Language courses
There are various opportunities that the University of Padua offers to students and Unipd staff to learn or improve foreign languages.
In addition to the many activities and tools offered by the University Language Centre - Cla, Unipd also provides courses thanks to the Istituto Confucio padovano and facilitates interlinguistic and intercultural dialogue thanks to the Arqus university alliance, of which it is a member and which organises Arqus Cafè, virtual and informal meetings dedicated to students.
In addition, the European Commission offers online linguistic support (OLS) on the EU Academy platform for students with an Erasmus+ mobility grant.
OLS includes a placement test at the beginning of the stay and optional courses before and during the stay.
University Language Centre
The University Language Centre promotes knowledge of the modern languages taught at the University and of Italian as a foreign language, including for people outside the University; it organises courses, supplementary teaching activities, self-learning opportunities, and language proficiency assessments of various types and levels. It supports students as well as academic and professional staff in learning and further developing foreign languages.
The next certification session for German as a foreign language, TestDaF, will take place on 12 November 2026. It is possible to register by 30 October.
The CLA also offers a free preparation course.
The CLA - University Language Centre of the University of Padua organises every year free language courses for students awarded an Erasmus mobility grant (1st and 2nd call).
The Erasmus OUT intensive language courses last 30 hours and are offered in the following languages: French, English, Portuguese, Spanish and German.
The University Language Centre offers Academic English courses every year to PhD students at the University of Padua from a specific cycle. The courses are free of charge and are intended exclusively for those enrolled in a PhD in the cycles indicated for each academic year.
All the information is published on the page: https://cla.unipd.it/en/language-courses/english-for-phd/
As part of the project ACLAIM - Academic Language for Iternationalisation and Multilingualism, the CLA organises activities in English for University lecturers.
The activities are free of charge and are primarily intended for lecturers responsible for courses taught in English.
These include in particular:
- Intensive course “Communicating and teaching in English”
- Short courses
- One-to-one service “Lecturer Support Service”
- Conversation sessions
Registration is completed online and remains open until all places are filled.
Detailed information on the types of activities and the relevant deadlines can be found on the CLA page dedicated to the project.
University Language Centre - Teaching Office
via Venezia, 16 (4th floor) – Padua
tel. +39 049 827 6185
didattica.cla@unipd.it
Open to the public: Monday to Friday, 9.30 to 13.00
