With the Rectoral Decree no. 28 of 09/01/2023 the new “Regulations for the Acedemic Recognition of Ph.D. degrees awarded abroad” were issued.
Open the regulations

Information regarding the certificate of comparability required by Art. 3, co. 1, letter b) and e) of the Sapienza Regulation , ‘Regulations for the academic recognition of research doctorates awarded abroad’. Considering that CIMEA - Centre for Information on Academic Mobility and Equivalences stopped issueing individual comparability certificates for academic and final qualifications of upper secondary schools obtained in countries that have signed the Lisbon Convention ("Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region"), it is possible to download from the ARDI database (which is a free tool developed by CIMEA experts) the certificate of correspondence by type of qualification in the country of reference. Please note that the document produced by the ARDI platform does not provide certificates of comparability for individual qualifications but describes the main types of academic and final upper secondary school qualifications obtained in the countries signatory to the Lisbon Convention and provides a comparative opinion of correspondence with Italian qualifications. To download the aforementioned certificate of correspondence, please follow the procedure described below:

1. Access the ARDI platform ;
2. in the main drop-down menu ‘Choose the country of interest’, select the country in which the academic qualification was obtained.
3. in the drop-down menu below on the left ‘Choose your education “ select the item ”Higher education’.
4. in the drop-down menu on the right ‘Choose your level’ select the item ‘8 EQF / 3rd cycle QF-EHEA’ and click on the item ‘Search’; in case you also possess a foreign second cycle qualification with which you gained access to the doctorate, select the item ‘7 EQF / 2nd cycle QF-EHEA’ and click on the item ‘Search’.
5. select the title that corresponds to the academic qualification (e.g. ‘Doctor of Philosophy’, etc.) obtained in the country of reference and click on the ‘>’ symbol.
6. in the page that opens, scroll down and download the PDF by clicking on ‘Click here to download the PDF version of the document’, the platform will download the PDF file of the academic qualification selected.

This certificate of correspondence must be uploaded onto the Infostud platform when submitting the application for ‘Academic recognition of PhDs awarded abroad’ under the headword ‘Certificate of comparability’.

It should also be noted that the aforementioned certificate of comparability produced by the ARDI platform does not in any case constitute proof that the individual qualification is actually comparable to the ‘corresponding’ qualification for which the application for ‘Academic Recognition of PhDs awarded abroad’ is being submitted to this University (even in the case of a foreign second-cycle qualification with which access to the PhD programme was gained).

It is understood that, in accordance with the Sapienza Regulations, in cases where the applicant decides to submit both certificates, i.e. the Certificate of Verification and the Certificate of Comparability, and the country in which the academic qualification was obtained is one of those signatories of the aforementioned Lisbon Convention, no longer subject to the issue of the certificate of comparability for the individual qualification, it is still mandatory to provide the Certificate of Verification issued by the CIMEA.

Law no. 15/2022 amended the text of Article 38 of Legislative Decree no. 165/2001. For the first time in the Italian legal system, the law introduced the possibility of recognising foreign PhD qualifications for acedemic purposes directly by italian higher education institutions, according to the rules dictated by Article 2 of Law no. 148 of 11 July 2002. (controllare la chiarezza di questo paragrafo)

The academic recognition procedure (so-called equipollenza) is aimed at evaluating a PhD degree awarded abroad for the purpose of awarding a similar Italian degree. The foreign doctorate title recognised as equivalent has the same legal value as the corresponding Italian title.

To view the procedure click here

To download the facsimile of the minutes click here