Italian Education Vs American University System

The American University system and the Italian one are two completely different academic organizations. Indeed, there are some aspects which make the Italian system different from the American one. The tuition cost, for example, is one of these, followed by the attendance policy, class structure, and the kind of education that a student gets (assimilates or you get). The cost is an important factor in the differences between the two. In fact, being in an Italian university a public institution and financed by taxes, the cost is much lower than a private institution as an American university. An Italian university cost, according to Costs of Study in Italy, 2016, is reported a range between $850 and $1,000 per year; a private institution, instead, is $45,370 per year, it is showed by the admissions of fall of 2016, reported by TopUniversities.

In fact, whereas in the Italian universities the attendance to classes is not mandatory for the majority of majors, in the American institutions all students are required to attend all courses. Even the way how the class is carried out is different. Therefore, terms (words) like “Mid-Term Exam”, “Assignment”, “Research Paper”, and “Group Project” are not known by Italian students, which are just required to attend courses with the aim to pass the final exam, not being evaluated and graded in other ways during the semester. However, a completely different thing happens in the United States of America, where the final class grade is composed by summing class participation, assignments, quizzes, and the mid-term