San Raffaele Milan: Italy's second best private university by CENSIS, excellence in medicine and psychology
Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele is Italy's second best private university by CENSIS (93/100) with a 92% employment rate. With 3,500 students in medicine, psychology and philosophy, integrated with IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele — one of Europe's best private research hospitals — it is the absolute pinnacle of Milanese private medicine.
San Raffaele: excellence in medicine and psychology on the campus integrated with Italy's best private hospital
The Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele of Milan is the second best Italian private university according to CENSIS 2025-2026 (93/100) — just after Campus Bio-Medico of Rome — with a 92% employment rate, among Italy's highest. With approximately 3,500 enrolled students and programmes in medicine and surgery, psychology, philosophy and clinical psychology, San Raffaele University is an institution of absolute excellence fully integrated with IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele — one of Europe's best private research hospitals, with Nobel Prizes Giorgio Parisi and Renato Dulbecco among its researchers.
The San Raffaele Hospital — with its 1,350 beds, over 60 operational units and world-renowned research laboratories — is simultaneously the clinical university hospital for medical students and one of the world's leading centres for research in oncology, neurology, cardiology and gene therapy. San Raffaele medical students are embedded in a world-class research and care ecosystem from their first year.
The Faculty of Psychology — strongly oriented towards clinical psychology and neuropsychology — is another recognised strength: San Raffaele hosts one of Italy's most advanced neuroimaging centres, with frontier research on neurodevelopmental disorders, neurodegenerative diseases and trauma psychology. 10% of students are international.
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San Raffaele University by the numbers
From 1996 to the Nobel: San Raffaele and the tradition of medical and scientific excellence in Milan
The Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele was born in 1996 as the academic arm of Milan's IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele — founded in 1971 by Don Luigi Verzé — with the aim of creating a medical school of excellence fully integrated with one of Italy's most advanced research hospitals. The name 'Vita-Salute' reflects the institution's mission: training physicians and psychologists capable of caring for life in its totality.
The San Raffaele Hospital's research tradition is of international calibre: Nobel Medicine Laureate Renato Dulbecco was a researcher at San Raffaele, and Giorgio Parisi — Nobel Physics Prize 2021 — collaborated with the institute's researchers. The San Raffaele gene therapy laboratories are among the world's most advanced, with pioneering clinical applications for rare diseases.
Today San Raffaele is recognised as one of the few Italian hospitals — and one of the few European medical universities — where frontier research and medical training integrate daily at the highest level. The Segrate campus, on the outskirts of Milan, is a true science city: laboratories, clinics, residences and educational spaces in a unique integrated ecosystem.
FAQ — Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele – Milano
Study medicine in Milan: useful resources
San Raffaele University Milan is the second absolute choice among Italian private universities for medicine and psychology, integrated with one of Europe's best research hospitals. Discover everything about living and studying in Italy.
