University of Milan Regional Scholarship 2026/27: Amounts, ISEE Parificato and Deadlines

The University of Milan regional scholarship is a need-based grant for students at Università degli Studi di Milano (La Statale), funded through Regione Lombardia’s right-to-study (DSU) system. For 2026/27 it pays €2,143 to €8,248 a year, depending on your family’s income band and where you live. Winners also get a full fee exemption and one free lunch a day, Monday to Saturday. International students can apply, and if your family’s income and assets are abroad, the university works out an “ISEE parificato” from documents issued in your home country.

The 2026/27 application window ran from 10 July to 30 September 2026 and is now closed. The deadline is 30 September 2027, for 2027/28. If you applied, the provisional ranking is due by 31 October 2026 and the final ranking by 30 November 2026. If you missed it, use this guide to prepare for the 2027/28 call: the foreign income documents take months to collect, legalise and translate, and that is where most international applicants fail.

University of Milan regional scholarship 2026/27 at a glance

1. Official name: Borse di studio regionali (regional scholarships), Università degli Studi di Milano
2. Funded under: Lombardy’s right-to-study (Diritto allo Studio Universitario, DSU) rules
3. Open to: Italian, EU and non-EU students enrolled full time, including those not yet enrolled when they apply
4. Cash grant: €2,143 minimum to €8,248 maximum per year, before the meal deduction
5. Other benefits: full fee exemption (50% for partial winners), one free midday meal Monday to Saturday
6. Income limits: ISEE up to €26,887.93 and ISPE up to €58,452.06, both at the same time
7. Applied through: the Online Helpdesk (Sportello online) for right to study, benefits and housing
8. Paid on: the Carta La Statale, activated as a Flash Up Studio prepaid card

How much is the University of Milan regional scholarship?

The amount depends on two things: your ISEE band and your housing status. The 2026/27 call sets three income bands and three housing categories. The figures below are the yearly amounts in the call, and they already include the regional tax refund and the value of the meal service.

Travel times are measured by public transport from your family’s residence to your campus, using the university’s own travel time table. For an international student whose family lives abroad, the question is whether you can prove you rent in or near Milan. That decides whether you get the off-site amount or the much lower commuter amount.

Deductions and extras

• €414.50 is withheld from the cash for the free meal service.
• Partial winners and students in their first year beyond the normal course length get half of every amount and half the meal service, with a 50% fee exemption.
• Women enrolled in STEM programmes get 20% more.
• Students enrolled in two programmes can get 20% more if funds allow.
• Students with a disability can get up to 40% more.
• Distance-learning programmes receive a flat €500 with no meal service.

So the €8,248 headline that other sites quote is only for a band 1, off-site student. After the meal deduction, that student receives €7,833.50 in cash across two instalments.

Who is eligible for the University of Milan regional scholarship?

You must be enrolled, or about to enrol, full time in one of these at the University of Milan: a bachelor’s (laurea), a master’s (laurea magistrale), a single-cycle master’s, a PhD, or a postgraduate specialisation school. Nationality is not a barrier. You must meet both the income test and the merit test set in the call.

You cannot get the scholarship if any of these apply:

• You already hold an Italian degree at the same or a higher level.
• You get a similar scholarship or benefit for the same academic year.
• You study part time or on a shortened career path.
• You are repeating a year.
• You are on a vocational master’s or a postgraduate medical school with a training contract.
• You are a PhD student who already has a doctoral scholarship or research grant.

ISEE parificato: how international students prove family income

Italian students prove their finances with an ISEE Università certificate from INPS. If your family’s income and assets are abroad, you cannot get that certificate. Instead you upload foreign documents, and the university calculates an equivalent figure, the ISEE parificato.

Which rule applies to you

Check Annex 1 in the current year’s guide on the university’s regional scholarships page before you start. I could not read the 2026/27 annex itself, so I am not listing which countries are on it.

How the university calculates it

1. Income: it adds up the income of every household member for the reference year (2025 for the 2026/27 call).
2. Assets: it adds 20% of each member’s savings, investments and property as of 31 December 2025.
3. Property value: buildings only, valued at €500 per square metre whatever their real price.
4. Adjustments: it applies the standard deductions and divides by the Italian equivalence scale for household size.

The €500 per square metre rule can push a family over the limit. A family house of 200 square metres counts as €100,000 of property, and 20% of that (€20,000) is added to the income side before the household-size division. Measure every property your family owns before you request documents.

Foreign income documents checklist

If the Italian embassy in your country makes legalisation very hard, the rules let you go through your own country’s embassy or consulate in Italy instead, with the documents then legalised by an Italian Prefecture. Either way, the documents must come from the authorities in the country where the income and assets are. Upload them by the same deadline as the application. Missing documents mean exclusion from the ranking.

Independent student status

You can be assessed on your own finances, without your parents, only if you meet both conditions: you have lived away from the family home for at least two years in housing not owned by a relative, and you earned at least €9,000 a year in declared employment income in 2024 and 2025, not from a relative. Few new international students meet this.

Getting the off-site amount: the lease rule

To be paid as fuori sede, you need a rental contract that meets these terms. Without one, you get the commuter amount.

• The contract must be in your name and registered with the Agenzia delle Entrate (Italian Revenue Agency). Halls of residence give receipts and a declaration instead.
• It must cover at least 10 months between September 2026 and September 2027 (5 months for first-year off-track students).
• The rent must be in line with Milan’s agreed local rent levels.
• Upload it by 16 November 2026, or by 31 January 2027 if you enrol after the final ranking.
• If the lease ends early, tell the office within 15 days.

Informal room rentals with no registered contract are common in Milan. For this scholarship, accepting one can cost you about €3,400 a year in band 1.

Merit rules: the credits you must earn to keep the money

First-year students are ranked on income only, but the scholarship is conditional. You must earn a minimum number of credits (CFU) during the year, or you lose the award and repay what you received.

If you reach the minimum after 10 August but by 30 November 2027, you keep only a partial scholarship. Miss 30 November 2027 and you lose the award and must repay what you have already received. This is why the second instalment for first-year students only comes in October 2027.

Students in later years are ranked by credits earned and average grade. For example, a second-year bachelor’s student on an open-access course needs 35 CFU by 10 August 2026, and a second-year master’s student needs 30 CFU. Students with a disability of 66% or more have the requirement cut by 40%.

University of Milan regional scholarship deadlines 2026/27

All dates are Italian time (CET, GMT+1, from late October; CEST, GMT+2, in summer).

For 2027/28, the deadline is 30 September 2027. The deadline for documents was 30 September in both the 2023/24 and 2026/27 cycles, so I would plan for a call opening in July 2027 and have the foreign documents legalised by August.

How to apply for the University of Milan regional scholarship

1. Apply for admission: the scholarship is separate from admission, but you can apply for it before you are enrolled.
2. Register on the UniMi portal: you need university credentials to reach the Online Helpdesk. SPID (Italian digital identity) login is also accepted.
3. Collect foreign documents early: request the household, income and asset documents in your home country by May or June, then book the Italian consulate for legalisation and translation.
4. Get an ISEE if you have income in Italy: sign the DSU on the INPS portal or at a CAF (free tax assistance centre) by 30 September. The ISEE must carry your own tax code.
5. Fill the online form: open the Online Helpdesk for right to study, benefits and housing, and complete the regional scholarship application.
6. Upload everything by the deadline: foreign documents go in the same window as the application.
7. Check the provisional ranking: if a document was assessed wrongly, appeal within 7 days.
8. Upload your lease: by 16 November if you want the off-site amount.
9. Activate your Carta La Statale: book an appointment at an Intesa Sanpaolo branch to turn it into a Flash Up Studio prepaid card, or the money cannot be paid.

Students resident in Syria, Iran or North Korea are paid into a bank account instead of the card. If you owe the university money, payment can be held back or offset.

Extra awards attached to the regional scholarship

The €600 includes any EU Erasmus allowance, so it tops up your Erasmus grant to that level. It does not add €600 on top of it.

Is this scholarship worth planning around?

For a student from a low-income family abroad, yes. An off-site band 1 student gets about €7,800 in cash plus free tuition and a daily lunch, every year of the course, as long as the credits keep coming. The catch is paperwork and timing: no money arrives before late December, and first-year students receive only half until October of the following year. Bring savings to cover your first four months.

If you are comparing Italian options, our Sapienza University scholarships guide covers Rome’s regional and university awards. For programmes that ask for references, see our recommendation letter samples.

FAQ on the University of Milan regional scholarship

Can international students get the University of Milan DSU scholarship?

Yes. Non-EU students qualify on the same income and merit rules as Italians. If your family’s finances are abroad, you submit legalised and translated home-country documents and the university calculates an ISEE parificato.

What is the maximum ISEE for the University of Milan scholarship 2026/27?

€26,887.93, with an ISPE (assets indicator) no higher than €58,452.06. You must be under both limits.

Can I apply for the University of Milan scholarship before I am admitted?

Yes. The call allows applications from students who are not yet enrolled, as long as they enrol in an eligible programme. The scholarship application itself is separate from admission.

When is the University of Milan regional scholarship paid?

The first half is paid by 31 December 2026. Later-year students get the second half by 30 June 2027, and first-year students get it by 31 October 2027 only after meeting the credit requirement.

Sources and updates

Amounts, income bands, ISEE and ISPE limits, merit credits, lease rules, independent student rules and payment terms come from the University of Milan’s call for regional scholarships for 2026/27 (Bando borse di studio regionali) and its regional scholarships page. Dates come from the university’s summary of deadlines for 2026/27. The ISEE parificato method and foreign document rules come from the university’s guide on assessing the finances of students with income and assets abroad (the 2023 English edition, with the reference year updated to 2025 as stated in the 2026/27 call). Applications are made on the university’s Online Helpdesk for right to study. Information checked on 24 October 2026. I will update this post when the provisional ranking is out and when the 2027/28 call is published.

Jude Chinecherem

I am Jude Chinecherem, a final-year MBBS student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I know what it feels like to want an education your family cannot afford. When my parents could not pay for my schooling, I had to learn how to find scholarships and work the system out on my own, with nobody to guide me. I came out the other side, and now I share everything I learned so the next student does not have to figure it out alone. This is the advice I wish someone had given me back then.