Q1. Is San Raffaele a public or private university?
+Private and not-for-profit, the only one of its kind on this comparison list.
The University and What Makes It Different
This is the one genuinely private university on this list, and it's worth being upfront about exactly what that changes. Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele was founded on 29 March 1996 by Don Luigi Maria Verzé, initially opening with just a Faculty of Psychology. Medicine followed two years later, in 1998, so it wasn't part of the university's very first moment, though it's now central to the institution's identity.
The hospital underneath it has a longer, separate history: the first patient was admitted in October 1971 and it earned IRCCS research-hospital status in 1972, before coming under the ownership of the San Donato Group from May 2012, following Don Verzé's death and a financial crisis at the founding foundation.
San Raffaele runs two genuinely distinct medicine tracks. The standard Italian-taught Laurea Magistrale a Ciclo Unico in Medicina e Chirurgia is delivered across three parallel numbered course sections, existing for administrative rather than curricular reasons. Alongside it runs a fully separate English-taught option, the International Medical Doctor Program, a complete six-year, English-medium single-cycle degree.
Here's the detail that genuinely sets San Raffaele apart from every other university on this list with an English-taught track. Admission to the International Medical Doctor Program doesn't run through IMAT, the standard test used at public Italian universities' English-medium medicine programmes. San Raffaele runs its own, entirely separate proprietary entrance exam instead.
A Private University Built Around Its Own Research Hospital
As a private university, San Raffaele sits outside Italy's new semestre filtro reform, which explicitly excludes private institutions. The Italian-taught track instead uses its own admissions test, restructured for 2026: 60 multiple-choice questions in 60 minutes, split evenly across biology, chemistry, and physics, with roughly 10 percent of questions in English. The old format's logic and reasoning section, worth 60 percent of the score through 2025, has been dropped entirely.
For the Italian track, 2026/27 registration closes 1 April at noon, with test sessions on 8-9 April and 27-28 April, candidates may sit both and the higher score counts, and 750 places are available for Medicina e Chirurgia, plus 60 for Odontoiatria under the same exam. The International track runs its own cycle: registration from 17 December 2025 to early February 2026 depending on citizenship, an online test across two sessions, a 200-euro fee, and roughly 86 EU places for 2026/27, C1 English required. The prior cycle ran different numbers, 150 total places, so don't assume these carry over year to year.
The teaching hospital here is IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele itself, roughly 1,350 beds across 11 departments and 45 clinical specialties, giving students unusually direct bench-to-bedside exposure from early in the course.
Milan, as covered elsewhere in this comparison, is confirmed as Italy's most expensive city for student housing. Recent figures put a single room around 700 to 730 euros a month, ranging from roughly 525 euros in peripheral areas up to well over 1,000 euros in the most in-demand central neighbourhoods, with an overall single-person monthly budget commonly estimated between 1,500 and 2,500 euros including everything.
Course Structure, Cost, and Practical Details
On structure: six years for both tracks, standard national length. The 2020 national reform's qualifying-degree mechanics, tied to the LM-41 degree classification itself rather than to any specific university's admission process, should logically apply here too, though this wasn't independently confirmed against a San Raffaele-specific page during research.
Tuition is where the real financial gap between San Raffaele and every public university on this list becomes obvious. The most recently confirmed figure, from the university's own page for the 2021/2022 academic year, was 20,140 euros total, 20,000 euros tuition plus a 140-euro regional tax, paid across three instalments. San Raffaele's own documentation states fees are reviewed annually by the university's board, meaning that 2021/22 figure is very likely higher by now, so treat it strictly as a historical reference point, not a current cost, and confirm the live figure directly before making any decisions based on it.
San Raffaele's research reputation carries real, if somewhat mixed, external validation worth summarising honestly. QS World University Rankings placed it 465th globally in the 2027 edition, having sat at 389th in the 2025 edition, movement worth noting without assuming a clear upward or downward trend from just two data points. One source described it as ranking first in Italy specifically for citations-per-faculty and faculty-student ratio in 2025, a genuinely distinguishing claim worth confirming directly against QS's own published tables before treating it as settled.
Given the private cost, the non-IMAT English-track admission process, and the tight hospital integration, San Raffaele is a genuinely different proposition from every public university on this list, best suited to applicants who specifically want a private, research-intensive Milan option and can comfortably manage costs likely well above the 2021/22 reference figure.
Quick Overview
Parameter | Details |
Founded | University founded 1996; Faculty of Medicine and Surgery followed 1998; teaching hospital dates to 1971 (IRCCS status 1972) |
Institution Type | Private, not-for-profit university |
Location | Milan, Italy |
Laurea Magistrale a Ciclo Unico in Medicina e Chirurgia (Italian); International Medical Doctor Program (English) | |
Duration | 6 years, both tracks |
Medium of Instruction | Italian (main track); English (International Medical Doctor Program) |
San Raffaele's own private entrance exam for both tracks; NOT IMAT for the English track, and exempt from the national semestre filtro | |
Teaching Hospital | IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, part of the San Donato Group since 2012 |
Fee Structure
Fee Component | Amount | Notes |
Tuition Fee (most recently confirmed figure) | EUR 20,140 total (2021/2022): EUR 20,000 + EUR 140 regional tax | Reviewed annually; very likely higher now, confirm the current figure directly |
International Track Test Fee | EUR 200 | Covers both test sessions |
Living Costs (rent) | Approx. EUR 700 to 730 per month (single room) | Milan is Italy's most expensive city for student housing |
Total Monthly Budget | Approx. EUR 1,500 to 2,500 | Third-party estimate, including all living costs |
Total Cost | Best obtained from the university itself | The confirmed EUR 20,140 figure is from 2021/22 and needs re-verification for the current year |
Why San Raffaele's Medical Faculty Deserves a Harder Look Than You've Given It
A Private University With Its Own Entrance Exam, Not IMAT
San Raffaele's English-taught International Medical Doctor Program doesn't use IMAT, the exam governing English-taught medicine at public universities. It runs its own science-based entrance test and, as a private university, is explicitly excluded from the semestre filtro reform.
Tight Integration With a Major Research Hospital
San Raffaele was built around, and remains closely tied to, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, recognised since 1972 and part of the Gruppo San Donato network since 2012, offering a translational research environment.
Honest Assessment
Tuition is flat and tiered rather than ISEE-based, and the most recent confirmed figure, around EUR 20,140/year, dates to 2021/22 and is very likely higher now, so confirm directly. What you get is a small, focused faculty with real research-hospital integration and an IMAT-independent path in.
