Graduate students may join TIGEM by way of four different programmes: two international programmes (The Open University-OU, the European School of Molecular Medicine-SEMM), and two national programmes (the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II-UNINA, the Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli-SUN).

The graduate programmes are designed for self-motivated science graduates and medical doctors wishing to become scholars in the medical sciences with the goal to prepare doctoral students for research careers in human genetics (OU), functional genomics and molecular medicine (SEMM), computational biology and bioinformatics (UNINA), or medical genetics (SUN).

For all graduate programmes, TIGEM functions as sponsoring establishment, providing students enrolled in the programme with laboratory space, facilities, resources, and educational activities. The university of enrollment, instead, represents the Research School and awarding body, conferring the student with the final (UK or Italian) PhD title.