Foundation Year

What is the Foundation Year?

The Foundation Year is a preparatory course taught in Italian designed for:

• students who do not meet the minimum 12 years of schooling required for enrollment in an Italian University Degree course.
• students who want to access undergraduate degrees at the University of Pavia.
• students interested in learning Italian or improving their Italian language skills.

The course includes both Italian language classes and preparatory courses from one of the following study areas: (1) Humanities; (2) Science and Medicine; (3) Economics, Law, and Politics.

For the academic year 2022-2023, Italian and Area Studies courses will be held on campus in Pavia from October 2022 until June 2023.

Students who pass the Foundation year final exams will:

• meet the minimum entry requirements for undergraduate study and be exempted from the first year's University tuition fee at the University of Pavia
• be exempted from the Italian Proficiency University admission test

Please note that students applying to degrees with limited enrollment must still take the admission test.