English Healthcare Professions Italy 2026 Guide

Students preparing for the 2026 English-taught Healthcare Professions admission test now have a clear official framework: we know when the test will take place, how it will be structured, how scoring will work, and which rules apply to registration.

Let’s look at what changes compared with 2025, what stays exactly the same, and how the new Medicine admission rules affect this test.

Official updates for the 2026 English-taught Healthcare Professions test

As of 11 August 2026, the main official information for the 2026/2027 academic year has been published.

The key updates are:

• the test will take place on 17 September 2026
• the exam will start at 11:00
• the official structure remains 60 questions in 100 minutes
• the scoring system does not change compared with 2025
• the distribution of questions by subject does not change compared with 2025
• each university still publishes its own admission call
• there is no single national registration deadline
• the available places for 2026/2027 were defined in an official measure published on 10 August 2026
• the Medicine admission reform based on the open semester does not replace the test for related degree programmes taught in English

The main practical change for students is therefore the calendar. The test format itself remains substantially unchanged.

2025 vs 2026 test: what changes

The 2026 test will therefore take place 7 days later than the 2025 exam.

There are no official changes to the duration, number of questions, or scoring system.

Date of the 2026 English-taught Healthcare Professions test

The admission test for Healthcare Professions degree programmes taught in English is scheduled for:

17 September 2026 at 11:00.

The date is set at ministerial level, but the practical organisation of the exam remains the responsibility of individual universities.

This means students must check the admission call of their chosen university to find:

• registration deadline
• application procedure
• participation fee
• required documents
• test venue
• reporting time
• ranking publication procedure

There is therefore no single registration procedure that applies to every university.

How the 2026 test will be structured

The 2026 structure remains the same as in 2025.

The test includes 60 questions, each with 5 possible answers, only one of which is correct.

Students have 100 minutes to complete the exam.

The questions are distributed as follows:

• 4 questions on reading skills and knowledge acquired during previous studies
• 5 questions on logical reasoning and problem solving
• 23 questions on biology
• 15 questions on chemistry
• 13 questions on physics and mathematics

The largest part of the exam therefore remains focused on scientific subjects, with 51 out of 60 questions covering biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics.

For degree programmes taught in English, the questions are also written in English.

2026 scoring system

The scoring system also remains unchanged.

Each question is scored as follows:

• +1.5 points for a correct answer
• -0.4 points for a wrong answer
• 0 points for an unanswered question

The maximum possible score is therefore 90 points.

Because wrong answers are penalised, it is important to practise managing uncertain questions and the available time.

With TestBuddy, students can practise with simulations, topic-based exercises, a digital textbook and personal performance statistics, while monitoring their current level through the TB™ Score. It is possible to start for free.

Registration for the 2026 test

Registration continues to be managed by individual universities.

The Ministry sets the date, structure and general rules of the test, while each university publishes its own admission call with the practical instructions.

The university admission call must be published at least 30 days before the test.

This means there is no single national deadline for registering for the test on 17 September 2026.

For example, in the 2026 admission call for the English-taught Nursing programme at Sapienza University of Rome, registration for the test is open from 5 August 2026 to 3 September 2026.

These dates apply only to that specific admission call. Students must always check the deadlines published by the university they want to apply to.

Admission requirements in 2026

No new general national admission requirements appear to have been introduced compared with the previous edition.

To participate, students must hold, or obtain according to the conditions stated in the admission call, a secondary school diploma valid for university admission.

Students with a qualification obtained abroad must also follow the required procedures for recognition of the qualification and, where applicable, pre-enrolment through Universitaly.

The official documents reviewed do not introduce a new general national requirement to hold a specific English language certificate in order to take the test.

Any additional requirements must therefore be checked in the admission call of the specific degree programme.

Does the Medicine reform change the English-taught Healthcare Professions test?

In 2026, the new admission system for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine based on the open semester remains in place.

For students applying to English-taught Healthcare Professions programmes, however, this does not mean that the test on 17 September 2026 has been abolished.

The official information clarifies that the new rules applying to related degree programmes do not apply to related programmes taught in English.

The traditional admission system therefore continues to apply to this test:

• registration through the individual university
• multiple-choice admission test
• 60 questions
• 100 minutes
• admission ranking

The Medicine reform therefore does not require students to change the format of their preparation for the standard English-taught Healthcare Professions test.

How preparation changes in 2026

From the point of view of the exam itself, there are no structural changes compared with 2025.

Preparation should therefore continue to be based on:

• 60 questions
• 100 minutes
• the official distribution of subjects
• a -0.4 point penalty for each wrong answer
• a fully English-language test for programmes taught in English

The test date has changed, but the type of preparation required has not.

Students should focus especially on getting used to completing full simulations within 100 minutes, reviewing mistakes, and understanding which areas are costing them the most points.

Timeline of official 2026 updates

Information about the test was released in several stages.

3 July 2026: the ministerial calendar for admission tests was published.

7 July 2026: the date of 17 September 2026 for English-taught Healthcare Professions was officially communicated.

6 August 2026: the official rules on the format, content, structure and scoring criteria for the 2026/2027 test were defined.

7 August 2026: the official measure governing the test format was published.

7 August 2026: the available places for Healthcare Professions programmes for 2026/2027 were defined.

10 August 2026: the official measure concerning available places was published.

As of 11 August 2026, there are no later official updates changing the 17 September 2026 test date, the 60-question structure, the 100-minute duration or the scoring system.

How to stay updated about the test

There does not appear to be a single national alert service dedicated exclusively to English-taught Healthcare Professions.

The most important source to monitor is the admission call published by the chosen university, because this is where the practical details that vary from one institution to another are communicated.

Students should check:

• the official degree programme page
• the official admissions page
• the email address used during registration
• any corrections or updates to the admission call
• the test venue
• rankings and subsequent admission rounds

Some admission calls explicitly state that publication on the university website has the same legal value as an official notification. For this reason, students should not rely only on receiving a personal message.

At the moment, there is also no national page specifically called “last minute” and no mandatory newsletter dedicated exclusively to this test.

Official references

The test date and the first 2026 calendar were communicated through the ministerial notice of 3 July 2026 and the subsequent Ministry communication of 7 July 2026.

The test structure, duration, question distribution and general criteria for 2026/2027 come from the official ministerial measure of 6 August 2026.

The available places for the 2026/2027 academic year were defined through the ministerial measure of 7 August 2026.

The clarification concerning the open semester and related degree programmes taught in English is available on the official Universitaly page dedicated to the new admission system.

As an example of deadlines set by individual universities, the information about the English-taught Nursing programme comes from the 2026/2027 admission call published by Sapienza University of Rome.

The comparison with 2025 uses the ministerial calendar published on 14 May 2025 and the official measure governing the 2025 test format published on 6 August 2025.