Politecnico di Milano Merit Scholarships 2027 — 64 Awards
Partially funded Master scholarship in Italy for International students 2026
64 merit awards for English-taught master's students, each waiving tuition and some adding up to EUR 10,000. The admission window shuts on 1 December 2026.
Eligibility
- An international applicant charged international fees — Italian and EU-fee-status applicants are outside this call
- An admission application to year one of an English-taught MSc, with the fee paid between 1 October and 1 December 2026
- Admission to the programme and acceptance of the admission result
- A valid English certificate uploaded by 4 March 2027
- Campus and programme restrictions apply to the Gold, Bronze and Silver tiers
Milan's technical university runs a scholarship competition that rewards speed as much as grades. Sixty-four awards are on offer for the 2027-28 academic year, every one of them waives tuition, and the door closes on anyone who applies for admission after the early-bird window.
What the award actually pays
The call splits the sixty-four places into five tiers. Ten Platinum awards at the Milan campuses carry a EUR 10,000 gross allowance on top of a full tuition waiver. Eighteen Gold awards at Milan add EUR 8,000. Sixteen Gold awards at the Piacenza campus add EUR 5,000 and are tied to three specific programmes: Sustainable Architecture and Landscape Design, Landscape Architecture, and Energy Engineering with the renewables specialisation. Ten Bronze awards at Piacenza add EUR 2,500 for Mechanical Engineering with the mechatronics specialisation. Ten Silver awards, spread across the Cremona, Lecco, Mantova and Piacenza campuses, waive tuition with no cash component.
Two practical details change what the money is worth. The allowances are gross and paid in instalments: a Platinum scholar receives half at the start of the semester and half after passing at least two exams. And the payment goes into an Italian or SEPA-area bank account in your own name, so the first instalment may wait until you have opened an account after arrival. Every award still leaves you paying an administrative fee of roughly EUR 190 on acceptance, and none of it covers rent in Milan.
Who can apply
The call is written for international students charged international fees. If you are an Italian citizen, or an EU applicant assessed at the domestic fee rate, this is the wrong scheme — a separate national competition covers you.
The eligibility gate is procedural rather than academic. You must have submitted an admission application to the first year of an English-taught master's at PoliMi and paid the admission fee between 1 October and 1 December 2026. Miss that window and you cannot enter the scholarship competition at all, even with a perfect GPA. You must then be admitted, accept the admission result, and upload a valid English certificate by 4 March 2027.
Ask yourself: did I apply for admission inside the early-bird window, or only afterwards? Is my programme one of the ones the tier I am targeting actually covers? Can I produce an English certificate by March? And do I have a realistic plan for living costs, given that even the Platinum award is a partial package?
Deadline and what the calendar really means
There are three dates, and they do different jobs. The admission application and its fee must fall between 1 October and 1 December 2026. The scholarship form must be submitted between 1 October 2026 and 12:00 noon Italian time on 15 December 2026. The English certificate can arrive as late as 4 March 2027, but the application is not assessed without it.
Results come three to four months after the deadline, which means a decision somewhere around March or April — late enough that you should not turn down other offers on the assumption that Milan will come through.
How to apply, step by step
First choose an eligible English-taught master's and apply through the PoliMi online services portal, paying the admission fee while the early-bird rate applies. Once the admission application is in, open the scholarship section of the same portal — benefits and agreements, then economic benefits, then scholarships for international master's of science students — and complete the separate form before noon on 15 December. There is no other accepted route: emailing documents or applying through an agent is explicitly disqualified.
One sentence in the call is worth flagging for applicants from conflict-affected countries. The selection commission is instructed to give priority to candidates from countries that have been the victims of military aggression or are affected by civil wars, before weighing merit, geographic origin, gender balance and age. For Afghan applicants in particular, that is a stated tie-breaker rather than something you have to infer.
Documents to have ready
Transcripts and degree certificate with a clear grade average, a portfolio if your programme requires one, the English certificate you will upload by March, a CV, and — if you have them — evidence of awards, publications or professional work. The commission reads the admission file and the scholarship form together, so anything that strengthens your academic record should already be in the admission application.
Common mistakes that sink applications
Applying for admission in December and only then discovering that the scholarship window closed on 1 December is the classic error, and it is unrecoverable. The second is targeting a Platinum or Gold award at Milan with a programme that is taught at Piacenza, where the tier rules and the amounts are different. The third is assuming the award is a full ride: it is a tuition waiver plus, at best, EUR 10,000 gross for a year in one of Europe's most expensive rental markets. The fourth is treating the English certificate as optional paperwork; without it, you are not assessed.
Tips to win
Apply early inside the window rather than on the last day, because the portal slows under load and the fee must clear. Choose your campus with the tier structure in mind: a strong candidate for Platinum at Milan may be a stronger candidate for Gold at Piacenza, where the competition is narrower. Write the scholarship form as a short argument about fit — why this programme, what you will do with it, and what you bring that the average applicant does not. And budget honestly: even a Platinum award leaves accommodation, food, insurance and the administrative fee to you.
https://www.polimi.it/en/prospective-students/how-much-does-it-cost/scholarships
https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=117
https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=53
https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=14
If you are weighing Milan against other European master's offers, an OEAC advisor can help you compare the real cost of each, not just the headline award.
Photo: NuclearNiranjan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (Politecnico di Milano, Leonardo campus).
Last updated: 4 November 2026
Always confirm the deadline and eligibility on the official page before you apply. Scholarship dates change between rounds, and this listing is a summary — the provider's own page is the authoritative source. OEAC Network lists scholarships for free and is not an agent for any university or funding body.
