The Ministry of Education and Merit (in Italian: Ministero dell'Istruzione e del Merito or MIM) is the ministry of the Italian government for the national education system, the Italian universities and research agencies.

The current Italian Minister of Public Education is Giuseppe Valditara and the Italian Minister of University and Research is Anna Maria Bernini.

In the first Prodi cabinet the two were merged back into the Ministry of Education, University and Scientific and Technological Research, then as the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) in the second and third Berlusconi cabinets.

In 2019, the ministry drafted a policy combining evaluation of grants to research institutions with a requirement to publish research outputs in open access mode.

Regional education "uffici", which are autonomous administrative centres, carrying out the instructions of the Departments, directly supporting individual schools, and articulating the policies on the ground.