StudyDesk Scholarships
About the scholarship
The main funding route for international students at the University of Pisa is the DSU Toscana Scholarship, a regional need-based award run by DSU Toscana — the Azienda Regionale per il Diritto allo Studio Universitario della Toscana, the regional right-to-study authority serving the universities of Pisa, Florence and Siena and other Tuscan institutions. The scholarship is based primarily on the student’s economic situation and academic/merit requirements, and it can combine a monetary allowance with free meals, free accommodation for eligible off-site winners, accommodation support, exemption from the regional university study tax and full exemption from the university’s tuition fee (maximum €2,900 all-inclusive for regular students in 2026/27).
The important thing to understand is that the DSU scholarship is not a single fixed-value award that automatically covers every expense. The monetary component varies with economic circumstances and with whether the student is classified as on-site, commuter or off-site, and the exact benefits depend on the annual call. It is also a separate process from admission: you apply for your University of Pisa degree programme through the university, complete Universitaly pre-enrolment if you are a non-EU student requiring a visa, and apply for DSU through the DSU portal — three different steps, with three different deadlines.
Eligibility
- Students pursuing their first higher-education qualification at a participating Tuscan institution, including Bachelor’s, Master’s, doctoral and eligible specialisation programmes.
- Economic and merit criteria as set in the annual DSU call — the scholarship is need-based first, with academic requirements attached.
- All nationalities — Italian, EU and non-EU students, including stateless students, refugees and asylum seekers, subject to the documentation rules.
- International students with income or assets outside Italy must provide foreign financial documentation covering family composition, income, real estate and movable assets, translated into Italian and legalised as required.
- Students from countries on DSU’s list of particularly poor and developing countries can instead submit a certificate that the family is not wealthy (per the call’s Appendix C).
- For the PhD and specialisation window open now: students enrolled in, or intending to enrol in, eligible doctoral or specialisation programmes at the University of Pisa.
Benefits
- Monetary scholarship — the amount varies according to economic status and student classification (on-site, commuter or off-site).
- Free meals through DSU food services, for scholarship winners and eligible non-winners alike.
- Free accommodation for eligible off-site scholarship winners, subject to availability.
- Accommodation-related support for eligible students who do not receive a residence place.
- Exemption from the regional university study tax.
- Full exemption from the annual all-inclusive tuition fee (maximum €2,900 for regular students in 2026/27) under the University’s rules.
Documents to prepare
- Documentation of family status — the composition of the family unit whose income and assets are considered under the DSU rules.
- Documentation of income — official certificates showing the relevant annual income of family members.
- Documentation of real estate / buildings — houses, land or other property owned by the applicant or family members.
- Documentation of movable assets — bank accounts, deposits, securities and other financial holdings.
- Foreign documents must be translated into Italian and legalised or apostilled as required — the correct route depends on the issuing country and the Apostille Convention status; check the DSU instructions and the Italian embassy or consulate for your country.
- A Single Substitutive Declaration (DSU/ISEE) for subsidised benefits for the right to education — the call summary states it must be signed by 7 September 2026 for the general competition; check the current call for the PhD/specialisation position on this document.
- Do not begin with a generic legalisation procedure copied from another student’s experience — the exact procedure depends on your country, the document type and the issuing authority.
How to apply
- Read the official DSU Toscana Scholarship & Accommodation Call 2026/27 before submitting — it sets the economic and merit criteria and the documentation rules.
- Prepare your financial documentation early: family status, income, property and movable assets, with translation into Italian and legalisation/apostille as required. This is the step that causes most delays for international applicants.
- Register on the DSU Toscana Sportello Studente portal and fill out the online application form.
- For PhD and specialisation courses, submit between 25 September and 16 November 2026, 1:00 PM Italian time.
- Separately, complete your University of Pisa admission application for your chosen programme, and Universitaly pre-enrolment if you are a non-EU student requiring a visa — these are not covered by the DSU deadline.
- Watch for the rankings: provisional ranking for PhD/specialisation on 15 December 2026, final ranking on 15 January 2027.
FAQs
For PhD and specialisation courses: 16 November 2026 at 1:00 PM Italian time (applications open 25 September 2026). For Bachelor’s, Master’s and single-cycle degree courses the 2026/27 deadline was 7 September 2026 at 1:00 PM and has passed.
There is no single fixed amount. The monetary component varies according to the student’s economic circumstances and whether they are classified as on-site, commuter or off-site, on top of free meals, possible free accommodation, accommodation support, exemption from the regional study tax and full tuition exemption. Guides do not publish a single 2026/27 figure, so none is stated here.
Students pursuing their first higher-education qualification at the University of Pisa (and other Tuscan institutions) — Bachelor’s, Master’s, doctoral and eligible specialisation programmes — of any nationality, subject to the economic and merit criteria in the annual DSU call. International students must provide foreign financial documentation, translated into Italian and legalised.
No. DSU Toscana is a separate regional authority, and the DSU application is a separate process through the Sportello Studente portal. You must also apply for admission to your University of Pisa programme, and complete Universitaly pre-enrolment if you are a non-EU student requiring a visa.
Documentation of family status, income, real estate/buildings and movable assets (bank accounts, deposits, securities), translated into Italian and legalised or apostilled as required, plus a Single Substitutive Declaration (DSU/ISEE) for subsidised benefits. Students from countries on DSU’s list of particularly poor and developing countries can instead submit a certificate that the family is not wealthy.
For PhD and specialisation courses: provisional ranking 15 December 2026, final ranking 15 January 2027. For Bachelor’s, Master’s and single-cycle courses, the provisional ranking was 30 September 2026 and the final ranking is 30 November 2026 (4 November 2026 for first-year Bachelor’s/single-cycle scholarship rankings).
The university also lists Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAECI) scholarships and Invest Your Talent in Italy, offered by MAECI and the university — each has its own call and deadline. Invest Your Talent in Italy for 2026/27 closed on 11 May 2026.
The application and documentation are in Italian — foreign financial documents must be translated into Italian. The DSU call and the University of Pisa’s international pages explain the requirements; check the current call for the language rules that apply to your category.
Verified 28 Oct 2026 against the DSU Toscana 2026/27 call as reported in the Scholarships Central guide (scholarshipscentral.com, read in full, crawled 28 Oct 2026) and corroborated by ScholarshipsTab, Kabul Scholarship, UniPage and DAADScholarship: DSU Toscana is the regional right-to-study authority for Tuscany (universities of Pisa, Florence, Siena); benefits — monetary scholarship varying by economic status and on-site/commuter/off-site classification, free DSU catering for winners and eligible non-winners, free accommodation for eligible off-site winners subject to availability, accommodation-related support, exemption from the regional university study tax, full tuition exemption under University rules (maximum all-inclusive tuition EUR 2,900 for 2026/27); application periods — Bachelor's/Master's/single-cycle 20 July-7 September 2026, 1:00 PM Italian time; PhD/specialisation 25 September-16 November 2026, 1:00 PM; rankings — PhD/specialisation provisional 15 December 2026, final 15 January 2027; Bachelor's/Master's provisional 30 September 2026, final 30 November 2026; portal Sportello Studente; foreign documentation categories — family status, income, buildings, movable assets, translated into Italian and legalised/apostilled; Single Substitutive Declaration (DSU/ISEE) for subsidised benefits; Invest Your Talent in Italy closed 11 May 2026; Universitaly general deadline 30 September 2026; University accepts only visas issued by 30 November 2026 for enrolment. CONFLICTS: (1) The queue's "September 2026" deadline was the Bachelor's/Master's window (closed 7 September 2026) — the article leads with the split and the still-open PhD/specialisation window to 16 November 2026. (2) LegitScholarship states a 5 September 2026 DSU deadline — superseded by the call's 7 September 2026, 1:00 PM date, corroborated by four other sources; 5 September is not used. (3) No single monetary amount is published for the 2026/27 DSU award in any source checked — the article states the benefit structure and does not invent a figure. (4) The 7 September 2026 date for the Single Substitutive Declaration is stated in the call summary for the general competition; the article flags readers to check the current call for the PhD/specialisation position on that document rather than asserting it applies unchanged. The official DSU call link is www.dsu.toscana.it (linked via the guide); the University of Pisa is www.unipi.it.
