University of Padua: 2027/28 admission, programmes, fees and scholarships

Padua runs several application windows, and the one that matters depends on the type of programme. These are the dates for a student applying from Bangladesh, which Padua treats as a non-EU citizen living outside Italy:

Three things catch applicants out:

• 15 November is not a universal deadline. It closes Call One for open-access master's degrees. No English-taught bachelor's degree takes applications before 7 January 2027.
• Call Two is conditional. Padua says the second and third calls open only depending on the seats available, and the merit scholarships are decided mainly on first-window applications (see Scholarships and fee waivers).
• Padua's "Study in English – How to apply" page still showed last year's timeline (2 November 2025 to 2 February 2026) when this guide was checked on 23 September 2026. The dates above come from the admission page and from each programme's page on apply.unipd.it, which show 2027/28.

You can apply to at most two programmes in a year, and to each programme only once. Registering twice with different email addresses gets the applications rejected.

• A large English-taught catalogue. For 2027/28 Padua's application portal lists 69 programmes taught in English, 8 bachelor's and 61 master's, from computer science and data science to psychology, engineering, economics, biology and food science. Four more English bachelor's are announced for 2027/28 but marked "to be approved".
• A fixed, published fee. Non-EU students whose family lives outside Italy pay a fixed annual fee, and citizens of countries on Italy's list of "particularly poor countries" pay one third of it. Bangladesh is on the 2026/27 list (see What it costs).
• Merit awards with no separate application. Excellence scholarships, departmental scholarships and 100 full fee waivers are considered automatically from the degree application.
• One intake, clear windows. Everything leads to one October start, and every programme page states its own window.
• A university city. Padua's own figure puts students at about 30% of the city's population.

What Padua is not is a shortcut. Open access does not mean automatic admission: a committee checks every transcript against the programme's prerequisites. Limited-access programmes rank applicants for a fixed number of seats.

For 2027/28 Padua offers eight bachelor's degrees taught entirely in English. All are limited access: a fixed number of seats, a ranking, and in most cases an entrance test. Applicants living outside Italy apply from 7 January to 7 March 2027 on apply.unipd.it. Each lasts three years (180 ECTS).

The seat numbers are what the programme pages showed on 23 September 2026; the binding figures are in each programme's call, which Padua publishes when the window opens. Economics, Governance and Decision-Making states that its first semester is held entirely online.

CEnT-S is an entrance test run by CISIA, the Italian university testing consortium. You can sit it once per testing period, and you upload your weighted score to the application, even after you have submitted it. Seats at the at-home sessions can run short; our live CEnT-S seat tracker checks CISIA's calendar every 15 minutes.

New for 2027/28, pending approval: Management, Finance and Business Analytics; Physics for Technology; Food Safety for Global Health; Innovative Technologies in Agriculture. Padua lists all four as "to be approved", so do not plan around them until they appear on apply.unipd.it with a window.

Italian-taught bachelor's. The portal lists 63 more bachelor's degrees taught in Italian. They require Italian at level B2, and most use a TOLC entrance test, so they are realistic for most Bangladeshi applicants only after serious Italian study. The Foundation Year includes Italian from beginner level.

Most of Padua's English-taught master's degrees are open access. There is no ranking, but a teaching committee reads your transcript, CV and motivation letter and admits only applicants who meet the programme's entry requirements. Nine are limited access, with ranked places, and use the 7 January to 7 March 2027 window. All run for two years (120 ECTS) and ask for English at B2 unless the programme page says otherwise.

The entry requirements are specific to each programme, and they decide most refusals. Two examples, quoted from the programme pages:

• Data Science: a three-year degree with "proven skills in Mathematics and Computer Science, such as the basics of calculus, linear algebra, probability, computer programming and algorithms".
• Energy Engineering: a degree in energy, electrical, mechanical, chemical or petroleum engineering; "Proven skills in Thermodynamics, Fluid Machines, Heat Transfer and Electrotechnics are always required."

A high CGPA from a degree that did not cover the listed subjects is not enough, so collect your course syllabi before you apply. How Bangladeshi grades are read abroad is explained in CGPA to European grades.

For Bangladeshi degrees Padua adds its own rule: a four-year honours or professional degree and a GPA of at least 3.3 out of 4.0 (see Admission requirements). The programme pages say "minimum three-year undergraduate degree". That is the general rule, and the Bangladesh row is stricter.

A selection of the programmes Bangladeshi students ask about most. Each name links to its official page, which carries the entry requirements, the English level and the window.

All 69 English-taught programmes can be searched on Padua's application portal. Read each programme's own page rather than any summary, including this one.

Medicine in English. Medicine and Surgery, and Medicine and Surgery – MedTech, are single-cycle degrees taught in English. They admit through a national entrance test (the IMAT, for Medicine and Surgery) and not through apply.unipd.it. The route is explained in studying medicine in Italy in English.

Your entry qualification

Padua publishes a country-by-country table of the qualifications it accepts, "updated on 15/09/2026 and valid for A.Y. 27/28". The row for Bangladesh:

Padua calls the table "for reference only" and says the decision "rests with the Admissions & Welcome Unit", so treat it as the rule and ask the university about anything it does not cover. Two consequences are worth stating plainly. A three-year pass degree is not on the list for a master's (see 3-year vs 4-year bachelor's). And Padua does not say how it reads an HSC GPA against "Second Division", so if your result is close, ask before you pay the application fee.

Padua's general rule for a bachelor's is at least 12 years of schooling, which SSC plus HSC meets; see studying in Italy after HSC.

English

Every English-taught programme asks for English at level B2, and a few ask for C1 (Food, Nutrition and Health, for example). The main certificates on Padua's 2027/28 list, with the B2 score:

LanguageCert, Aptis, Trinity ISE and some others are also on the list. A certificate must be valid or, where it has no expiry date, no older than two years at 15 September 2026. You can upload it after applying, but no later than 31 July 2027.

A degree taught in English in Bangladesh is not an exemption. Padua's 2027/28 exemptions cover native speakers of listed English-speaking countries, qualifications completed entirely in English in those countries or in the EU and Schengen area, an IB, European Baccalaureate, GCE or IGCSE entry qualification taught in English, and a US high-school diploma with three AP exams. So a student entering a bachelor's with O and A levels is exempt, while a medium-of-instruction letter from a Bangladeshi university is not enough.

The visa is a separate test. The Embassy of Italy in Dhaka's study-visa checklist accepts only IELTS, with a score of at least 6, for English. A Duolingo or PTE score can satisfy Padua and still fail the visa file; see Italy without IELTS.

Entrance tests

CEnT-S for five of the English bachelor's, an online test in English for the two psychology bachelor's, TOLC or tests held in Padua for Italian-taught bachelor's, and the IMAT for Medicine and Surgery. Open-access master's list no entrance test; admission is decided on your documents.

When you must hold your qualification

You can apply before you graduate, but the qualification must be complete by 31 July 2027 for a limited-access programme and by 31 August 2027 for an open-access one (single-cycle degrees may differ). An official certificate of completion can stand in for the final certificate. HSC results have recently come out in October (16 October in 2025), so a student sitting HSC in 2027 almost certainly cannot start at Padua in October 2027 and should plan for 2028/29.

To apply (nothing needs to be legalised yet)

Padua's general list, which it says some programmes add to:

Everything is uploaded as a PDF. Documents must be official and in English or Italian; anything issued in another language needs an official translation. In Padua's words, "No legalised documents are required to submit your application." If your SSC, HSC and passport spell your name differently, fix it early; see name mismatches.

Once you are admitted

At enrolment you present the originals, translated into English or Italian and apostilled. Bangladesh is a party to the Apostille Convention and Italy accepts its apostille (see apostille in Bangladesh). Instead of the apostille you may submit CIMEA's Certificate of Verification; Padua says its cost is deducted from your second or third fee instalment if you have no exemption or scholarship (see Declaration of Value or CIMEA). A master's student also needs the transcript with credits, grades and the course syllabus. The documents are then checked in person at Padua's Admissions and Welcome Desk, by appointment.

1. 1Choose up to two programmes. Check each programme's page on apply.unipd.it for its window, entry requirements, test and English level; they differ.
2. 2Check the academic and language rules against the Bangladesh row and the programme's listed prerequisites.
3. 3Read the programme's call where one exists. Limited-access programmes publish theirs when the window opens; open-access master's have no separate call, so the programme page is the reference.
4. 4Prepare the documents as PDFs (see Documents you need).
5. 5Register on apply.unipd.it ("Become an applicant"), select Bangladesh as your citizenship, and complete the application with one email address only.
6. 6Pay the application fee: EUR 60, or the CISIA test fee instead where every programme you chose uses that test (see What it costs).
7. 7Submit before the deadline. For Call One that is 15 November 2026 at 23:59 Italian time.
8. 8Follow the result in the portal and by email. An open-access decision takes at least four weeks and has no fixed date; limited-access results come as a ranking on the date in the call.
9. 9Accept one offer and pay the EUR 208 admission fee by the deadline on the offer. It is non-refundable and cannot be postponed.
10. 10Pre-enrol on Universitaly and apply for the visa; see After admission.

Fees to apply and to accept a place

Tuition: a fixed fee, reduced for Bangladeshi citizens

Since 2023/24, non-EU students whose household lives outside Italy pay a fixed annual fee that is not recalculated on family income. For citizens of countries on Italy's list of "particularly poor countries" the fee is one third. Bangladesh is on the 2026/27 list (Ministerial Decree 176 of 24 February 2026). The latest published figures, per year:

Add EUR 208 a year, the regional tax and stamp duty, which is the admission fee in your first year. The rest is paid in instalments; in 2026/27 the second fell due on 15 February and the third on 15 May.

Three cautions:

• These are 2026/27 figures. The 2027/28 fee notice is not published yet, and the list of "particularly poor countries" is set by a new decree every year, so the reduced rate for Bangladesh in 2027/28 is not yet confirmed.
• The application portal shows older numbers (EUR 983.33 and EUR 916.66 for a Bangladeshi citizen), which are the 2025/26 figures.
• An ISEE parificato does not lower this fee. For a non-EU student it only reduces the regional tax or qualifies you for the regional scholarship. One programme differs: Food, Nutrition and Health lists EUR 6,000 a year, "subject to the upcoming consortium agreement".

Living costs, the visa's funds requirement (EUR 10,179.85 for the year) and the visa fee are separate; see Italy proof of funds and the cost calculator.

Confirmed means an official 2027/28 source states the date. Expected means it follows last year's pattern and has not been announced. To be announced means Padua has published nothing yet. Add the confirmed dates to your own calendar, and check the others on the intake calendar and the programme page.

Padua's funding comes in two kinds that work differently: awards the University funds and decides on merit, and a regional scholarship decided on family income. None is guaranteed, and all are competitive.

Funded by the University (merit), considered automatically

How they work:

• No separate application. Applying to an English-taught degree makes an eligible applicant a candidate, and the programme's teaching committee selects on academic merit.
• The numbers change every year. Padua's page says "up to 76" Excellence scholarships; the 2026/27 call offered up to 69. The 2027/28 calls, with the number of awards and the results dates, are due in November 2026.
• Apply in the first window. The 2026/27 call reserved the awards "mainly" for first-period applicants and considered the second period only "on an exceptional basis". For an open-access master's the first window is Call One, closing 15 November 2026; for a limited-access programme it is 7 January to 7 March 2027.
• They last only as long as your results do. An Excellence scholarship runs for up to two years of a master's or three of a bachelor's, in two payments of EUR 4,000 a year, and is withdrawn, with repayment, if you have fewer than 20 CFU by 30 November of the following year. A fee waiver is renewed for the second year with 25 credits by 10 August, and for a bachelor's third year with 80.
• They do not stack. The 2026/27 call says they "cannot be combined with any other grant awarded by other public institutions".
• An offer is not a scholarship. Scholarship results arrive separately, usually before the admission-fee deadline, which Padua will not extend while you wait.

The regional scholarship (income-based)

At Padua the regional scholarship is the University's own call, funded by the Veneto Region. You apply in Padua's student portal, Uniweb, with an ISEE or, for a family living abroad, an ISEE parificato. It is not run by ESU di Padova, which manages student housing and canteens. In 2026/27:

• the deadline was 30 September 2026, and the Uniweb request, the ISEE parificato and enrolment all had to be done by then;
• the family's ISEE had to be below EUR 26,306.25 and the ISPE below EUR 43,125.94, alongside the merit rules in the call;
• a full-time student living away from home received up to EUR 8,246, part of it as meals and, for students who win ESU housing, accommodation;
• at most 7% of the first-year funds were reserved for non-EU students admitted with a non-EU qualification, ranked by ISEE;
• a first-year student with fewer than 20 credits by 30 November lost it.

The ISEE parificato is issued only by the University's partner tax centre, free of charge, from income and asset documents issued in Bangladesh, translated into Italian and apostilled. Allow several months. The 2027/28 call is not published yet; last year's came out in July. How it works for a Bangladeshi family: ISEE parificato explained. Our longer guide: Padua scholarships.

Schemes you apply to separately

• Invest Your Talent in Italy. Bangladesh is an eligible country. EUR 1,000 a month (net) for nine months, renewable, with a compulsory three-month traineeship, for English-taught master's degrees in the listed engineering and economics fields. You apply on the scheme's own site as well as to Padua; see Invest Your Talent in Italy.
• Italian government (MAECI) scholarships. EUR 900 a month for six to nine months, for master's applicants aged up to 28. Eligible countries are listed in each year's call on studyinitaly.esteri.it.

One page that is not a scholarship: Padua's "Starting Grant 2027" supports researchers applying to the European Research Council and is open only to people who already hold a PhD. It is not funding for bachelor's or master's students.

Padua's Foundation Year is a one-year pre-university programme, taught in Padua from September to June, for international students who want to enter a bachelor's degree at an Italian university. It is aimed mainly at students whose school education lasted 11 years, and it is also open to students who want to prepare before they start. It combines a compulsory Italian course from beginner level, a subject track (Humanities, Social Sciences or Natural Sciences) and workshops that prepare you for admission tests. Attendance of at least 70% is required.

Does a Bangladeshi student need it? Usually not to be eligible. SSC plus HSC makes 12 years, and Padua lists the HSC as an entry qualification for a bachelor's. It can make sense for a student who wants an Italian-taught degree and has no Italian, or who wants a preparatory year. Padua says a foundation course can fill additional entry requirements but cannot replace a missing school-leaving diploma, and finishing it is not the same as being admitted: you still apply to the bachelor's. Padua gives fee waivers to its best Foundation Year students who then enrol in a Padua bachelor's.

For admission (Padua's rules)

• HSC result: Padua lists Second Division or better and publishes no GPA conversion. If you are near the line, ask the Admissions and Welcome Unit before paying.
• Master's: a four-year honours or professional degree with a GPA of 3.3 out of 4.0 or above; a three-year pass degree is not listed.
• Prerequisites: match your syllabus to the subjects the programme lists. This is where most master's applications fail.
• English: a certificate from Padua's list. A Bangladeshi medium-of-instruction letter is not an exemption.
• Timing: your qualification must be complete by 31 July or 31 August 2027, so HSC 2027 candidates should plan for 2028/29.
• Name: use your name exactly as it appears on your passport.
• Translations: certificates issued in English need no translation to apply; anything in Bengali needs an official one.

For the visa (Italy's rules, decided by the embassy)

• English: IELTS with a score of at least 6 is the only English certificate the Embassy of Italy in Dhaka names.
• Funds: EUR 10,179.85 for the year, from lawful and traceable sources, yours or your family's up to the fourth degree; no blocked account is required.
• Deadline: 31 October 2027 for 2027/28 bachelor's and master's degrees.
• Pre-enrolment is capped: each university may validate only 20% more pre-enrolments than its allocated places, so pre-enrol as soon as you accept an offer (the validation cap).
• Passport: if yours is being renewed, Padua asks you to wait for the new one before pre-enrolling.
• Scholarship money: Padua notes merit awards on your pre-enrolment, but says the embassy may still ask for your own proof of funds.

1. 1Accept one offer in the portal and pay the EUR 208 admission fee by the deadline on the offer. You can accept only one offer; if you accept an open-access offer and a limited-access one arrives later, you can switch without paying again.
2. 2Pre-enrol on Universitaly for the Embassy of Italy in Dhaka, choosing "Università degli Studi di Padova" and your programme. Padua's deadline was 15 July last year; the 2027 date is not published yet. Some English programmes appear on Universitaly under their Italian name (Management Engineering is listed as "Engineering and Management", for example). Step by step: Universitaly pre-enrolment.
3. 3Wait for Padua to validate the pre-enrolment, then apply for the type D study visa to the Embassy of Italy in Dhaka. Validation is not a visa; the embassy alone decides. The full visa file: study in Italy from Bangladesh.
4. 4Apply for the regional scholarship and for ESU housing if you need them. Each has its own call and deadline.
5. 5Arrive and enrol. Request your residence permit within 8 working days of arriving, and book the in-person check of your apostilled documents (or bring CIMEA's verification).
6. 6Teaching starts at the end of September or early October; the programme pages give 1 October 2027.

University of Padua

• Admission of international students
• Application portal, apply.unipd.it
• Documents required for your application
• Entry requirements by country, valid for 2027/28 (PDF)
• Language requirement
• English-taught degree programmes
• Bachelor's admission calls and master's admission calls
• How to enrol after admission
• Student fees
• Scholarships and benefits for international students
• Padua International Excellence Scholarship
• Regional scholarships
• Foundation Year and how to apply to it
• Frequently asked questions for international students

Our guides

• Study in Italy from Bangladesh, the Italy country guide and the best universities in Italy
• Scholarships, the intake calendar, the document checklist and a free eligibility assessment
• Living in Padua: what a month costs