As soon as you are nominated by your University, you will be contacted by our Erasmus Staff and relevant information and instructions will be sent to you. As soon as you arrive in Pisa, tutoring is offered to help you choose your modules and fill in your Learning Agreement. Upon your arrival in Pisa, you must obtain a certificate of arrival. In case your home University did not provide a default form, you can use the one provided by the University of Pisa.

Before your arrival

1. you must register at the Alice Portal (the online portal to student services) and perform the REGISTRATION  in order to receive your UNIPI’s credentials GUIDE FOR ALICE REGISTRATIONIn order to go on with the registration procedure, make sure to flag “Studente straniero senza codice fiscale“, as students from abroad do not have any Italian fiscal code at the moment of the registration. Non-EU students will be asked to fill in data regarding the Residence Permit. For the moment, they can skip this section (click on Forward) to reach the following window.
2. you must fill in the application form available on the portal https://erasmusmobility.unipi.it/erasmus/welcome/

Here you can find some practical information regarding Visa and residency permit, accommodation, student card. Guidelines

1. after completing the registration, you must make an appointment with the WIS! office (Welcome International Students) using the Alice Portal .

Arrival in Pisa Make sure to attend the welcome meeting we organize with all our Erasmus students three or four days before the beginning of the semester. On that occasion, more specific information regarding your stay will be given. Please note that your attendance is mandatory, if you cannot come please let us know it. We would also ask you to bring with you an original copy of your Learning Agreement (even if you have already emailed a scanned version). Every question concerning your courses and the timetable will be answered during the meeting.

The Italian University System is divided between Laurea Triennale (Bachelors Degree) and Laurea Magistrale (Masters Degree).

Courses of the winter term start in the last week of September and finish in the second week of December; those of the spring term start in the third week of February and finish by May 31st.

The Humanities Area at the University of Pisa is subdivided into two Departments: Filologia, Letteratura e Linguistica (FiLeLi) and Civiltà e Forme del Sapere (CFS). Our departments offer a wide range of Undergraduate Degree Programmes (Corso di Studi, or CdS), which might be further subdivided in various curricula. Here is a sketch of the degree courses available in both Humanities departments (check the online study programmes ):

Filologia, Letteratura e Linguistica

While deciding your academic path in Pisa, be aware that at least one of your modules (6 CFU) should be chosen among the courses offered by Department of Philology, Literature and Linguistics (FiLeLi). You are then free to choose your other courses from any subject taught at the University of Pisa . Remember that the Bachelor’s Degree in “Tourism Sciences” and “Primary teacher education” don’t accept Erasmus students. The International Programme in Humanities offers courses in English but it only accepts a limited number of students, so we strongly advise you to check for this in advance.

To find out the syllabus for a specific course, please check here. For example, if you are searching for an Italian Literature exam, you will be given the whole range of courses available in the two Departments.

Some Tips

1. Be aware that most of the courses are held in Italian: be sure to have the necessary language skills to attend them (see the language courses section ***)
2. Foreign Literatures are usually taught in the corresponding language only at Master’s Degree Level: be sure that you’re in the correspondent module page. For example, if you are interested in reading French Literature in French, you should check the in corresponding Master’s Degree modules. Should you have any doubt, contact the CAI’s office.
3. Foreign Languages modules are divided in two modules: the first is held by the official lecturer (referred to as lingua ), and another held by a mother tongue expert (called lettorato ). You must take (separate) exams for both modules in order to obtain the ECTS.
4. You can find all the courses held in English here (general catalogue) or here (catalogue for the Department of Civiltà e Forme del Sapere).
5. Attendance to classes is not compulsory, yet is highly recommended.
6. We advise you to make contact with the course’s lecturer at least once, in order (if possible) to decide a special exam modality.

• LA before: when you arrive in Pisa, you will need to get the Unipi CAI signature of your Learning Agreement. You must send it to erasmus@fileli.unipi.it, and prof. Sara Soncini (CAI) or prof. Rosa María García Jiménez  will sign it.
• LA during: Should you want to make adjustments to your Learning Agreement, you can do so, as long as the Erasmus Office of your home University approves the changes you want to make.
• LA after: Before you leave Pisa, in addition to your certificate of departure, the CAI will also sign your L.A. with all the exams you sat and the modules you attended.

Some of the lecturers offer specific exam programmes for Erasmus Students, but it also happens very often that they don’t. It is extremely important that you speak with your lecturers at the beginning of the course, even if you won’t attend the lessons. Note that the most frequent exam modality in Italy is the oral examination. If you contact the lecturer, though, you can ask for an alternative written test. Remember that in order to sit an exam you must sign in online at the portal you can find here. According to the Italian University Grading System your performance will be evaluated on the basis of 30 points. When the student’s performance is considered outstanding, a laude can be added by the commission, whereas the minimum passing grade is 18/30. It’ll be recorded on your on-line student portal and on your libretto . If you don’t pass the exam, this cannot be recorded, but you can ask the lecturer for a certificate of attendance .

Before you leave you may need a signed certificate of departure , or at least an official document in which the dates of your arrival and departure are indicated. If your home institution does not expressly require a certificate of departure, the A section of the Learning Agreement after the mobility will be enough.

Both the certificate of departure (if available) and the LA must be signed and sealed by one of the members of the Erasmus Office (CAI / vice CAI or CAI assistant at Erasmus Office): so please get in touch with them at least one week before your to schedule an appointment.

Do not forget to do it before leaving , because the certificate must be issued personally and cannot be sent.

Your Transcript of Records will be either issued in that occasion, or sent to you by e-mail within 5 weeks after your departure. The ToR is issued by the officers at Erasmus Office or directly by coordinators Dott. Caputo and Prof. Fedi.

In your final visit to the CAI’s office, you will also have to bring your libretto (that you will hand back) and any the certificate from the CLI.

If you have problems in scheduling your appointment, possibly because you still have exams on your last day in Pisa, inform the Erasmus Staff so that you can find a solution together.

You will find them at CLI (Centro Linguistico Interdipartimentale) . The CLI is the University Language Centre. It offers wide variety of language courses with mother tongue lecturers and language acquisition experts.

It offers free Italian lessons for all incoming students in order to help them achieving the CEFR B2 level. The courses provides 4 ECTS. The first course you attend (40 hours) is free. In order to enrol in one of the free Italian language courses, all students – including beginners – are required to take an entry test, so please be sure to register to it.

The CLI now offer courses up to the C1 level. Here you will find all the information and deadlines.

We suggest you to make the most of the University libraries and especially the departmental ones, where you can find the reference literature indicated in the programmes of the courses: Lingue e Letterature Moderne 1, Lingue e Letterature Moderne 2 , and the recently renovated Biblioteca di Antichistica.

The libraries of the Scuola Normale Superiore (Palazzo della Carovana, Palazzo del Capitano) are also available, but you will need a letter of recommendation by one of the Department lecturers to be allowed to the library services.

A lot of study rooms are disseminated though Pisa, check them out here.

The Italian Tax Code (codice fiscale), which you will need to rent an apartment or to obtain an Italian phone card, is automatically generated when you subscribe to the Alice Portal.

Since the code is automatically generated, you will have to be extremely careful while filling the form.

However, in order to obtain your official Tax Code Card you will need go to the local Italian tax authority (Agenzia delle entrate) with a valid ID.

Info and contacts:

Italian tax authority (Agenzia delle entrate) – Via Matteucci, 34

Galleria G.B. Gerace, 7/15 (Centro Forum) – 56124 Pisa

Tel. +39 050 325472 Fax +39 050 3154823 email: dp.pisa@agenziaentrate.it

Opening hours: Monday to Friday: 8:30 to 12:45; Tuesday and Thursday: 14:20 to 16:45

Health care assistance is available to all European citizens (belonging to EU Member States and EEA States) who have the EHIC/TEAM card (European Health Insurance Card) or who enroll in the Italian National Health Service. With your EHIC/TEAM card you can choose a G.P. (Ricerca medici) and get medical assistance during your stay.

International Area Contacts

Department of Philology, Literature And Linguistics

Prof. Sara Soncini (CAI – Coordinator for the International Area)

• email: erasmus@fileli.unipi.it; francesca.fedi@unipi.it
• tel: +39 050 221 5152
• piazza E. Torricelli, 2 – 56126 Pisa

Prof. Rosa María García Jiménez (Vice CAI – Incoming Students)

• email: erasmus@fileli.unipi.it;
• Piazza E. Torricelli 2,  – 56126 Pisa

Giorgia Passavanti (CAI Assistant)

• email: erasmus@fileli.unipi.it; giorgia.passavanti@unipi.it
• tel: +39 050 221 5152
• piazza E. Torricelli, 2 – 56126 Pisa

The Erasmus Office of the Department of FiLeLi is in Piazza Torricelli, Palazzo Matteucci, 1^st floor. Here you’ll find the CAI and the CAI assistant. For the staff office hours check at Contatti an for any possible additional communications check here.