Unipd opens a Health Insurance Assistance desk for international students and personnel
04.04.2023
Ensuring that students and personnel of the University’s international community have access to medical care, the University and AULSS 6 Euganea has opened a Health Insurance Assistance desk on the ground floor of Palazzo Bo. Located under the arcades overlooking via San Francesco, the new desk helps EU and Non-EU students and personnel with the enrollment process of the Italian National Health Care System. The new desk shares space with a branch of the Italian Police Department that opened in June of 2021, known as a Questura, which assists with Italian Residence Permits and other paperwork needed to study and work in Italy. The desk is currently open four days a week, with greater availability during enrolment periods.
Administrative Director of the Local Health Authority, Michela Barbiero, explains, “The initiative went through an experimentation period which began in January as over a thousand students enrolled in the National Health Care System, demonstrating the University’s role as a reference point for such services. The first initiative of this kind in Italy, the multi-lingual staff on site is an obvious benefit for the students, researchers, and staff from Europe and outside Europewho have chosen Padua to study or work.”
The University of Padua Rector Daniela Mapelli comments, "This is an example of a successful collaboration between institutions. Our University is becoming more and more international, the numbers speak for themselves. Rates of foreign students and researchers are steadily increasing, with about an 11% increase this year alone. The number of international students enrolled in the current academic year is over 5,700 in addition to the 339 international researchers and members of the teaching staff.”
University of Padua Vice-Rector of International Relations Cristina Basso explains, 'We would like to help all students feel like they’re at home. A residence permit and enrolment in the health care system are the first things foreign students and teachers need when they arrive in Italy. The importance of facilitating access to health care for foreign students became apparent during Covid."
