MBBS in University of Florence School of Human Health Sciences

The University of Florence has been around since 1321, when the Florentine Republic set up a studium generale. It was founded in 1859 as the Istituto di Studi Superiori Pratici e di Perfezionamento. In 1923, it became a university. It is one of the bigger and better known public universities in Italy, with about 50,000 students now. Medicine sits inside the School of Human Health Sciences, the Scuola di Scienze della Salute Umana, which coordinates the medical, dental, nursing and allied health programmes across several departments.

The School runs the single-cycle Medicine and Surgery degree over six years, worth 360 ECTS. The award is the Laurea Magistrale a Ciclo Unico in Medicina e Chirurgia, the Italian equivalent of an MBBS. Instruction runs in Italian. Florence does not offer an English-medium medical degree, so you need certified Italian at B2 level and you sit the national admission test in Italian. Some individual modules and elective activities run in English, but the core programme does not.

Florence attracts more applicants than most Italian medical faculties, and the reason is not only the city. The clinical network is large. Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Careggi is the main teaching hospital and one of the biggest hospital complexes in Italy. Careggi covers the full range of tertiary care, including trauma, transplant surgery, cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, stroke care, oncology and rare disease services. Meyer Children's Hospital, a nationally recognised paediatric centre, provides paediatric teaching. Between the two you see a case mix that few other Italian faculties can match. That breadth matters most in years four to six, when your learning depends on the range of patients passing through your wards.

Research at Florence runs deep across several fields. Neuroscience research covers neurodegenerative disease, movement disorders and stroke. Oncology research spans clinical trials and translational laboratory work. Cardiovascular medicine, hormones and clinical immunology all hold strong groups. The university also runs renowned work in regenerative medicine, in internal medicine and in public health. Florence participates in national and European study networks, and you can join a group from the third year onwards. Most students complete their final thesis inside a research group, and a well-chosen thesis project gives you material for your first publication.

Teaching facilities include anatomy and histology laboratories, a clinical simulation centre with mannequin-based scenarios, clinical skills rooms and molecular biology laboratories. The biomedical library at Careggi serves the medical programmes and gives access to the main electronic databases. Preclinical teaching happens partly in the city and partly at the Careggi campus, and clinical years centre on Careggi itself. Careggi sits north-west of the historic centre and connects by tram and bus, so plan your accommodation with that journey in mind.

Living in Florence carries one clear drawback. Housing costs more than in almost any other Italian university city outside Milan and Rome, because tourism drives rents up and short-term rentals absorb much of the housing stock. Expect to pay considerably more for a room than you would in Ferrara or Catania, and expect competition for it. Start your housing search months before you arrive. The regional right-to-study agency, DSU Toscana, runs subsidised halls and canteens, and those places are given by income and merit. Apply for DSU Toscana benefits on time, because the deadline is different from starting college, and if you miss it, you lose the subsidy for a whole year.

The way tuition works is like the Italian government. Your fee is based on how much money your family makes according to the ISEE method, or the ISEE Parificato calculation if your family makes money in a different country. Low-income students only have to pay the regional tax and stamp fee. Students who come from families with more money pay the most. By the due date, you must submit your translated and legalized proof of income to the university. If you miss it, Florence will automatically charge you the highest band, which is hard to reverse.

The national Italian method is used for admission. EU applicants take the national test to get into medicine and fight with people from all over the world. Non-EU applicants who live outside of the EU compete for a small reserved quota that is announced in the annual call for applications. There is a lot of competition for Florence's quota. Get pre-enrolled through Universitaly and then get your study visa from the Italian Embassy. Both stages take time, so start in the spring to get going in October.

There are two preclinical years, a transitional third year, and three clinical years. The program is based on the national framework. Almost all classes require students to be present for at least 70% of the scheduled classes. There are 30 points on the scale, with 18 being the pass mark and 30 being the best grade. There are a lot of oral exams, and you defend your answers to the examiner. The highest grade you can get for your degree is 110 e lode, which is the last grade you can get. In Italy, that grade is more important than in many other countries because it affects how you rank in the national race for residency.

In the sixth year, there is an evaluated practical internship worth at least 15 credits that can be split between general practice, internal medicine, and surgery. In Italy, the separate state licensing test was added to this internship. If you pass it and graduate, you then register with the Ordine dei Medici. In Italy, you don't need an extra year of your license.

Your nationality affects how well you do in your career. Rule 2005/36/EC says that EU citizens' credentials are automatically recognized across the EU and EEA. People who are Indian must go through the National Medical Commission. To do that, you need to have passed the NEET test before starting the degree program, been in school for at least 54 months with a 12-month internship, and passed the Indian screening exam. Before you sign up, read the most recent NMC notice because the rules for medical degrees from other countries have changed several times since 2021.

A national salaried residency competition is held after graduation in Italy as a way to get specialty training. Your ranking is based on your grade point average and test scores. There are still not many spots for graduates from outside the EU, so most of them plan to go to another country for their postgraduate study.

If you want to go to a big, research-focused public university in Italy with one of the largest teaching hospitals in the country, a children's hospital for pediatric training, and a strong degree brand, Florence is the place to go. You have to agree to be taught in Italian, pay a lot for housing, and compete hard for spots. The clinical exposure at Careggi and Meyer is worth the work if you can handle those three circumstances.