How can we help you?

Habacus certifies students’ academic performance, the first organization of its kind in Italy. At Habacus we verify whether students are on track to complete their academic degree on time, and are therefore actively looking forward to the working world. By providing certification, we help students access financial resources based solely on their academic achievements.

No, Habacus is not a credit institution; but we are the bridge between students, education and finance.

As a certifying body of academic performance, we analyze performance data to certify to financial institutions that students are eligible for financial resources.

Once students have been granted financial resources, we will verify academic performance each academic semester for loans that are paid out in installments.

The Habacus certification certifies academic performance, verifying requirements needed to access financial resources provided by third-parties such as banks.

You can apply for certification on Habacus website: it is easy to use and only takes about 10 minutes!

You can fill out the application by entering your personal information and details about the educational institution you currently attend or will attend in the future. You will also be asked to share your personal documents (ID card or certificate of residence, tax code) and fill out an authorization form that will allow us to get in touch with your educational institution on your behalf and proceed with the certification.

Once you have registered and sent us your application, we will first check the basic requirements, i.e. that you are a resident in Italy or enrolled in AIRE, and that you are over 18.

Then, after you have filled in the authorization form, we will get in touch with your educational institution to verify:

– that your institution falls within the scope of certification (see FAQ Post-diploma training entities valid for Habacus certification);

– that you are duly enrolled (i.e., that you have paid the fees for the current academic year);

– that you are up to date with your study plan (we will check your high-school diploma or the credits you have earned and the percentage of exams taken).

Once all the checks have been made, you will receive an email from Habacus with the result of your application.

It depends. Once we have received your application including all the necessary information and documents, we will contact the educational institution at which you are enrolled to request the academic documentation necessary to process your certification.

The timeline for the certification process, from when we receive the authorization form, varies according to the institution:

– for Italian institutions, it takes on average 15-20; days

– for foreign institutions, it takes on average 30-40 days.

The authorization form is a document which allows Habacus to contact your educational institution and request information and documents which will allow us to verify your academic performance.

You only need to complete the authorization form once, when you send your certification request.

The certification is valid for the academic semester in which you receive it. You can apply whenever you like, but keep in mind that:

– we verify your academic performance based on the previous semester;

– having received your Habacus certification, you can ask for a student loan until the end of the current semester;

– if you ask for a student loan after the end of the semester in which you receive the certification, you’ll need to apply again for your Habacus certification.

For the start and end dates of the academic semester, you must adhere to those of your educational institution.

You can ask a bank for a student loan. Habacus is the certifying agency, it does not give out loans. With your Habacus certification, you can turn to our partner banks to ask for a loan; the certification will accelerate and ease banking procedures to distribute the loan.

Every adult student enrolled in a class at an educational institution, post-high school diploma, can ask for certification. They need to live in Italy or to be registered with AIRE (Register of Italians living abroad); Italian citizenship is not required.

It means that the student has Italian citizenship, but he/she lives abroad. AIRE gathers data of Italian citizens that have lived abroad for more than 12 months.

If you are a freshman, it is necessary to be registered and to have paid the revenue stamp, for Italian and foreign educational institutions, and it is necessary to have gained a minimum grade in high-school (the minimum grade depends on your previous studies and your academic program). 

If you are already enrolled, you need to provide a registration form and on track with your study plan, for both Italian and foreign educational institutions.

In this case, our assessment depends on your chosen path: we will check whether your educational institution has the necessary qualifications to be certified by Habacus, in accordance with the requirements set out by the moneylender.

Yes, we certify the high-school diploma but you need to be enrolled in the first year of a Bachelor’s Degree.

If you have any concerns about your certification application or need support, please write to us at info@habacus.com

With your Habacus Certification you can access sustainable student loans. These loans typically have advantageous conditions: economic guarantees aren’t required, they have subsidized interest rates and favourable repayment plans.

No, you couldn’t. Habacus certification, which verifies and certifies your academic performance, provides financial institutions with an objective assessment that you, as a student, are fulfilling your academic commitments and therefore that you are deserving of a loan.

You can pay all the costs of your student life.The loan is not intended strictly for university fees; for example, you can use it to pay rent, purchase books, transport costs, etc.

The obtainment of a scholarship should not be an impediment for a loan application. However, it is always a good idea to check the scholarship terms to find out any possible conflicts with other types of financial support.

No, there are no income requirements. The Habacus certification is based only on the rating of the student’s academic performance: we verify that the student is fulfilling their study plan in a timely fashion.

Once a loan has been granted, we will monitor academic performance at the end of each academic semester for loans that are paid out in installments. We will directly verify documentation provided by your educational institution and forward the results of the verification to the financial institution, so that it can pay out the next loan installment.

Yes, there are some special cases in which, despite a positive outcome to the certification, the credit institution deems, following its own internal checks, that the student’s credit situation is not suitable for awarding the loan (e.g. past debts, etc.).

The grace period is the time between your graduation and the start of the repayment of the loan. During this time, which is usually two years, you will be able to concentrate on finding a job, before starting to repay the loan. As a reminder, as Habacus does not provide the loan, we recommend you to check the requirements of the loan-provider with regards to this.

Any post-high school diploma course, i.e. all higher education courses: university courses (at public and private universities), courses offered by AFAM (The Institutes of High Training in Art, Music and Dance) and tertiary education and professional training courses offered by ITS (Higher Technical Institutes). In general, all the courses recognized by MIUR as tertiary education training courses. Therefore Bachelor’s, Master’s, single-cycle degree courses, or first and second level university masters.

Yes, we also certify the status of Erasmus and international mobility programs. You can also apply for Habacus certification if you are attending a course in a foreign school or institute. The important thing is that the institution is recognized by the State in which you are studying and that it adheres to Bologna Process.

Yes, you can still apply for certification. In the event that we are not yet a partner of your university (or educational institution), we will verify that it falls within the parameters defined by the financial institution and we will keep you updated on the progress of the assessment.

To date, Habacus collaborates with more than 900 schools and universities, in Italy and abroad. We are in contact with public and private universities and AFAMs recognized by MIUR (or by the competent foreign institution in the case of foreign bodies), with ITSs recognized by INDIRE, and other types of institutions which qualify for funding according to the bank.

We contact educational institutions in order to verify whether students are on track with their exams, based on their study plan. As a result of the information and documentation provided by educational institutions, we objectively assess that you, as a student, are fulfilling your academic commitments and you qualify for financial resources to support your education.

A student authorizes Habacus to contact their schools by filling in an authorization form provided by Habacus during the certification application. This authorization form allows Habacus to contact the institution that the student is currently attending or will attend in the future, in order to obtain the academic documentation needed to process the certification request.

The Ambassador program is a project where students, after signing an “occasional service contract” with Habacus, are engaged in spreading the word about Habacus and the certification. Their goal is to reach new students and invite them to apply for the Habacus certification, thus allowing them access to student loans to support their education. The program is open to all and includes remuneration. The only prerequisite necessary to become an Ambassador is to have obtained the Habacus certification (see Habacus Certification FAQ section), so as to know the process first-hand. 

To become an Ambassador, visit Habacus website page about the Ambassador program. All certified students who apply to the Ambassador program will undergo a selection process. If selected, Habacus will provide students with all the necessary information and advice to excel as an Ambassador, as well as include them in the Ambassador community.

The main prerequisite for becoming an Ambassador is to have obtained the Habacus certification. The certification (see Habacus Certification FAQ section) verifies the academic performance of students and allows them to apply for sustainable student loans. The requirements to apply for the certification and subsequently to become an Ambassador are:

– be over 18 years old;

– be enrolled in a tertiary education;

– reside in Italy or be enrolled in the AIRE (Civil registry for abroad-residing Italian citizens).

If you are not yet certified or you are waiting for the outcome of the certification process, you can indicate this during the application process and proceed with the application.

To become an Ambassador you need to embrace the Habacus mission and understand its values. To be a good ambassador, a sense of community and the ability to develop a successful network of contacts is essential.

Once Habacus, Always Habacus

Habacus certification allows access to financial support programs that are based on commitment to study. This allows students to have greater independence given by his/her ability and skill in respecting his/her own study plan.

Yes, the certification is personal. A person cannot apply on behalf of someone else. If a student wants to be certified, they will have to fill in the certification application in their name. All information relating to the certification process will then only be shared with the person who submitted the request.

No. Habacus certification is a tool that verifies whether a student is eligible for a student loan. Eligibility is solely based on compliance with the requirements of a study plan. Therefore, no further guarantee is needed from a parent.

The student is not required to pay any fees for certification of their academic progress, as these will be borne by the lending institution.

Accreditation is the process of verifying that the institution has the necessary requirements to fall within the scope defined by the financial institution as a certifiable institution. Accreditation of the institution is necessary for the student to successfully complete certification. Educational institutions that are not accredited can apply for to partner with Habacus using this form.

If you are a representative of an educational institution, please complete this form and we will contact you to establish a partnership with Habacus in order to support you in the process of accreditation with financial institutions.

If you are a student, your educational institution must be recognised by the financial institutions in order to be accredited. First, you need to complete this form with all the contact details of your institution and we will contact them to ask them to start the partnership process for accreditation.

If you are a representative or student of an educational institution and want to check if it is accredited, click on this link and enter the name of the institution in the search bar, or otherwise use the targeted search by geographical area. If your institution is listed then it is accredited. If it is not amongst the results, fill out this form to request accreditation.

Yes, during the certification phase, we at Habacus will ask the student to sign a proxy authorising us to contact the educational institution on their behalf. We get in touch with the educational institutions in order to verify the student’s consistency in relation to their study plan. This involves using documentation submitted to the educational institution and information shared by the institution to objectively assess whether the student is fulfilling their obligations and is eligible for a loan.

The advantage of being an accredited institution is that students can apply for certification of their academic performance in order to access sustainable student loans.