Guide

Italy DSU Eligibility 2027/28: Income, Assets, Course and Status

DSU eligibility rests on two numbers — ISEE and ISPE — plus a valid enrolment and, after year one, a credit count. Nationality is not a filter: EU and non-EU students apply on the same terms.

ScholarshipUnion Editorial 3 min read Updated Oct 6, 2026

Quick eligibility checker

Six gates taken from the 2026/27 regional calls. This is a planning tool, not an official decision; 2027/28 ceilings will be set in early 2027.

0 of 6 answered

1
Will you enrol in a bachelor’s, master’s, single-cycle master’s or PhD at a university (or AFAM institute) in the region whose call you use?
2
Is this degree at a level you do not already hold (no second bachelor’s or second master’s)?
3
Is your family’s ISEE (or ISEE parificato) likely to be under €25,000 — the lowest 2026/27 regional cap (ER.GO)?
4
Is the family’s ISPE (assets divided by the equivalence scale) under €43,125.94 — Padova’s cap, the strictest seen in 2026/27?
5
Can your family get official income, property and family-composition certificates and have them legalised (or apostilled) and translated into Italian?
6
Will you hold no other scholarship of the same kind (e.g. MAECI) for the same year?

Result

You look eligible in every region. Next: start the ISEE parificato documents — they take the longest.

Result

At least one gate is not met. A “No” on question 3 or 4 may still pass in a region with a higher cap (Lazio allows ISEE up to €28,339.88). Compare on Regions Compared.

The income test: ISEE

ISEE (Indicatore della Situazione Economica Equivalente) combines your family’s income with 20% of its assets, then divides by an equivalence scale that grows with family size. DiSCo’s 2026/27 bando spells it out: the sum of incomes received in 2024 plus 20% of assets held on 31 December 2024, divided by the scale for the number of family members.

For students whose family lives in Italy, ISEE comes from the national INPS system. For families abroad, a CAF tax centre or the regional body calculates an ISEE parificato from your foreign documents. The ceilings are the same either way.

The asset test: ISPE

ISPE is the asset indicator on its own, divided by the same scale. It catches families with low income but significant property or savings. Exceeding either ISEE or ISPE excludes you, whatever your grades. The 2026/27 ISPE caps range from €43,125.94 (Padova) through €50,000 (ER.GO), €57,187.53 (EDISU), €58,452.06 (PoliMi) and €60,000 (Tuscany) to €61,608.48 (Lazio).

Course, level and duration

Every call covers bachelor’s (laurea), master’s (laurea magistrale), single-cycle master’s and, usually, PhD and specialisation schools at public and recognised universities in the region, plus AFAM art and music institutes in most regions. You get the grant for the legal length of your course plus one semester (DiSCo, Article 6). You are excluded if you already hold a degree of the same level — including one earned abroad — so a second master’s does not qualify.

Students from particularly poor countries

The MUR publishes a list of “particularly poor” countries each year; the 2026/27 calls cite Decree no. 176 of 24 February 2026. It includes, among others, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mozambique, Nepal, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda (full list in ER.GO’s bando, Table A). Students from these countries do not need full income documents. Instead they submit a certificate from the Italian embassy or consulate stating that the student does not belong to a family “notoriously of high income and high social standing”. In Tuscany, that certificate sets both ISEE and ISPE to €0.

Other conditions that trip people up

Mistakes →

Independent student status needs both two years living away from the family home and two years of declared employment income of at least €9,000 a year. Otherwise your parents’ finances count.
Zero income is not accepted. DiSCo says the family’s declared income cannot total zero and must be consistent with the means required for a study residence permit.
No double funding. PoliMi’s 2026/27 supplement bars combining the DSU grant with analogous aid from other public or private bodies; mobility top-ups are the exception.
Enrolment must be completed by the deadline your call sets (e.g. 10 February 2027 at DiSCo for first-years).

Refugees and holders of international protection follow special rules in every call.