Italy vs Kenya Grading System

How does the Italy grading system work?

Italian university exams use an 18–30 scale where 18 is minimum pass. Final degrees use a separate 66–110 scale. These are NOT interchangeable.

⚠️ Italy uses TWO different scales: 18–30 for individual exams and 66–110 for final degree. Enter your exam grades here, not your degree score.

How does the Kenya grading system work?

Kenyan universities follow the British classification system under Commission for University Education (CUE) oversight.

Do Italy and Kenya mark to the same standard?

No — and it is the difference in marking culture, not the arithmetic, that makes a direct comparison mislead. Here is how each country actually uses its own scale.

What a good grade means in Italy

Italian marking is generous at the pass end and demanding at the top: 18 out of 30 clears an exam, but 30 e lode is a genuine distinction. The practical point for anyone applying abroad is to send the right number. A converter or an admissions form asking for your grade usually means the exam scale, while an entry requirement quoted as "83/110" means the degree scale — and quoting one where the other is expected produces an answer that is wildly wrong in either direction.

What a good grade means in Kenya

Kenyan marking is genuinely strict at the top: a First Class requires 70% and is uncommon, with realistic top aggregates sitting in the low-to-mid 80s rather than the 90s. Because the bands match the British ones, a Kenyan 2:1 reads directly as a UK 2:1 — which is the standard entry requirement for taught master's across the UK and Ireland, so a Kenyan graduate with an Upper Second is in a stronger position abroad than the raw percentage suggests to an American reader.

Will a grade from Italy get you into Kenya?

We do not yet hold published entry requirements for Kenya, so we do not compare your grade against a bar we cannot cite. The conversion above still tells you how your result reads in Kenya terms.

30 e Lode → 4.0 GPA. Ottimo (27–29) → approximately 3.5 GPA.

What goes wrong converting grades from Italy to Kenya?

Kenya rarely awards near the top of its own scale — 85 is realistically the ceiling rather than 100 — so a converted result will look lower than you expect even when it is strong.

Mistakes specific to Italy grades

• Mixing the 18–30 exam scale with the 66–110 degree scale. They measure different things and are not convertible into one another by proportion.
• Reading 18 as a weak result. It is the pass mark, and Italian exams are frequently retaken rather than passed narrowly.
• Overlooking e lode. Both 30 e lode and 110 e lode are distinctions worth stating explicitly on an application.

What should you do next, applying from Italy to Kenya?

1. Check the course, not the country. Entry requirements are set per programme and revised every cycle. We hold no published national bar for this destination, so the course page is the only figure that binds.
2. Check whether an evaluation is even required. Unlike the US and Canada, Kenya universities commonly assess foreign transcripts in-house. Confirm on the course page before paying for a report you may not need.
3. Get your documents moving early. Universities normally require your transcript sent directly by your institution rather than as a copy from you, which takes longer than most applicants expect.
4. Read both systems in full. How Italy grading works · How Kenya grading works

What do these grading terms mean?

Percentage scale

A 0–100 marking scale — but the numbers are not comparable across countries: 70% is an outstanding result in the UK and a modest one in India.

GPA (Grade Point Average)

The US way of expressing an overall grade, on a 0–4.0 scale where 4.0 is the top — so a 4.0 is roughly what a 90–100% or a First Class would be elsewhere.

Credits / credit hours

A measure of how much a subject counts toward your degree — bigger subjects carry more credits and pull your average further.

Transcript

The official document from your university listing every subject you took and the grade you got — not the same as your degree certificate, and universities abroad want both.

Taught master's

A one-to-two-year postgraduate degree made mostly of classes and assignments, as opposed to a research master's built around a thesis.

Degree classification

A named band your final result falls into — First Class, 2:1, Distinction — used across the UK, Ireland, Nigeria, India and much of the Commonwealth instead of a single number.

Frequently asked questions