Overview

The University of Florence opens one English-taught, single-cycle Master's degree programme — Italy's equivalent of an integrated MD — to candidates who sit the Florence IMAT 2026 test, governed by Ministerial Decree No. 1005 of 6 August 2026. The call for applications for A.Y. 2026/2027 (Decreto del Rettore 1125/2026, Prot. n. 0208552 of 28 August 2026), digitally signed by the Rector, Prof.ssa Alessandra Petrucci, covers:

• Medicine and Surgery (Classe LM-41), in lingua inglese — a single-cycle Master's degree, taught at the University of Florence

The test is the same one used for the single-cycle degree programmes in Medicine and Surgery, Dentistry and Dental Prosthodontics, and Veterinary Medicine taught in English across Italy, with identical content at every test location.

This guide walks through what the call actually says about the Florence IMAT 2026 process: who can apply, exactly what's due and when, how the test and rankings work, and what happens after a candidate wins a seat. It's a summary of a long, dense legal document — read the official PDF in full, or cross-check anything decision-critical against the University of Florence's own admissions pages before you act on it. For how this fits the national picture, see the IMAT 2026 hub.

Seats available

The Florence IMAT 2026 admission call runs under Italy's numero programmato (capped-place) system, taught entirely in English. 50 places are available for 2026/2027, all within a single candidate category, per Table B annexed to Ministerial Decree No. 1005/2026:

Unlike some other Italian universities offering the IMAT, Florence's call is explicit: no positions are reserved for non-EU citizens residing abroad. There is no separate local ranking list at Florence — every eligible candidate competes on the single national merit ranking list.

Choosing Florence as a first preference locks in the test location for candidates sitting the test in Italy, with no exceptions. The test can also be sat at a foreign venue listed in Table A of the ministerial decree. For how Florence's seat count compares elsewhere, see Locomotive's full list of IMAT universities in Italy.

Who's eligible

Applicants must hold an upper secondary school diploma, obtained in Italy or abroad, and must belong to the "European Union and equivalent students" category, which is defined broadly and includes:

• Nationals of EU Member States, and of Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, the Republic of San Marino, and the Holy See
• Non-EU citizens covered by Art. 39(5) of Legislative Decree No. 286/1998, holding a valid residence permit for family reasons, work, political asylum, subsidiary protection, religious reasons, social protection, victims of domestic violence, calamity, special labour exploitation, acts of special civil value or special protection — or an EU long-term resident's permit
• Non-EU citizens already enrolled for A.Y. 2025/2026 in a degree course at an Italian university, or in a "Foundation Year" programme
• Employees of foreign diplomatic missions or international bodies based in Italy and accredited to the Italian State or the Holy See, and their spouses and children

Candidates holding a foreign qualification must comply with the requirements established by Italian legislation and the ministerial provisions for international students; foreign qualifications are subject to verification by the University of Florence. In the case of dual citizenship where one nationality is Italian, Italian citizenship prevails (Law No. 218/1995, Art. 19.2). Admission to the degree programme is subject to sitting the national admission test and placing in a useful position on the national ranking.

The full Florence IMAT 2026 deadline calendar

Candidates are responsible for complying with the deadlines and requirements established by the Ministry of University and Research. Late applications and late payments are not accepted, regardless of the reason.

All deadlines run on Italian time unless noted. The 4-day enrolment window for ASSEGNATO candidates excludes Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, per the bando.

How to apply

Registration for the ministerial admission test runs entirely through Universitaly, the same mechanics used for every Italian university offering the IMAT (see the IMAT 2026 hub for the general national process). The University of Florence's call adds the following.

1. Register on Universitaly between 26 August 2026 and 9 September 2026, 15:00 (Italian time), providing the requested personal and identification data, including a valid email address.
2. Indicate university/course preferences and, where applicable, declare a recognised English-language certification (relevant for tie-breaks only, not for enrolment).
3. If sitting the test in Italy, your first-choice university automatically becomes your test location, with no exceptions.
4. Pay any contribution required for participation, per the procedures published on Universitaly, by the same deadline — late payments are not accepted.
5. The University of Florence does not run a separate university-level admission application: the Universitaly procedure is the entire registration process.

Test day & format

A single test of identical content at every location: 60 multiple-choice questions (five options each, one correct answer), completed in a maximum of 100 minutes, conducted in English:

• Reading skills and knowledge acquired during previous studies — 4 questions
• Logical reasoning and problems — 5 questions
• Biology — 23 questions
• Chemistry — 15 questions
• Physics and mathematics — 13 questions

The test takes place at Fortezza da Basso – Viale Filippo Strozzi 1, Firenze. Candidates are distributed into designated test areas according to their date of birth, except for twins, and the convocation for the test is published separately on the University website on 25 September 2026. To ensure the orderly 1:30 p.m. start, doors close without exception at 12:30 noon, and no justification for late arrival is accepted: candidates who don't sit the test on the scheduled date are considered to have withdrawn from it.

Candidates are only allowed to enter and sit the test after showing a valid, original form of identification under Italian DPR 445/2000 (ID card, passport or driving licence) — no copies, photocopies or scans are accepted. It's recommended candidates bring the same ID used to register on Universitaly. Candidates must comply with all instructions given by the Examination Board and appointed personnel.

Before the test starts, invigilators distribute a candidate-instructions sheet and a sealed envelope containing a candidate data sheet (with no identification code), a question booklet identified by the envelope's barcode, two blank sheets for drafts or calculations, an answer sheet sharing the same barcode, and a cover sheet also sharing that barcode and showing the University and programme name. The answer sheet must be filled in using only the black pen supplied on entry, and candidates must fill in and sign the candidate data sheet to confirm their personal data and the barcode match.

At the end of the test, candidates go to a designated desk at a fair distance from the Examination Board, choose a pair of matching barcode stickers, apply one to the answer sheet and one to the candidate data sheet, sign the candidate data sheet to confirm the match, then place the candidate data sheet in its sealed box before placing the answer sheet in a separate box at the next desk.

Grounds for annulment include: sitting the test in a sector other than the one assigned, unless authorised by the Examination Board and recorded in the minutes; bringing in or using mobile phones, smartwatches, tablets, headphones, webcams or similar devices, textbooks or other reference material, handwritten notes, or blank paper; placing a signature or other identifying mark on the answer sheet; interacting with, copying from, or exchanging material with other candidates; and using a pen, pencil or other writing instrument while placing the data sheet and answer sheet in their sealed containers, in order to amend, add to or correct the answer sheet. Candidates must immediately stop writing and return the pen at the end of the test, on pain of annulment.

Full conduct rules and marking instructions are set out in Arts. 6–9 of the official call — see also Locomotive's IMAT 2026 hub for the general national format.

Scoring, minimum eligibility & tie-breaks

Out of a maximum 90 points:

• +1.5 points per correct answer
• −0.4 points per incorrect answer
• 0 points for a question left unanswered

For European Union and equivalent students, the minimum score for eligibility is 20 points. Candidates who don't reach this threshold aren't included in the national ranking list at all. The national ranking is prepared by CINECA according to procedures set by the MUR, taking into account the university/course preferences expressed at registration.

In the event of a tie, the following criteria apply, in order:

• The higher score obtained, in descending order: Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics, Logical Reasoning and Problems, then Reading Skills and Knowledge Acquired During Studies.
• Possession, by the closing date of registration, of one of the recognised English-language certifications listed in Annex 3 to Ministerial Decree No. 1005/2026, self-declared by the candidate upon registration.
• Preference to a candidate with a certified disability of 66% or more, or with certification under Art. 3(3) of Law No. 104/1992, over a candidate not falling within these categories — candidates relying on this criterion must submit the relevant certification within 15 peremptory days of being assigned a place, on pain of exclusion from the ranking list.
• Outside the case above, preference goes to the younger candidate.

"Assegnato" vs "Prenotato": securing your place

This is the part of the process that catches people out. Once the national ranking is published on 26 October 2026 — and updated as places free up — every eligible candidate holds one of the following statuses (or another status set by the national procedure):

Candidates are required to check their status through the channels indicated by the national procedure — failure to check the national ranking and subsequent updates can itself mean the loss of an assigned place. Subsequent ranking updates and their deadlines are governed by the national procedure and any further MUR/CINECA communications, and no enrolment may take place in excess of the positions available to the University of Florence (subject, again, to the accreditation condition in Art. 2.3 flagged in the overview above).

Enrolment & fees

Enrolment opens on 26 October 2026, the date the national ranking list is published. Candidates with ASSEGNATO status must complete enrolment within the 4-day window described above; candidates with PRENOTATO status may enrol within the same window or wait for a later ranking update.

• Enrolment itself is completed according to the procedures published on the University's website, via the University's dedicated Restricted-access programmes webpage.
• Candidates holding a foreign qualification must additionally submit the documentation relating to that qualification by the deadline indicated in the relevant procedure.
• Florence's call does not state a fixed first-instalment figure in the text itself; tuition-fee information, including fee bands and reductions, is published on the University's dedicated fees, ISEE and benefits page.
• Concurrent enrolment in more than one degree programme is permitted within the limits and conditions set by current legislation, and candidates who still need to obtain a qualification for enrolment must do so within the deadlines set by the applicable legislation.
• Enrolment may be granted provisionally pending verification of a qualification's validity; the University reserves the right to verify declarations at any time and to cancel enrolment if they prove false or requirements aren't met.

OFA (Additional Learning Requirements) & the Italian-language rule

Unlike some other Italian universities' calls, Florence's bando specifies its own OFA scheme directly:

• Students who achieve a total score lower than 50% of the maximum achievable score (that is, below 45 out of 90) are still admitted, but with a notification of Additional Learning Requirements (OFA) in whichever of Chemistry, Biology and Physics show identified deficiencies.
• Procedures for completing the OFA are published on the Scuola di Scienze della Salute Umana (School of Human Health Sciences) website.
• Separately, students whose native language is not Italian must provide evidence of Italian-language proficiency at CEFR level B2 by the start of the third year of study — not at enrolment. Required documentation and procedures are specified on the School of Human Health Sciences website.

Full requirements are set out in Art. 13 of the official call.

Support for candidates with disabilities or SLDs

Candidates with a certified disability, with certification under Law No. 104/1992, or with a diagnosis of Specific Learning Disorders (SLD/DSA) under Law No. 170/2010, may request compensatory measures and additional time for the admission test.

• Certified disability / Law 104/1992: entitled to additional time of up to 50% of the standard 100 minutes.
• SLD/DSA under Law 170/2010: entitled to additional time of up to 30% of the standard 100 minutes.
• Requests must be submitted by completing the form at forms.gle/1V5qyPsiN82jqLvs7 no later than 9 September 2026, 3:00 p.m. (Italian time) — the same deadline as the close of Universitaly registration — accompanied by the relevant medical or specialist certification.
• Candidates residing abroad must submit legalised certification, accompanied by a sworn translation, or a translation certified as conforming to the original by the competent Italian diplomatic representation, in Italian or in English.

Full requirements are set out in Art. 5 of the official call, applying Art. 4.4 of Ministerial Decree No. 1005/2026.

Recognised language certificates (tie-break criterion)

Declaring one of the certificates below at registration gives a tie-break advantage only — Florence's call does not require any student to hold one at enrolment. These are set nationally in Annex 3 to D.M. 1005/2026, so the same list applies at every Italian university sitting the IMAT.

Certificates must be declared when registering on Universitaly to count for the tie-break. Because Florence has no mandatory B2 enrolment requirement, there's no equivalent exemption list to worry about here — the certificate simply helps in case of a tied score.

Foreign qualification holders

Candidates holding a qualification obtained abroad must comply with the requirements established by Italian legislation and the ministerial provisions concerning international students, and their qualification is subject to verification by the University of Florence. In addition to the general enrolment steps, they must submit the documentation relating to their qualification by the deadline indicated in the relevant procedure.

Enrolment may be granted provisionally, subject to verification of the qualification's validity, and the University reserves the right to verify any declaration at any time and to cancel enrolment if it proves false or requirements aren't met.

What the test covers (national syllabus, in brief)

The full syllabus is set out in Ministerial Decree No. 1005/2026 and its annexes; the University of Florence's call incorporates it by reference. In outline, the five sections test:

• Reading skills & knowledge from previous studies: understanding English texts of different types (scientific essays, literary excerpts, current-affairs pieces), plus general historical, institutional, legal, economic and civic knowledge.
• Logical reasoning & problems: completing a line of reasoning consistent with given premises, in symbolic or verbal form.
• Biology: chemistry of living organisms, cell structure and cycle, genetics (Mendelian, classical, molecular, human), mutation and evolution, biotechnology, human anatomy/physiology, and bioenergetics.
• Chemistry: states/structure of matter, atomic structure and the periodic table, chemical bonding, stoichiometry, solutions and equilibria, kinetics, redox, acid-base chemistry, and the fundamentals of organic chemistry and functional groups.
• Physics & Mathematics: number sets and algebra, functions, geometry, probability and statistics; and physical quantities and measurement, kinematics, dynamics, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and electricity/electromagnetism.

The preparation level expected corresponds to the National Guidelines for upper secondary schools and technical/vocational institutes, in line with State Examination preparation. See the annexes to Ministerial Decree No. 1005/2026 for the complete, itemised syllabus.

Contacts & who's in charge

The administrative procedure is led by Dott.ssa Tina Fasulo, Head of Students Administration Offices and Selection Procedures. The administration is not responsible for candidates who contact offices or facilities other than those specified in the call — late assistance requests, or requests sent to the wrong office, receive no assistance.

Frequently asked questions