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Master's Degree in Data Science

Info for foreign students

Welcome to Naples

There are many reasons to choose to study in  a lively, multiethnic, multi-confessional town of exceptional beauty and with an extraordinary history of open-mindedness and tolerance. It has the largest historic Center in Europe and many cultural attractions: the National Library, the Archeological Museum, the Pynacoteque of Capodimonte, the San Martino Museum, the San Gennaro Treasure, the State National Archives to quote just a few of the most relevant. Naples is also among the top fastest developing towns in Italy in the field of new and green technologies.
The University Federico II was established in 1224 and is the oldest non sectarian university in the world. With its 27 Departments, five campuses more than 3700 faculties and ca. 100.000 students, the University Federico II is a cultural hub offering a stimulating mix of tradition and innovation. Its excellence in research has been certified by many international ratings and the quality of its professors is reknown.


Code of conduct

The University is proud to be a nonconfessional, multi-ethnic body and its students are required to strictly adhere to the Code of Conduct. It is in Italian but I recommend you to make the effort to translate it in your language and remember it during all your stay. No discrimination against race, gender, religion and/or sexual orientation will be tolerated. The SINAPSI Center can be contacted to receive help in the case of any type of discrimination.


Public Health system

The Italian Public Health system is free and open to all enrolled students and its level of excellence is recognized worldwide (in year 2021 the Italian Public Health System was nominated to the Peace Nobel Prize for its level of excellence and capability to deal with the COVID-19 Pandemic).


Pre-requisites to apply

You can apply to enter the Data Science Master degree if you match (all) three following requirements:
1. A Bachelor Degree with at least 30 CFUs (Credits) in engineering, computer sciences, mathematics, statistics or physics. Of these at least 6 CFU must be in computer sciences-related topics;
2. The score of your bachelor must be above 7 in a 10 scale (for clarification, please look at the FAQ's.
3. A certification for the English proficiency (level B2 or higher) released by an official certification institute (University declarations are not sufficient). Foreign and Italian courses for foreign students are provided by the CLA (Centro Linguistico di Ateneo / Atheneum Language Center).

If you have already a Master degree, your curriculum may be evaluated in order to verify if you are eligible to skip one or more exams of the Data Science Master. In this case (after enrollment is completed) you may follow the procedures described here.

For any further question or clarification, you may contact the secretary or the coordinator via mail.


How to apply

Each country has its own bureaucracy. In Italy, since 2020, admission of foreign students takes place in a centralized way through the UNIVERSITALY portal. While rendering a little more cumbersome the interaction with your chosen University, this procedure simplifies a lot of your applications for VISAS etc... Universitaly acts just like a router and hence you can apply also without a pre-admission letter. The Universitaly portal will take care of sending your documents to the chosen University and Master coordinator who, if it will be the case, after evaluating the documents, will issue the acceptance letter.
Since Universitaly accepts only one application for each person it is useful if you take the two following steps:

1. Check the above listed prerequisites. If you match all of them, you can apply directly through the UNIVERSITALY portal and your application will be accepted.

2. If you do not match one of the above listed prerequisites, your chances of being admitted are slim, but you may still ask for a pre-evaluation by filling this FORM. If it will be the case, after a while your application will be evaluated, and if the evaluation will be positive, you will receive a pre-admission letter to be uploaded in the Universitaly portal when you apply.

IMPORTANT: If you match all the above requisites, YOU MUST NOT FILL THE FORM.

As a foreign student, You may find very useful to read this document of the Italian Ministry for University and Research (MIUR) and to watch this short video.

Additional more specific infos can be found at UNINA International. Read, in particular, the instructions available here. At the end of the above-quoted pages, you will also find about the tuition fees.


Opportunities for grants

At a difference with what happens in other European countries, where registration fees are very (and unjustifiably) high, the Italian government in order to easily access foreign students has lowered the registration fees to a minimum amount. This, however, implies that there are few opportunities to ask for and to receive grants. In other words: you must count on your own resources.
There are however a few opportunities to apply for grants and or fellowships. Some interesting opportunities are described below.

Fellowships are offered on a competitive base by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This implies that students from a limited number of countries can apply for 9-month grants (renewable). To do so they need to monitor the above site and wait for the new call. This is downloadable from the site but it is valid for the academic year (but usually it does not change much from year to year).


NEWS: The University Federico II also offers a limited number of grants (on a competitive base) through an agreement with the sponsoring Italian "Compagnia di San Paolo". The call can be downloaded here. If you have already submitted your application through the Universitaly portal, you can still apply for the grant (within the deadline) by sending to the specified address a short but detailed motivation letter.


Useful university offices and Departments

Here you can find some useful links to some infrastructures offered by the University.

  1. International Welcome Desk of the University. It is an external company to whom the University of Naples Federico II subcontracted the task of providing assistance to international students and visitors. Assistance is given for the following services:
    • finding accommodation in Naples
    • opening a bank account
    • requesting an Italian tax code (Codice Fiscale) needed for receiving any form of reimbursement or payment while in Italy
    • requesting a residence permit for overseas visitors from outside the European Union together with any other information necessary for visiting students and staff members (Visiting Professors, Researchers, Fellows, PhD Students, international students and Erasmus students.)
  2. Admissions of the University: on this page, you will find a lot of useful info about documents to produce at enrollment, deadlines, and various other requirements.
  3. The Office for Education of the DIETI of the University. This must not be confused with the enrollment and help desk (in Italian "Segreteria studenti per l'area didattica di Ingegneria" ) for the master, which is located in Piazzale Tecchio 80.
  4. Legal Office of the University: offers support to our students. To fix an appointment, you can send a mail to sportello.ascolto < act >unina.it.
  5. Linguistic Center of the Atheneum of the University.
  6. SINAPSI Center of the University. SInAPSi is the University center for all the students who feel excluded from the university life because of disability, Specific Learning Disorders (dyslexia, dysgraphia, dysorthography, dyscalculia), or temporary difficulties. It provides services and supports initiatives to facilitate the participation of all the students in university life. The center cooperates with University structures to ensure accessibility of the environments.