Biomedical engineering teaching activities in Italy started in the years 1968-69. The course of "Biomedical Electronics" was activated at the University of Padova and at the University of Naples and the courses of "Bio-energetic" and "Biological Electronics" started at the Polytechnic of Milan. Since then many other courses and educational programmes have started in many Italian University. Post-graduate courses started in the years 1971-72 when "Post-graduated courses of Biomedical instrumentation" was set-up at the University of Naples, while Bioengineering PhD courses were activated in 1982 as consortium of various Universities with two administrative headquarters in Milan and Bologna.

In 2000, about 150 undergraduate courses in Biomedical Engineering were active at 19 Italian Universities (Ancona, Bologna, Brescia, Firenze, Genova, Milano, Modena e Reggio Emilia, Napoli, Padova, Pavia, Pisa, Roma 1"la Sapienza", Roma 2 "Tor Vergata", Roma 3, Roma Campus Biomedico, Sassari, Siena, Torino and Trieste), while PhD Courses in Bioengineering and Post-graduate courses were available in 9 Universities.


Accordingly to the reform of the European Higher Education, since 2001, a new educational path was adopted in Italy, consisting of a first level degree (3 years) eventually followed by a second level, specialist degree (2 years) and /or Masters and finally by the PhD.
At moment, the Universities of Ancona, Bologna, Genova, Milano, Napoli, Padova , Pavia, Pisa, Roma 1"la Sapienza", Roma Campus Biomedico, Torino and Trieste offer the first level degree (3 years) in Biomedical Engineering and in the next future will offer the specialist degree (2 years). Other Universities offer specific curricula or some modules of Biomedical Engineering within other engineering degree courses.