Greece vs Italy: cheaper tuition against a much deeper English-taught catalogue

The comparison

Both countries revise these figures. Take the current numbers from the ministry pages listed at the end.

The funds figure that trips people up in Greece

Greek law sets a low minimum — around EUR 400 a month, which is EUR 4,800 for a year. Embassies in practice ask for considerably more, commonly the equivalent of EUR 600-700 a month. Budget on roughly EUR 7,200 for the year and you are on safe ground; budget on the legal minimum and you risk a refusal for insufficient means, which is a slow and expensive thing to unwind.

Italy publishes a single national figure, EUR 10,179.85 for one year at the 2026 level. It is higher, and it is unambiguous. There is something to be said for a threshold you cannot misread.

Where Italy quietly wins on cost

Greece looks cheaper because its tuition is a published price. Italy's is not a price at all — it is an assessment of your family's income, made through an ISEE parificato. A Bangladeshi family with modest documented income routinely lands in the lowest band, which can mean a few hundred euros a year or nothing.

Add the DSU regional scholarship on top. It is income-assessed too, and where it is awarded it typically combines a tuition waiver, a cash grant, and priority for subsidised accommodation and canteen meals. Nothing in the Greek system is comparable in scale.

So the honest ranking is: Italy is usually cheaper if the paperwork is done properly, and more expensive if it is not. Start with the ISEE guide and the DSU walkthrough.

Where Greece is the better fit

A shorter document chain. No ISEE, no income assessment, no regional scholarship bando to decode. You apply, you are accepted, you show funds, you go. For a family that finds Italian bureaucracy genuinely overwhelming, that simplicity has value.

Lower absolute funds requirement. About EUR 7,200 against EUR 10,179.85 is a real gap when you are assembling a bank statement honestly.

Cost of living outside Athens. Thessaloniki and the smaller university cities sit at the bottom of the southern-European range.

⚠️ But check the catalogue before anything else. Greece's English-taught provision at public universities is genuinely new — it rests on a 2022 law permitting fee-paying foreign-language programmes — and it is narrow. If the specific subject you want is not on it, none of Greece's advantages apply to you. Look at the actual programme lists on our universities page and on each university's own site before you fall in love with the price.

Who should choose what

Choose Italy if your family's income is low and documentable, you want the widest English-taught choice in engineering, economics, design or the sciences, you are willing to work through the ISEE and DSU process, or you want a realistic shot at a scholarship that covers accommodation.

Choose Greece if the subject you want is on its English-taught list, you want the lower funds requirement, you prefer a simpler file, or you have a specific reason to be in Athens or Thessaloniki.

Do not choose either on the basis of the published tuition alone. In Italy, published tuition is a ceiling most students never pay. In Greece, published tuition is the real number but the funds figure the embassy wants is well above the legal minimum. Both countries punish a budget built from the wrong line of the table.

What to do next

1. 1Open the English-taught programme list for your subject in both countries and see whether Greece even has it.
2. 2If Italy is on the list, find out today what an ISEE parificato requires from your family.
3. 3Read the Greece scholarships reality check so you are not planning around something that does not exist.
4. 4Put both through the comparison tool with your real intake.