Study programs in Milan range from a weekend to one week to even a few years. But how do you apply and whom should you contact?
At the time we write (2015), the city boasts 15 university-based institutions recognized by the Italian Ministry of Education, at which you can obtain either a university or equivalent degree, with a choice of major in each type of subject, from sports to astrophysics.
Various centres specializing in post-diploma and post-graduate education issue degrees that are either accredited in other countries or accredited both in Italy as well as in another country, while Milan-based academies and schools issue sector-specific certificates.
Before applying, it is advisable to assess the advantages of taking a diploma or degree course in Italy. Additionally, it is important to remember to ask for information at the offices of the individual School/University regarding the legal documents required to start your study experience.

And, of course, you should consider the fact that you’re going to study in a country that might be very different from yours, from the cultural point of view. Read about young Sam Silverman’s experience in Milan and see if her shoes could suit yours or watch this video made by Lora during her Erasmus experience in Milan (YouTube).

• • Business, Economics, Management, Marketing & Finance
  • Fashion & Luxury Goods
  • Design & Architecture
  • Arts & Crafts
  • Engineering
  • Cinema, Video & Photography
  • Music, Sound & Audio
  • Performing Arts and other related fields
  • Medical Sciences and Nursing
  • Pharmacy, Biology, Chemistry, Physics & other Natural Sciences
  • Italian & International Culture & Heritage
  • Media, Communication, Publishing, Translation, Interpreting & Public Relations
  • Food, Cooking and Hospitality
  • Political Studies, History, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology & Law
  • Sport Sciences
  • Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences

Milan is an excellent place to study economics and related disciplines and offers a wide range of foundation courses, undergraduate and post-graduate courses.
The city alone produces around 10% of Italian GDP (Source: Milan Chamber of Commerce) and, in addition to the Milan Stock Exchange, the centre of town is also home to the headquarters or branch offices of practically every multinational in the country.
Not only, Milan is one of the EU’s and the world’s major financial and business centres where, in addition to the circulation of significant sums of Italian and international capital, millions of visitors from all parts of the world meet each year, especially during important events such as, for example, the annual Salone del Mobile (Milan Furniture Fair), Milan Fashion Weeks and Design Week, MICAM, HOMI, MACEF, BIT and others – but also rarer events, such as EXPO (1906 and 2015). In fact, Milan ranks number one in Italy in terms of visitors attending fairs, boasting more than 13,000 exhibitors and the largest congress centre in Europe, MiCo, designed to accommodate up to 20,000 delegates.

• • Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – Milano (or USC or La Cattolica)
  • Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (Bocconi University)
  • Università degli Studi di Milano (La Statale)
  • Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (La Bicocca)
  • Istituto Marangoni – Milan (IM Milan) – for fashion & design

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Fifty per cent of the city’s GDP comes from the fashion and design sectors (Source: City of Milan). Additionally, important international events such as Vogue Fashion Night and Milan Fashion Week draw a huge crowd of international visitors who flock to several of the world’s most famed and fabled shopping streets including Via Montenapoleone and the so-called “Quadrilatero della Moda”.
In particular, Milan’s Fashion Weeks, organized by the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, generate an indirect employment of around 28 million euros in Milan and Lombardy (Source: City of Milan).
Milan is home to Armani, Prada, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana, but this alone is not what makes the city one of the world’s leading capitals of fashion and design.
Over the years, it was almost a given that this corner of Italy would become ‘the’ place to attend internationally acclaimed prestigious training courses in the sector. Already in the Eighties, the first courses targeted at teaching the design, creation, management and promotion of Made-in-Italy luxury and fashion products, began to flourish. The best institutes offering courses on fashion & luxury goods are also particularly adept at creating a network of partnerships with famous local enterprises, including the National Chamber of Italian Fashion (organizers of Milan’s Fashion Weeks), which only offers its patronage to a few selected institutes, here starred.

• • Accademia del Lusso (AdL)
  • Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera – Italian language proficiency required
  • Ars Sutoria – for bags and shoes *
  • Creative Academy (CA) by Richemont Group
  • Domus Academy (DA) *
  • GED Fashion Institute
  • Istituto di Moda Burgo (IMB) *
  • Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) *
  • Istituto Marangoni – Milano (IM Milan) *
  • Istituto Secoli Milano *
  • Milano Fashion Institute (MFI) – for fashion management
  • Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti (NABA) *
  • Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (Bocconi University) – for fashion management
  • Università degli Studi di Milano (La Statale) – 2nd level degree in the publishing and communication industries, IT lang

* At the time we write, this institute is patronized by the National Chamber of Italian Fashion

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Those wishing to learn the art of design, especially interior design, cannot not include Milan on their resumes. It is important to remember that from the early 1960s onwards, the most important international event for industry professionals and lovers of design, also considered an invaluable opportunity for the launch of innovative products, has been the renowned Milan Furniture Fair, a global benchmark for the home furnishing sector. Over the past few years, the fair per se has seen the influx of as many as 300,000 international visitors per edition, not to mention its affiliated Milan Design Week, consisting of countless off-site events organized in the centre (read: the design districts) which, according to estimates, see the involvement of up to one million people each year (check here for present and future events in Milan with focus on design). Another interesting trade fair is the biennial MADE Expo, able to gather a crowd of 200,000 professional operators from the construction industry.
Today, half of Milan’s GDP comes from companies operating in the field of fashion and design (Source: City of Milan), probably explaining why the most important design professionals have opted to set up their studios in the city, often in the district of Brera or in via Tortona. For their projects, many of them avail themselves of the services of a vast network of highly specialized artisans operating in the area which also boasts countless shops selling design objects.
Milan is also home to the museum-temple of contemporary Italian design, namely the Triennale, but also the Modern Art Gallery and the Museo del Novecento. Milan also hosts the Milano Design Film Festival and is the place where Golden Compass Awards take place, i.e. one of the most highly sought-after Industrial Design awards in the sector. It goes without saying that this incredibly fertile breeding ground has given life to several of the most prestigious schools and academies and we, at Where Milan have selected the ones that we consider the most valid.

• • Accademia del Lusso (AdL)
  • Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera – Italian language proficiency required
  • Creative Academy (CA) by Richemont Group
  • Domus Academy (DA)
  • Istituto Europeo di Design (IED)
  • Istituto Marangoni – Milano (IM Milan)
  • Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti (NABA)
  • Scuola del Design del Politecnico di Milano
  • Scuola Politecnica di Design (SPD)

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Italy boasts a longstanding tradition worldwide in the sector of art (design, painting, decorating and restoration), artisanship and the handcrafting of materials including wood, metals, clay, glass, stone and paper.
Artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci lived and worked in Milan. In fact, it is here that the so-called ‘Codex Atlanticus’, the largest collection of his drawings is preserved and, it was always in Milan, that he created one of his most famous masterpieces, namely The Last Supper.
Milan is a city of culture and museums, including the Pinacoteca di Brera, the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, the Museo del Novecento, the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the Triennale di Milano, the PAC and the GAM, not to mention numerous art galleries and private auction houses.
Statistically speaking (data: Unioncamere and Eurostat) Lombardy is among one of the Italian regions renowned for creative trades and, in Milan, in particular, exports per capita of products related to artistic and creative spheres and entertainment exceeds the national value by more than ten times. Lombardy boasts 260,00 artisanal businesses, which give work to around 670,000 people. Based on these figures, it comes as no surprise that Milan also offers a number of institutes specializing in the sector.

• • Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera – Italian language proficiency required
  • Accademia Teatro alla Scala, theatre arts
  • Civica Scuola di Liuteria – string instruments – Italian language proficiency required
  • Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti (NABA)
  • Università degli Studi di Milano (La Statale)

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This major European capital of fashion also boasts a vibrant photography and video-making scene.
The Circolo Fotografico Milanese was founded in 1930 by photographers of the calibre of Secco D’Aragoria, Sommariva, Stefani, Ornano, Leiss, Vender and Cavalli.
In fact, during the year, numerous sector-related film festivals are organized in the city including the Milano Film Festival and the Milano International Film Festival, the exhibition INVIDEO (International Exhibition of Video and Cinema Beyond, which has passed its 25th edition) the festival of gay cinema MIX Milano (since 1985) and the Festival of African, Asian and Latin American cinema. Furthermore, in 1985, the Cineteca Italiana di Milano opened the Museo Interattivo del Cinema (MIC), which houses an interesting archive of silent films.
All of Italy’s leading TV channels are based in Milan, including Sky Italia, MTV Italia and Mediaset (owned by the Berlusconi family and actually founded Milan), plus RAI, Italy’s public national broadcaster which has an important production centre in the city.

• • Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera – Italian language proficiency required
  • Accademia Teatro alla Scala
  • CPM Music Institute
  • Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti (NABA)

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Milan is at the meantime a nerve centre and a leading city in the show business, especially for what concerns music in Italy. Lombardy is indeed the ‘queen region’ for music, hosting in its territory over 20,1% of industries in the sector in the whole Italy: only in 2016 the region hosted 142,000 shows and live performances, featuring 6-million entrances and over 8-million participants resulting in a total income of around 200-million euros. Though the city of Milan is the very centre hub for music in Lombardy with an average offer of 300 events per month, resulting in a monthly 8-million income and events involving 928 companies (around the 9,3% of the national total number) – a number which is increasingly growing – and over 7,000 professionals working in the sector. These are important numbers that not only testify the importance of Milan as a booster for the city’s vitality, but also the volume of the income and of the ability to offer working possibilities in the music sector in the country.

The value and importance of the cultural offer in the music sector are currently supported by the Municipality of Milan, the mind behind the project of the first edition of Milan Music Week, a key event which adds up to the yet uber rich programme of events in the city.

• • Accademia Teatro alla Scala, specialised in theatre arts
  • CPM Music Institute
  • Milan Conservatory – Conservatorio di musica “Giuseppe Verdi” di Milano – Italian language proficiency required
  • Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti (NABA) – sound design
  • Università degli Studi di Milano (La Statale)

Alessandria Conservatory – Conservatorio “Vivaldi” di Alessandria – Italian language proficiency required
Como Conservatory – Conservatorio di musica “Giuseppe Verdi” di Como – Italian language proficiency required

• • Accademia Teatro alla Scala, theatrical arts
  • Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (theatrical arts: dancing, photography, music, singing, make up, hair dressing, wigs making and management) – Italian language proficiency required
  • CPM Music Institute, performers of contemporary music
  • Milan Conservatory – Conservatorio di musica “Giuseppe Verdi” di Milano – Italian language proficiency required
  • Milano Teatro Scuola Paolo Grassi, acting, direction, playwriting
  • Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti (NABA) – theatre design

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If you love Italy and are dreaming about working in one of these fields, then again, Milan is the city for you.
Milan is the national capital of media, communication agencies and press offices.. Not only is Milan the headquarters of Italian television channels (e.g. Sky Italia, MTV Italia, RAI and Mediaset), but also of leading national and international publishing house and countless radio broadcasting companies (e.g. Virgin Italia, Radio Deejay and Radio 105).
Additionally, the city also boasts a longstanding editorial tradition with the publication of the most widely read daily newspapers and magazines (e.g.. the Corriere della Sera – which also has an English-reading section – the Gazzetta dello Sport and Panorama). Furthermore, it was here that the Premio Bagutta, the oldest literary prize in Italy, was first established in 1926.
For those who are interested in translating and interpreting, Milan is home to practically all the offices of international profit and non-profit organizations as well as the Associazione Nazionale Italiana Traduttori e Interpreti (established in 1956) and around 500 associations that work with non-Italian speaking communities. Additionally, it is important to remember that Milan ranks number one among Italian cities in terms of visitors to fairs and, what’s more, it has the largest congress centre in Europe, the MiCo. It also has the highest number of consulates and diplomatic representatives than any other non-capital European city.

• • Accademia del Lusso (AdL) – fashion field
  • Istituto Europeo di Design (IED)
  • International University of Languages and Media (IULM)
  • Milano Fashion Institute (MFI) – for fashion management
  • Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti (NABA)
  • Scuola Superiore per Mediatori Linguistici Carlo Bo – interpreting and translating
  • Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – Milano (or USC or La Cattolica)
  • Università degli Studi di Milano (La Statale)

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Since the very beginning, Milan has been an important hub for history, politics and philosophy both on a national and international level.
To-date it hosts the highest number of consular and diplomatic headquarters than any other non-capital European city, it is twinned with 14 different cities and is home to the most important Non-Governmental Italian Organizations active in the field of international co-operation (Source: City of Milan).
In 2014, Milan was chosen as the host city of the 10th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). In the Nineties, well-known entrepreneur, Silvio Berlusconi, initiated his political career here in Milan, resulting in his 3-time election to prime minister in the years between 1994 and 2011. In the 19th century, Milan animated the Italian Illuminist debate with the publication of works such as ‘Dei delitti e delle pene’ (On crimes and punishments) by Cesare Beccaria, one of the most important literary works on the subject of the death penalty.

• • Università degli Studi di Milano (La Statale)
  • Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (La Bicocca)
  • Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – Milano (or USC or La Cattolica)
  • Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele

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Study Italian & International Culture & Heritage, including • Languages & Literatures • Art History & Archaeology • Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies and Anthropology • Philosophy & Religions • Science Education with…

• • Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera – Italian language proficiency required
  • International University of Languages and Media (IULM)
  • Scuola Leonardo da Vinci
  • Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – Milano (or USC or La Cattolica)
  • Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (Bocconi University)
  • Università degli Studi di Milano (La Statale)
  • Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (La Bicocca)

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• • CPM Music Institute – sound engineering
  • Politecnico di Milano

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Study the Sciences of Food, Cooking and Hospitality with…

• • Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (La Bicocca)
  • Chocolate Academy Center Milano, Via Morimondo, 23 

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Study Sport Sciences with…

• • Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – Milano (or USC or La Cattolica)
  • Università degli Studi di Milano (La Statale)

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Study Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences with…

• • Università degli Studi di Milano (La Statale)

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Study Medical Sciences and Nursing with…

• • Humanitas University (Hunimed)
  • Università degli Studi di Milano (La Statale)
  • Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele

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Study Pharmacy, Biology, Chemistry, Physics & other Natural Sciences with…

The pharmaceutical industry represents one of the largest export markets for Italy. At the time we write (year 2017) Milan is house to 294 pharmaceutical companies and 491 biotechnology research companies.

• • Università degli Studi di Milano (La Statale)
  • Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (La Bicocca)

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