Italy · Piedmont
Study in Turin: universities, costs and careers for international students
Turin is the industrial capital of Italy, and its universities look like it. The Politecnico di Torino is one of the two big Italian engineering schools and takes in a large international intake every year; the University of Turin covers medicine, economics, law and the sciences next door. Around them sit Stellantis and the automotive supply chain, the aerospace cluster, Intesa Sanpaolo’s headquarters and a growing artificial-intelligence sector that the city has deliberately built. Rents run well below Milan an hour down the line, and the Alps are an hour the other way. Here is what to weigh.
Why Turin
Before the detail, the snapshot - what you actually get by studying in Italy’s engineering city.
- The Politecnico di Torino is one of Italy’s two leading engineering universities, with a large English-taught catalogue and one of the highest shares of international students of any Italian public university
- Industry on the doorstep: Stellantis and the automotive supply chain, Leonardo and Thales Alenia Space in aerospace, Iveco, Comau, Lavazza and Intesa Sanpaolo’s headquarters
- Public fees on the ISEE scale, and rents roughly a third below Milan - the same northern Italian job market at a much lower cost of living
- EDISU Piemonte, the regional right-to-study agency, funds tuition waivers, residence places, canteen meals and a cash grant, and international students apply on the same terms
- A compact, grid-planned city that is easy to walk and cycle, with one automated metro line and a student transport pass at around EUR 250 a year
- The Alps are an hour away by train or bus, and Turin Caselle plus Milan’s airports, 90 minutes away, cover the intercontinental routes
Universities & popular courses
Two large public universities cover most of what students come for. Check the language of instruction on each programme page - the Politecnico’s English offer is much wider than UniTo’s.
- Politecnico di Torino: mechanical, automotive, aerospace, electronic, energy, civil and computer engineering, plus architecture and design. Most master’s degrees and several bachelor’s tracks are taught entirely in English, and the automotive and aerospace specialisations are the reason many students pick Turin over Milan
- Università degli Studi di Torino (UniTo): medicine and surgery (with an English-taught track), economics, business, law, psychology, agriculture and food science, physics, chemistry and the humanities
- The University of Gastronomic Sciences at Pollenzo, an hour south, is a small international university teaching food systems and gastronomy entirely in English and Italian - a niche Italy genuinely owns
- Also here: the ESCP Business School Turin campus, the Turin campus of the ILO’s International Training Centre for UN-system postgraduate courses, and a well-regarded conservatory and film school
- Curriculum: a bachelor’s (laurea triennale) runs three years and a master’s (laurea magistrale) two; medicine, pharmacy, veterinary science, law and architecture are single-cycle degrees of five to six years. The Politecnico runs double-degree agreements with engineering schools across Europe
- Most popular with international students: automotive and mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, computer engineering and data science, architecture, economics, and medicine in English
Career prospects & ROI
This is a manufacturing and engineering job market - narrower than Milan’s, but the demand for engineers is real and local.
- Automotive: Stellantis keeps its historic engineering and design base here, surrounded by a supply chain of hundreds of component and design firms - Italdesign, Pininfarina, Comau, Magneti Marelli - that recruit continuously from the Politecnico
- Aerospace: Thales Alenia Space builds pressurised modules for the International Space Station in Turin, and Leonardo, Avio Aero and a cluster of suppliers make Piedmont one of Europe’s aerospace districts
- Finance, food and AI: Intesa Sanpaolo is headquartered here, Lavazza and Ferrero anchor a large food industry, and the city has built an artificial-intelligence hub around the Politecnico with public backing
- Internships (tirocinio) are embedded in Politecnico master’s degrees and the career fairs are attended by exactly the employers above - the route from degree to first job is unusually direct here
- Work while you study: the student residence permit allows up to 20 hours a week, capped at 1,040 hours a year
- After you graduate: the permesso di soggiorno per attesa occupazione gives graduates of Italian universities up to 12 months to look for work or start a business - file it before your student permit expires
- The honest trade-off: outside engineering, Turin’s graduate market is thin, and the city has been losing population for years. Engineering and computing graduates do well here; humanities and business graduates usually end up commuting to or moving to Milan
Success stories
Students who crossed the bridge
“I wasted a year trying alone. After the strategy call I knew exactly which documents I was missing - three months later I had my admission.”Read full story →
“They prepared my visa file so well the interview took ten minutes. They even helped my parents understand the blocked account.”Read full story →
“With the VIP pack I arrived in Finland with my room, bank account and even my airport pickup organised. I just had to study.”Read full story →
What it costs
The cheapest of Italy’s four big northern study cities, with the same ISEE-scaled public fees.
- Public tuition is means-tested through the ISEE parificato: below the no-tax threshold - around EUR 23,000-26,000 of assessed income at the Politecnico and UniTo - you pay only the regional tax and stamp duty, roughly EUR 160-200 a year. The full rate tops out near EUR 2,800-3,000
- EDISU Piemonte awards the regional right-to-study grants: a tuition waiver, a residence place or housing contribution, canteen meals and a cash instalment, means-tested on the same ISEE and open to international students. It is a separate application, usually due in late summer
- Living costs: budget EUR 700-950 a month. A room in a shared flat runs EUR 350-550, well below Milan, and an EDISU residence place costs far less
- The Politecnico also runs its own scholarships for international students - fee waivers plus a cash grant - awarded at admission on academic merit; apply in the first round to be considered
- Other funding: MAECI Italian government scholarships, Erasmus Mundus joint master’s degrees, and industry-sponsored master’s scholarships tied to the automotive and aerospace employers
- One-off costs: the visa fee, the EUR 16 revenue stamp and roughly EUR 70-120 for the residence-permit kit, health cover for the whole stay, and a deposit of two to three months’ rent
- The visa also asks for proof of means for the year - a bank statement or a scholarship award letter in your name
Life, safety & culture
A serious, understated northern city - less visited than Milan or Florence, and much easier to afford.
- Language: the Politecnico teaches a great deal in English, but Turin outside the campus is thoroughly Italian-speaking. Both universities run free Italian courses; take one in your first semester
- Turin is a safe city; the realistic risks are pickpocketing around Porta Nuova and Porta Palazzo and bike theft, not violent crime. Some areas near the northern markets feel rougher at night than the centre
- Healthcare: register with the SSN (the annual student contribution rose sharply in 2024 - check the current figure) or buy private cover; the Molinette hospital complex is one of the largest in Italy
- Housing is easier and cheaper than in Milan or Bologna, and EDISU runs a substantial number of residence places. Start looking in July for an October start
- Life here: a grid of arcaded streets and cafés, the Egyptian Museum, the Mole, a strong live-music and film culture, and the Alps an hour away for anyone who wants the mountains at weekends
- A long-established immigrant city - large Moroccan, Romanian, Senegalese, Nigerian, Chinese and Peruvian communities - with student associations, churches, mosques and food shops that reflect it
How to apply & the bureaucracy
The Politecnico runs an early, well-documented international admissions cycle; UniTo follows the standard Italian calendar.
- Politecnico di Torino: applications for international students open in the autumn and run in rounds through the winter and spring, with places filled as rounds close. Apply in the first or second round if you need a scholarship decision
- Università di Torino: apply through its own portal, generally between spring and early summer for an autumn start; the international call for English-taught degrees usually closes earlier
- Pre-enrol on the Universitaly portal for one university and one programme - non-EU applicants cannot get the study visa without it, and the deadline usually falls in early summer
- Entrance requirements: the Politecnico uses the TIL-I engineering admission test (sat online in test windows through the year); UniTo uses TOLC tests for many degrees and the IMAT for English-taught medicine
- Language proficiency: English-taught programmes typically ask for IELTS 6.0-6.5 or TOEFL iBT 78-90; Italian-taught ones ask for B2 Italian
- Documents: school-leaving certificate or bachelor’s degree with transcripts, passport, motivation letter and references, plus a CIMEA Statement of Comparability or a Dichiarazione di Valore from the consulate - start this early
- After acceptance, apply for the type D student visa, file for the permesso di soggiorno within eight working days of arrival, get a codice fiscale immediately, and submit the EDISU application in the same window
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