Merit students, credit fund reform in force
New features include loans with up to 70 per cent coverage guaranteed by the state and digitisation of the procedure for accessing finance
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Key points
Loans for study without personal guarantees, with long repayment times and with public coverage of up to 70%, reinforced by the State guarantee. These are the main innovations contained in the 17 November 2025 decree of the Prime Minister's Office on the loan fund for young people, published in Official Gazette 19 of 24 January 2026, which fully reforms the regulations of the fund, set up in 2010 at the Prime Minister's Office - Department for Youth Policies by decree of the then Minister for Youth, Giorgia Meloni.
The aim of the measure is to facilitate and strengthen access to credit for students aged between 18 and 40 for the financing oftraining courses and higher education, by defining both the new rules for honour loans for deserving students and the requirements and application methods.
The beneficiaries
The financing guaranteed by the Fund, which operates as a revolving guarantee fund managed by Consap Spa, is available to students and recent graduates who are regularly enrolled in:
- bachelor's degree courses, master's degree courses or single-cycle degree courses;
- courses of higher artistic, musical and choreographic education (Afam);
- master's degree courses or Afam first and second level courses;
- post-graduate specialisation courses
- research doctorates;
- language courses of no less than six months' duration recognised by qualified certifying bodies;
- courses at higher technological institutes (Its Academy).
Also included are study courses taken abroad, provided they are recognised by the Ministry of Universities and Research.
Access to the fund requires the possession of minimum merit requirements, which vary according to the training course.
