Studying at Politecnico di Torino

The story

Politecnico di Torino opened in 1859 as a School for Engineers and took the name Regio Politecnico di Torino in 1906. It describes itself as the first Italian engineering school, and it has trained engineers, architects, designers and urban planners for more than 160 years.

Engineering is taught on Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, in a complex that opened in 1958 and has since grown into the Cittadella Politecnica on Corso Castelfidardo. Architecture, design and planning are housed in the Valentino Castle, a riverside villa that belonged to the Savoy family from 1564 and is recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Two more sites come from Turin's car industry. The Lingotto building, a former Fiat factory renovated by Renzo Piano in 1985, hosts the school for specialising master's programs and lifelong learning. On the old Fiat Mirafiori site, the Cittadella del Design e della Mobilità sostenibile is home to the degrees in Industrial Design and Automotive Engineering.

Who studies here

The Politecnico has 38,700 students and more than 1,000 teaching staff. In 2025/26, 8,500 of its students came from abroad, from 122 countries, 76% of them from Asia.

Programs taught in English

We list 7 Bachelor's and 26 Master's at PoliTo taught entirely in English.

A selection of them:

• Architecture
• Computer Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Data Science and Engineering
• Automotive Engineering
• Engineering and Management

How admission works for international students

Bachelor's in engineering, 2026/27. There were two routes: the TIL-I, the Politecnico's own test, or a SAT score with at least 650 in each of the two test sections. The TIL-I was taken in person in the computer labs in Turin and Mondovì, or at the Politecnico hub in Uzbekistan, and the score counted only for 2026/27 enrolment.

Students from outside the EU living abroad who needed a visa could sit the TIL-I in sessions open to them, and a ranking list was published after the last of those sessions, with updates after it.

English. To enrol on an English-taught Bachelor's program you need an English certificate at B2 level or above. For the Master's programs, the course requirements table lists IELTS 5.5 as the minimum score.

Master's. An Academic Committee checks whether your previous degree and academic performance fit the program. Some programs add an online interview, and for others a GRE score counts as a plus.

Master's applications from students with a foreign qualification run in two calls. Admitted students then pre-enrol on Universitaly for the study visa.

After that, they enrol online and upload their type D study visa.

Our Politecnico tests guide covers the TIL-I and the switch, our CEnT-S guide the CISIA test that replaces it, and our SAT guide the SAT route.

Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine in English are covered on our Medicine in Italy page.

Fees

Students from outside the EU whose family's income and assets are abroad pay a fixed yearly amount set by their country of citizenship. For 2026/27 it runs from €761 to €3,761 a year. Pakistan, for example, is €761, and so is any country not listed in the regulation's table. Citizens of countries on the ministry's list of particularly poor countries can be exempted from the main fee with a certificate from the Italian embassy or consulate, so for them that exemption is the cost.

Families with income and assets in Italy are charged on the ISEE scale instead.

How Learnium helps with PoliTo

At the Politecnico the test is changing: TIL-I or SAT for 2026/27, CEnT-S from 2027/28. We tell you which applies to your year and put the sitting in your plan. The application, the Universitaly pre-enrolment and the visa sit on the same timeline, and the documents the Politecnico asks for are prepared with you. If you are choosing between PoliTo and another university, we compare the two with you, with the fee tables open.

Questions students ask about PoliTo

Rules, dates and fees change every year. Confirm them in the official call for your own year before you act on them.