University of Naples Federico II

History and Academic Excellence

The University of Naples Federico II is one of the oldest Universities in the world and one of the largest in Italy. It was founded in 1224 by an Imperial Decree issued by Federico II Hohenstaufen, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire to which Naples belonged at the time. Over its long history, the University had among its teaching staff many notable professors including the philosophers St Thomas Aquinas and Giambattista Vico, the mathematician Renato Caccioppoli, the economists Antonio Genovesi and Francesco Saverio Nitti, the physicists Ettore Maiorana and Macedonio Melloni, the physicians Antonio Cardarelli, Domenico Cotugno and Vincenzo Monaldi, the volcanologist Giuseppe Mercalli to mention just a few. It counts among its graduates and Alumni three former Presidents of the Italian Republic.

Nowadays, the University is one of the most prominent in Italy. It is divided into 4 Schools and 26 Departments. The University currently offers 141 courses in 13 teaching areas (Agriculture, Architecture, Biotechnology, Economics, Engineering, Humanities, Law, Mathematics, Medicine and Surgery, Pharmacy, Physics and Natural Sciences, Political Sciences, Social Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine). Each Department offers both undergraduate and graduate courses with places reserved to foreign students. For the academic year 2017/2018, many Departments offer scholarships exclusively reserved to foreign students who want to study at Federico II.

An overview of the research carried out across the University is available here and here. More info on the University is available at the International Website of the University of Naples Federico II.

PhD Programmes

The University of Naples Federico II offers PhD programmes in many different areas. A list of all active PhD programmes with links to the respective websites is available at www.international.unina.it/phd-courses

In 2019-2020, the University of Naples Federico II also launched the Scuola Superiore Meridionale (SSM), an international PhD school and a center for research and higher education that offers three new four-year Ph.D. programmes in Humanities

Admission Procedure

The Call for Applications for all the PhD programmes is launched annually and published on the website of the University both in English and in Italian. Admission to each PhD programme is through a public competitive exam that takes place between September and October as detailed in the Call for applications available here and here.

Many of the PhD programmes are delivered in English.

A five-year university degree, equivalent to a Master qualification, is required to be considered in the call. Experts panel select candidates on the basis of their research project proposals, curriculum vitae, personal statements and recommendation letter(s).

Foreign students can apply for one of the positions exclusively reserved to foreign students that are assigned through an evaluation of the student curriculum and all documents submitted followed in certain cases by a skype interview, or for one of the places available to all students (national or international), which requires them to take a written examination followed by an oral interview in person.

Application Deadline

University of Naples Federico II: 2nd August 2019.

Scuola Superiore Meridionale: 2nd September 2019.

Contacts

For any specific information on one of the PhD programmes please contact the coordinator whose name can be found by following the links to the website of each PhD programme available here and here.

For general enquiries about the admission procedure please write an email to the PhD Office of the University at phdnafedericoII@unina.it (or to info.ssm@unina .it for the PHD programmes of the Scuola Superiore Meridionale).