China Scholarship Council

The Politecnico di Milano University (POLIMI) has signed an agreement with the China Scholarship Council (CSC) to receive applications from excellent Chinese scholars who will be applying for CSC scholarships. The Politecnico di Milano is ranked 98th place in QS World University Rankings  2026.

Politecnico di Milano offers programmes in Engineering, Architecture, and Design, and it is highly ranked among the world top universities in all these areas: in the QS 2025 Ranking by subject Politecnico is the 21^st university in the world for Engineering & Technology,  the 6^th university in the world for Art & Design and the 7^th  for Architecture/Built Environment. It is located in Milan, Italy in a highly developed industrial area in Northern Italy.

Candidates with Chinese citizenship, interested in applying for CSC grants to pursue a PhD at the Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI), must first submit an application to obtain a pre-admission offer from the POLIMI PhD School, following the procedure outlined below.  Applications will be accepted from the 1st of November 2026.  Please note, this process is only open to new PhD Candidates who wish to do a Full PhD at the Politecnico. It does not apply to Candidates who are already enrolled in a PhD programme or Visiting students; those candidates can contact the relevant Department directly.

1. Determine which doctoral programme you'd like to apply to and visit their website to learn more. Information about PhD programmes at the Politecnico di Milano can be found at the following page: PhD programmes.
2. Identify a contact potential Supervisor within the PhD programme to which you intend to apply. We strongly recommend that, before submitting your application, you make contact via email with a faculty member whose research interests align with your proposed area of study and under whose supervision you would like to pursue your PhD.  After reviewing your profile and discussing your research interests during an interview, the faculty member may choose to support your application by providing a Reference Letter (see the Reference Letter Template).
3. When you have the support of a Supervisor, complete the application form.
4. Collect the required transcripts and university level diplomas (pdf of the original and a translation in Italian or English).
5. Send an email along with the required application documents, listed below, to the official address of your chosen PhD programme  (you will find the correct official email address when you complete the application form above):
   • your CV, including date of birth and postal address (please send your CV following the format CV Template).
   • your transcripts (marksheets) and university level diplomas (pdf of the original and a translation in Italian or English). Please ensure these transcripts, diplomas and translations are in a separate pdf to the other documents.  In the preadmission phase, translations can be informal, a legalized translation will be requested if admitted with the scholarship. If still attending a Master’s, we need a statement from your university attesting to your enrolment and expected completion date
   • your research proposal, an example can be found here
   • a short motivation statement (max. 2500 characters)
   • reference letter(s) including evidence of support from a potential supervisor (see the Reference Letter Template).
   • if already available, English language Certificate according to the admission requirements for 2026.
   • identity document
6. Following the evaluation by Politecnico di Milano, eligible candidates will be invited by the PhD School to apply for CSC funding through either the Cooperative Channel or the Individual Personal Channel. Candidates may proceed with the CSC application only after receiving an official invitation from the PhD School and confirming their acceptance of the assigned application channel. Candidates who do not wish to proceed may decline the invitation.
7. Once you have received a pre-admission offer from the PhD School of Politecnico di Milano, you may use it as one of the supporting documents for your application to the CSC doctoral scholarship programme.

Please note:

• Only the PhD School pre-admission letter, signed by the Director of the School, is considered an official pre-admission offer for a PhD position. Only candidates who have that letter can enrol at Politecnico di Milano once they have secured the CSC grant. Supervisor reference letters are support letters.
• The pre-admission offer will grant a tuition fee waiver, under the agreement between the Politecnico di Milano and CSC.
• The pre-admission offer will be conditional to the awarding of the CSC grant. Candidates interested in applying to the Politecnico di Milano outside the CSC grant agreement will have to follow the application procedure illustrated in admission.
• Polimi will assign to each Cooperative Channel CSC scholarship recipient a research fund of 5000 EUR. This research fund can be used by the scholarship recipient to cover the expenses related to attending meetings and performing research visits.
• Candidates will have to present a certificate proving their knowledge of the English language at the level required for PhD admission at Politecnico di Milano before enrolment at the Politecnico di Milano after receiving the CSC grant (see admission requirements 2026).
• The duration of the PhD program is normally four years.

• General information for foreign students at the Politecnico di Milano can be obtained from the On Arrival pages: On arrival information - polimi

   

The entire application and evaluation process related to the CSC–PoliMI call is managed exclusively by Politecnico di Milano and does NOT involve any form of collaboration with third-party entities or organizations.
The evaluation carried out by Politecnico di Milano and that conducted by the CSC are separate and fully independent processes.

Applications will be accepted from the 1st of November 2026 until the 1st of February 2027. Only applications received in this time period will be considered valid.

For details about the PhD programmes contacts are on the programme pages here.

To make contact with potential supervisors please see the relevant Department website