New degree courses 2025: the complete map by city and region

Digital and health. Digital and health. Round and round these are the two axes around which most of the new degrees activated by Italian universities revolve in view of the academic year 2025/26. With green in the now traditional role of third wheel. This is shown by the map (published alongside) with the activation proposals that have obtained the green light from the National University Council (CUN) in recent months and that, in fact, represent one more option for all the aspiring freshmen who these days are deciding where and how to continue their education. It is understood that the restyling of the educational offerings put in place by our universities this time around is expected to be more extensive than usual, given that a further 4,500 or so courses have adapted their curricula as required by the reform of degree classes envisaged by the NRP.

If we exclude the replicas of existing courses, perhaps activated in a new location, there are 169 new ones on the way. More in detail, there are 81 three-year degrees, 87 master's degrees and one professional degree (Restaurant Systems Technology in Turin) from 62 different universities. The most active university is Enna Kore with 17 activation proposals accepted by the CUN, followed at a fair distance by Rome's San Raffaele Telematica with seven and Unical with six, which complete the podium and precede a quartet of academic institutions with five new entries each: Cagliari, Parma, Pisa and Rome Tor Vergata. While from the point of view of the most popular degree classes, among the three-year degrees, the "L/SNT/3" in technical health professions stands out, and among the master's degrees, the "LM 51" in Psychology.

Turning to the contents, the scenario (partial at the time) that we had anticipated in Il Sole 24 Ore on 10 March is confirmed. The path most beaten by our chancellors remains health, thanks perhaps to the introduction of the open semester for Medicine, which tries to offer new life to the entire biomedical, health, veterinary area as a plan B for those who will not be able to access the second semester with programmed access. The entire health sector has 33 new degrees on the launch pad. Of these, 21 are in the three-year health professions, five in the master's degree, five in medicine and two in veterinary medicine. Plus another platoon of engineers gravitating in the same sphere: three biomedical engineering courses (at Enna Kore, Roma San Raffele and Campania Luigi Vanvitelli), one in electronic and biomedical engineering (at the Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria) and one in biotechnology engineering for health (at Siena).

The second most recurrent keyword among the titles of the new courses is digital, which returns 11 times. In the most disparate declinations: from Social Sciences and Digital Data in Padua to Data analytics, Economics and Digital Technologies in Bergamo; from Organisational, Digital and Administrative Innovation of the Pa in Parma to Digital Intelligence and Change Management in Pisa. If we add to this group the other five artificial intelligence (or AI) activations - from time to time alone or combined with computer engineering as is the case at San Raffaele in Rome, with data analysis for health sciences as is the case at Humanitas university, or with chemistry as is the case at Urbino - and the four in data science, the specific weight of the digital component grows even further. Almost doubling the other recurring protagonist of recent academic years: green.

This time only nine degrees can be traced under the heading of sustainability or sustainability. Plus another couple that opt instead for the environment (Environmental Metereology and Climate Physics at Trento and Environmental Engineering for the Ecological Transition at Venice Ca' Foscari) and complete the mini-patrol of 'green' proposals.