The University and What Makes It Different

People mostly just call it UniPG, or simply Perugia. It's a genuinely old Italian state university, formally founded in 1308, making it one of the oldest universities in Italy and the world. Even before that formal founding, an institution teaching medicine and law already existed in Perugia from the early 1200s, funded chiefly by the city's own comune. So, medicine and Perugia's academic life have been connected for well over 700 years, long before the university took its formal, chartered shape.

The founding milestones themselves are specific and well documented. On 1 August 1318, Pope John XXII granted the university the right to confer degrees in civil and canon law. On 18 February 1328, that right was extended to medicine and the arts. In 1355, Emperor Charles IV issued an edict reinforcing these papal grants and elevating the university to imperial rank, explicitly intended to help Perugia recover after the devastating plague waves of 1348 to 1349. So, medicine at Perugia carries a genuinely ancient, multiply-confirmed legal foundation, rather than a single vague origin story.

Here's a fact most guides skip entirely. During the turbulent revolutionary period of the late 1700s, two university figures, Annibale Mariotti, a professor of theoretical medicine and anatomy, and Antonio Brizi, led early reform efforts at the university. When papal government returned afterward, it reopened the university and, from that same era, the Accademia Anatomico-Chirurgica was founded, complete with its own anatomical theatre. So, this faculty's engagement with the scientific medicine of its time runs through some of the most turbulent political moments in modern Italian history.

The twentieth century reshaped the wider university considerably. Under Rector Paolo Orano in the 1930s, the university added faculties of Political Science, Veterinary Medicine, Chemistry, and Agriculture alongside its original Law and Medicine and Surgery faculties. Under Rector Giuseppe Ermini, from 1945 to 1976, the university expanded further still, adding Sciences in 1957, Letters and Philosophy in 1958, Teacher Training in 1965, Engineering in 1968, and Economics in 1969. So, the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery has watched the wider university grow up around it across nearly two centuries of continuous change.

Today, the Medicine and Surgery degree runs across two teaching poles: Perugia itself, and Terni, where a second pole has operated since 1974. The university's Nursing degree runs across three sites simultaneously: Perugia, Foligno, and Terni. The Faculty's newer home sits at the Polo Unico Ospedaliero, a single hospital hub described as one of the most significant Italian building projects of recent decades, part of a much wider programme of urban renewal across Perugia, including the restoration of the former Officine Gelsomini, Palazzo Stocchi, and an ongoing project at Palazzo San Bernardo. So, the faculty's physical growth has been tied directly to a genuinely large-scale civic redevelopment effort, not just a single new building.

Perugia today counts more than 26,000 enrolled students, a genuinely significant figure given the city's modest size, and the wider university now offers around 100 degree programmes, with 7 delivered entirely in English and more than 20 offered wholly or partly in English, plus 48 joint or double-degree pathways with foreign institutions. Medicine and Surgery specifically maintains one such international pathway: a double-degree agreement with Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University in Russia, a distinctive but limited international route rather than a full, separate English-taught IMAT track of the kind offered at some other Italian medical schools.

The Perugia Campus and Its Setting

Perugia is the capital of Umbria, a region in central Italy known for its hill towns and historic centre, and the university has become a genuine fixture of the city's identity and daily life. Medical teaching is delivered fully in person, with online access via Microsoft Teams available only in specific, approved circumstances.

Clinical training runs through the Ospedale Santa Maria della Misericordia in Perugia and the Azienda Ospedaliera Santa Maria in Terni, giving students exposure to two separate hospital networks across the two teaching poles. So, students choosing the Terni pole specifically train within a distinct regional hospital system from those based in Perugia itself.

Course Structure, Cost, and Practical Details

Medicina e Chirurgia at Perugia runs as a Laurea Magistrale a Ciclo Unico, a six-year Single-Cycle Degree taught in Italian, combining preclinical and clinical training within one continuous programme rather than separate stages. As with all Italian medical degrees, no separate rotating internship year follows graduation, since clinical placements run throughout the six years themselves; graduates must still pass Italy's Esame di Stato and register with the country's medical professional body before practising independently.

Admission runs under Italy's national framework for programmes with a fixed, legally mandated quota, covering Medicine and Surgery, Dentistry, and Veterinary Medicine specifically. The exact admission procedure was most recently reformed under Legge 14 marzo 2025, n. 26, published in Italy's Gazzetta Ufficiale on 18 March 2025, replacing the country's older single-test entrance system. Place numbers, test structure, and deadlines are set annually by ministerial decree and published through Italy's national accessoprogrammato portal.

Tuition fees at Perugia follow Italy's standard public-university, income-scaled model, and the figures here are genuinely precise. Students whose ISEE Università, Italy's specific equivalent income indicator for university financial aid, sits at or below EUR 22,000 fall within the university's No Tax Area and are completely exempt from the annual student contribution, paying only a first-installment charge covering the regional right-to-study tax and a small stamp duty, together running to roughly EUR 140 to 160. Students above that threshold are placed into one of 17 graduated contribution brackets, rising with income up to a ceiling ISEE value of EUR 100,000, with the maximum annual fee for students within their normal course duration plus one extra year running to approximately EUR 2,000. Fees are typically paid across 4 or 5 installments, with a small discount available for students who choose to pay in two instalments instead.

Real, documented merit-based support also exists. Students who pass every exam in the previous academic year with an average of at least 27 out of 30 receive a 50 percent reduction on their tuition from the second year onward. Students who enrol in a laurea magistrale after completing their bachelor's degree within four years, with a final mark of 105 out of 110 or higher, receive a 50 percent discount on enrolment. The university also distributes several hundred smaller merit-based grants each year to particularly high-achieving students. So, the real cost for a strong, lower-income Perugia medical student can end up considerably below the maximum bracket figures.

Living costs in Perugia are relatively modest for an Italian university city, generally reported at somewhere between EUR 600 and 800 a month. NEET remains a genuine requirement for Indian applicants here, exactly as it does for most MBBS-abroad destinations, and Indian graduates would still need to clear the FMGE or NExT exam to practise medicine back in India.

Quick Overview

Fee Structure

Why This Faculty Deserves a Harder Look Than You've Given It

Medicine as Old as the University Itself

Most rival pages cite one founding date and move on. Here, medicine's own right to confer degrees was granted by a specific papal decree in 1328, then reinforced by imperial edict in 1355 explicitly to help the city recover after the Black Death. So, this faculty's founding is documented through multiple, independently dated legal acts, not one vague medieval reference.

A No Tax Area That Genuinely Changes the Cost Picture

Most guides quote a single tuition figure. At Perugia, students with an ISEE Università at or below EUR 22,000 pay effectively nothing beyond a small regional tax, while the true annual maximum, even at the very top income bracket, tops out at roughly EUR 2,000. So, the realistic cost range here is genuinely wide and genuinely documented, not a single flat international rate.

Honest Assessment

Be upfront about a few real considerations here. This programme runs in Italian, so it isn't a direct option for applicants without strong Italian language ability, unlike Italy's separate English-taught IMAT programmes elsewhere. The one international pathway available, the double-degree link with a Russian medical university, is a specific, limited arrangement rather than a broad international admissions track. Admission itself runs under a strict national quota system, with places set annually by the Ministry.

So, who fits here best? Strong Italian-speaking candidates drawn to a genuinely ancient medical faculty with real, documented income-based tuition relief, fit well here. Students comfortable with Perugia's two-pole structure across Perugia and Terni fit well too. However, applicants who specifically need an English-taught programme should look toward Italy's dedicated IMAT-based medical schools instead. Still, the faculty's deep historical roots and its genuinely generous no-tax threshold are real, well-documented strengths.