With the ratification of the Lisbon Convention, which took place with Law no. 148 of 11 July 2002, the concept of finalised recognition of foreign qualifications was introduced in Italy.

Before starting any evaluation procedure, it is therefore essential to know the purpose and aim for which recognition is sought, because there are different procedures.

There are forms of non-academic recognition for specific purposes:

• Access to public competitions -> to be requested to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers – Department of Public Administration (Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri – Dipartimento della Funzione Pubblica)
• Social security purposes/Study period redemption -> to be processed through the Ministry of University and Research (MUR)

The academic recognition of study programmes (bachelor, master, PhD) for the purpose of obtaining an Italian university degree is to be requested to an Italian university. Academic recognition, however, does not confer a licence to practise.

For regulated professions (e.g. chemists, medical doctors, psychologists, engineers, etc.) there is also a recognition of professional qualifications through the competent Ministry (e.g. Health, Justice, MUR etc.), for the purpose of granting the licence to practise.

For information on the individual procedures, please contact the South Tyrolean University Information Office of Department 40 of the Autonomous Province of Bozen-Bolzano (cristina.pellini@provincia.bz.it or +39 0471 413307/01).

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For academic recognition, unibz applies the following procedures:

Special procedure

only for Austrian titles contained in the bilateral agreement between Italy and Austria.

General procedure

for foreign qualifications which correspond to qualifications offered by the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.