Vita-Salute San Raffaele University
Milan, Italy — www.unisr.it
- QS Ranking
- #201
- Founded
- 1996
- Type
- Private Research University
- Students
- 3,000+
- Acceptance Rate
- ~20%
- Founded
- 1996 — built around IRCCS San Raffaele: Europe's most research-intensive hospital
- QS Rank
- #201–250 (2025)
- Gene Therapy Pioneer
- HSR-TIGET: 5 approved gene therapies — more than any institution in the world
- Alberto Mantovani
- World's most-cited tumour immunologist; UniSR professor and San Raffaele Scientific Director
Overview
Vita-Salute San Raffaele University (Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, UniSR), founded in 1996 by Don Luigi Verzé and built around the IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele — one of Europe's largest and most advanced biomedical research hospitals — is Italy's most prestigious private medical and research university, ranked #201–250 in QS 2025. UniSR is unique among Italian universities in being structurally integrated with a world-class hospital and research institute: the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital (750+ beds, 60+ operating theatres, 4,000 researchers, 100+ clinical trials active at any time, €400 million annual research budget) functions as the university's teaching hospital, laboratory, and research engine simultaneously. The result is that UniSR's medicine students train in one of Europe's most technologically advanced clinical environments from their very first year. UniSR also offers philosophy and psychology programmes that benefit from direct access to neuroscience and clinical research infrastructure — making it one of the few universities in the world where students of the humanities work alongside molecular biologists and clinical geneticists daily. The IRCCS San Raffaele is Italy's most-cited research hospital (by publications) and has been involved in landmark work in gene therapy (Dr. Luigi Naldini's HSR-TIGET institute — gene therapy for rare diseases, including the first approved gene therapy for ADA-SCID in children), HIV research, and cancer immunotherapy.
Admission Process
Medicine and Surgery: IMAT (International Medical Admissions Test — English-medium) score + national TOLC-MED ranking. Selective national exam. Psychology and Philosophy: TOLC-F test. Non-EU students: apply via Universitaly. Deadlines: April–July. IMAT: September. Very competitive — medicine acceptance ~15%.
Programs at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University
- Medicine and Surgery — International MD Program (Single-Cycle) (Bachelor's) — 14,500 EUR/year
- BSc Computer Science (Bachelor's) — 2,000 EUR/year
- BSc Business Administration (Bachelor's) — 3,000 EUR/year
- BSc Economics (Bachelor's) — 4,000 EUR/year
- BA International Relations (Bachelor's) — 6,000 EUR/year
- BSc Mechanical Engineering (Bachelor's) — 9,000 EUR/year
- BSc Civil Engineering (Bachelor's) — 2,000 EUR/year
- BSc Electrical Engineering (Bachelor's) — 3,000 EUR/year
- MSc Data Science (Master's) — 8,509 EUR/year
- MSc Finance (Master's) — 9,725 EUR/year
- MA International Business (Master's) — 11,265 EUR/year
- MSc Cybersecurity (Master's) — 5,588 EUR/year
- MBA Sustainability & ESG (MBA) — 20,468 EUR/year
- PhD Law (PhD) — 2,833 EUR/year
- MSc Biomedical Engineering (Master's) — 10,364 EUR/year