is generally the highest-regarded of the traditional universities in Italy.

Sapienza
Clavinova has given somewhat misleading information above.
In Oxford, a year abroad adds to the length of a degree. A BA in Modern Languages with a year abroad takes four years rather than the standard three years at Oxford.

Where did I suggest the Oxford degree was only 3 years with a year abroad?!

Students of Italian [at Trinity] have several options available to study in Italy including Bologna, Pavia, Pisa, Trento, Trieste, Ca' Foscari (Venice) and Sapienza (Rome)

But the op's dd is particularly interested in attending La Sapienza (Rome) - which is why I only referred to the number of places at that particular university offered by Trinity.

Also, from what I understand from my friend in Ireland, exams have to be passed at the host university in Italy, otherwise the year has to be repeated at TCD. Is that not the case?

TizerorFizz
DDs old uni still has ties with Bologna, Pisa, Sienna, Turin, Venice, Milan, Naples. Verona and Palermo. So lots of choice

The op's dd has ruled out Siena, Milan and Naples already.

Obviously language skills are honed but it’s much more than that. It’s a chance to immerse into a culture, look after yourself and travel.

Obviously.

Also, from what I understand from my friend in Ireland, exams have to be passed at the host university in Italy, otherwise the year has to be repeated at TCD. Is that not the case?

@Clavinova, exams have to be passed at the host university in Italy. Indeed, exams also have to be passed for the years spent at Trinity.

Passing exams is pretty much a universal requirement while at university.

@Sapienza Thr exams don’t necessarily have to be passed in Italy. My DD had to pass what her UK uni required. This is because some students are language assistants and others work in business etc. They cannot take uni exams in Italy.

The OP made it clear Oxford have no links with unis in Italy except Sienna. My DDs old uni is listing the unis I posted. So there appear to be differences in how uk unis work. The students at Oxford appear to have to apply directly whereas other dc are sponsored by their home uni. Therefore I didn’t think students made direct applications - although Brexit might have changed this. I’ve not seen entry exams mentioned elsewhere.

As Italian unis are large and not world leading, my DD wasn’t bothered about living in a city of near 3 million people. More about getting to the best uni available. Although Sapienza is one of these. Other cities are available which will offer a decent uni experience and plenty of options for travel. DDs friends enjoyed Milan. DD enjoyed Bologna. She travelled a lot though which added to her knowledge of Italy and Italians.

The op posted this earlier in the thread;

No guarantee she can study Law but what she is thinking of doing is taking the first year undergrad courses. Oxford don't require her to collect any credits.

Morning all and thanks for all the intelligence, there is such a variety of requirements and expectations and links in different UK unis - fascinating. Like all Modern Language Degrees in the UK (and Ireland) at Oxford MFL students have to spend a year abroad to hone your language skills. It is a four year course and the year abroad isn't optional. Most students doing two languages would split their year 6 months in each country but DD is already fluent in French hence spending the year in Italy.

In Scottish Universities my understanding from DN is the year abroad has more requirements e.g. you have to collect credits as all Scottish BA Hons degrees are four years (unless you get exemption from year 1). This @Sapienza @Clavinova suggests is also true for TCD. Oxford do not require students to collect credits - they are expected to work on their dissertation and also write a report but it is not assessed. DD would like to take uni courses in Italian and to take the exams as that is an excellent way to improve her Italian and meet with Italians. Many visiting international / Erasmus students do courses in English with Italian lessons on the side ie live in an international bubble.

@TizerorFizz I totally appreciate Rome isn't for everyone in the same way being a student in London isn't for everyone. That said many students love being in London and DD has decided Rome is where she'd like to be. She has already spent her gap year living / working / studying in Marseille which is another big city (1.6 million) so is familiar with big city life. Fingers crossed it works for her. She is thinking of lodging with a family.

We spent a couple of hours yesterday doing more research on admissions requirements for Sapienza (and other unis) for courses in Italian where there is what the Italians call .restricted access' (ie competitive admissions). The process seems to be:

1. You register with Sapienza's admissions portal to get a student number
2. You register with UniversItaly - national uni admissions portal essential to get letter of eligibility for a visa
3. You upload masses of documents A Level's, passport etc etc
4. Each Uni issues 'call for admissions' - sometime in the spring...
5. Students take the TOLC admissions exam on the date specified (national uni admissions exam rather like verbal reasoning but varies by subject - there are about six different TOLCs). These are taken in Italian
6. You are potentially offered a place by the University depending on TOLC score
7. You can then apply for a visa from the Italian Consulate with letter generated by UniversItaly site once you have been offered a place by the University

In true Italian style there is a wonderful lack of clarity as to when the cut off dates are and whether they will allow enough time to get a visa...

Good news is the International Admissions office at Sapienza is responding and told her about the TOLC but it seems entrance procedure is specific to the faculty so DD has now emailed the Law Faculty. DD's plan is to apply for the Law degree and do the first year. This will not avoid doing a conversion course later but appeals to DD as she's keen to learn about the Italian legal system.

PS There is a much simpler process for a few courses that have pre enrolment but they are only in architecture and engineering.