The guide
Italy or Hong Kong?
The same questions asked of both, in the same order, with what each one costs you level with what it gives you. Neither column is a recommendation — the last row is the one to read twice.
First
Italy
Second
Hong Kong
In one line
The cheapest realistic route into Western Europe for a family without money — tuition scales to income, and regional scholarships pay you to study.
English-taught, globally ranked universities inside Asia's financial capital, with scholarships that actually reach international students.
What only this place gives you
Fees are calculated from family income (the ISEE assessment), and DSU regional scholarships cover tuition, a living grant, housing and meals for students below an income threshold — a package that exists nowhere else in Europe at this scale.
The rare place where the teaching language is English, the location is Asia, and named scholarships for non-local students are a normal part of admission rather than a rumour.
What is good here
- Income-scaled tuition plus DSU scholarships: for a modest-income family this can be the cheapest option on the entire list, cheaper than staying home.
- Medicine taught in English, entered through the IMAT exam — one of the few honest routes into European medicine for an international student.
- Design, architecture and fashion at Politecnico and the Milan schools, sitting inside the industry itself.
- EU degree, EU mobility afterwards, and a 12-month post-study residence permit to find work.
- Cost of living outside Milan is genuinely low by Western European standards.
- Degrees taught in English at universities that sit among Asia's strongest, with four-year bachelor's structures closer to the US than the UK.
- Entrance scholarships for international students are published and substantial — some cover tuition entirely.
- A genuine finance, logistics and legal centre: internships in the city are real, not simulated.
- Compact and extremely well connected — no car, fast transport, and the rest of Asia within a short flight.
- A springboard into mainland China without needing Mandarin from day one.
What it costs you
- Italian is essential for daily life and for most jobs; English-taught degrees do not change that once you step off campus.
- Bureaucracy is slow and document-heavy — the permesso di soggiorno process is a rite of passage, not an anecdote.
- Graduate salaries and the domestic job market are weak compared to Germany or the Netherlands; many graduates leave to work.
- DSU scholarships are administered per region with different rules, deadlines and reliability — the paperwork is the actual hurdle.
- University structures are old-fashioned: large lectures, oral exams, little pastoral support.
- Housing in Milan is expensive and competitive, closer to a northern European capital than to the rest of Italy.
- Housing is among the most expensive and smallest in the world; university dorms are limited and not guaranteed for all years.
- The political environment has shifted since 2020 — some multinationals moved regional offices to Singapore, and academic freedom is a live debate.
- Cantonese runs daily life outside campus, which limits part-time work and slows integration.
- Places for non-local students are capped by policy, so competition for international seats is fiercer than the headline admit rates suggest.
- Summers are hot and humid to a degree people underestimate, and typhoon season is a normal disruption.
Money — how paying for it works
Tuition depends on assessed family income, and can fall to nothing. Add a DSU grant and the state effectively pays you to study. The catch is entirely in the paperwork: certified, translated income documents, on time, per region.
Tuition for non-locals is well below the US and UK, and the scholarship layer can take it lower still. Living costs — housing above all — are the real expense, and they are high.
Getting in — what they weigh
Programme-specific: TOLC entrance tests for many degrees, IMAT for English-taught medicine, portfolio for design. Grades matter, personal essays barely exist. Compass evaluates Italian programmes deterministically, including the DSU and financial-fit picture.
Grades-first: your curriculum results, English proficiency and, where required, subject tests. Achievements and competitions matter more than personal essays. Compass models Hong Kong admissions, including which programmes weigh what.
After you graduate
A 12-month permit to look for work after graduating, and EU-wide mobility with the degree. Working in Italy itself is the harder half — the language and the market both bite.
The IANG arrangement currently lets non-local graduates stay to work without a job offer in hand — one of the more generous post-study rules in Asia. Verify the current term before relying on it.
Post-study work rules are set by politics and change. Check the rule for your own graduation year before you plan around it.
Strongest fields here
- Arts & Design
- Engineering
- Business & Economics
- Medicine & Health
- Humanities & Social Sciences
- Business & Economics
- Computer Science
- Engineering
- Law
- Medicine & Health
- Natural Sciences
This suits you if…
Money is the binding constraint, you are willing to learn Italian, and you want design, architecture, engineering or medicine.
You want an English-taught degree in Asia, your academic record is strong, and a scholarship is what makes the difference between going and not going.
Look elsewhere if…
You need high graduate earnings immediately, or you cannot handle administrative uncertainty. Both will make you miserable here.
You want space, quiet or cheap housing — or you want a political environment that is settled and predictable for the next decade.