Judy Jones

Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria (Italian: Università degli Studi Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria), also referred to as Mediterranea University or University of Reggio Calabria, or simply UNIRC, is an Italian public research university, located in Reggio Calabria, Italy. In 2021, it is the third best university in the state.

It was founded in 1968, and is one of the youngest universities in the country. UNIRC combines its commitment in research and teaching: three faculties (Architecture, Engineering, Agricultural Science), are dedicated to the territory, creating a "Environment Polytechnic" with a strong propensity to the themes of architecture, landscape, urbanism, infrastructure associated at the green economy. The faculty of Law, study from the economic issues to those related to archeology and artistic heritage. The university provides undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate education, in addition to a range of double degree programs.

The 2012 edition, of the ranking list of Italian public universities – written by the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore – based on indicators of quality, puts Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, to first place in the South Italy and Insular Italy,[1] and in particular, its school of architecture is one of the best in the country.

History

The creation of IUSA

On December 6, 1967, with a request of the Commissioner of the prefect of the Consortium for the Institute of Architecture of Reggio Calabria the University of Reggio Calabria was founded. The legal recognition comes with the Presidential Decree (no. 1543), of June 17, 1968 which marks the birth of the Free University Institute of Architecture. Salvatore Boscarino, a professor at the University of Catania, held the first lesson, on December 18, 1967, titled "Elements of Architecture and survey monuments".

The university became 'Mediterranea'

In the 90s, the construction of great and modern buildings started, of the new campus located at Feo di Vito. In 2001, the rector Alessandro Bianchi, professor of Urban Planning, who remained in office until May 2006, the date of appointment as Minister of the Italian Republic for the Transport of the Prodi government, changed the name of the University. The name of the university became "Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria", with the ambition to become a cultural and scientific centre in the Mediterranean basin. In 2014, the University started a partnership (research teams, teachers and students mobility, programming of common teaching activities) together with the Chongqing University, in China.

Awards and Events

Rankings

The 2012 edition of the Italian public universities ranking list – written by the Italian national newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore – based on the analysis of quality indicators – puts Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria in first place in South Italy and Insular Italy, and 31st nationally. 39.45% of teachers have successfully participated in the "PRIN" (Research Programs of National Interest) and "FIRB" (Fund for Investments in Basic Research). UNIRC was ranked 10th for research funding, with 82.7% of research funded by external bodies. In 2010/2011, the university ranked 18th among 63 public universities for student performance, with 23.3% achieving final marks of 90 or above. For the "dispersion", or missing entries in its second year in 2010/2011, Reggio Calabria was in 16th place with 11.0%, behind universities such as Politecnico di Milano, University Iuav of Venice and University of Turin.

Honorary degrees

The Mediterranean University has conferred honorary degrees on:

Giovanni Astengo

Jaime Gil-Aluja (President of the Royal Academy of Economics and Finance – Spain)

Pasqual Maragal i Mira (Governor of the Autonomous Region of Catalonia and the mayor of Barcelona)

Federico Gorio

Pietro Larizza

Mimmo Rotella

Francesco Rosi

Umberto Eco

José Carlos Principe

Collaboration agreement

On 30 July 2013, in the presence of the Prefect of Reggio Calabria, Vittorio Piscitelli, a collaboration agreement was signed between the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria and the special agency Stazione Sperimentale per le Industrie delle Essenze e dei Derivati dagli Agrumi (SSEA). The agreement provides for an investment of 5 million euros in equipment, and the redevelopment of the SSEA experimental field to include laboratories for analysis and certification of essential oils and food ingredients.

Organization

Faculties

Faculty of Agricultural Science

Faculty of Architecture

Faculty of Engineering

Faculty of Law

Departments

The departments of the University are an organ in which they are awarded, by statute, the duties of promoting, organizing and conducting scientific research. Promotes, coordinates and manages the research activities conducted in their area, while respecting the autonomy of individual teachers and scientific researchers and their right to go directly to research funding. It guarantees the access to resources, according to the criteria set out in the rules. Organizes activities necessary for the attainment of doctoral research. Expresses opinions and proposals on the request, the destination and the filling of posts of professor and researcher role, limited to the scientific areas of expertise of the department. The advisory functions of promotion and coordination of research activities are delegated to the Board of Directors of the department. As part of the reform Gelmini, were adopted from the academic year 2012–2013, 6 departments:

-Dipartimento di Agraria

Department of Agricultural Science

-Dipartimento di Patrimonio, Architettura, Urbanistica

Department of Heritage, Architecture, Urban Planning

-Dipartimento di Architettura e Territorio

Department of Architecture and Territory

-Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, dell'Energia, dell'Ambiente e dei Materiali

Department of Civil Engineering, of Energy, of Environment and of Materials

-Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, delle Infrastrutture e dell'Energia Sostenibile

Department of Information Engineering, of Infrastructures and Sustanaible Energy

-Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza ed Economia

Department of Law and Economy

Research

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

International Doctorate of Philosophy (IDP)

Urban Regeneration and Economic Development (Program: CLUDs-Commercial Local Urban Districts)

The research project is supposed to last three years, with the intention to extent – after defining and experiencing the CLUDs Action Plan in selected Urban Areas – the research project to develop related aspects such as the impact on public services supply (public transportation, safety, waste, etc.), the impact on the rate of energy safe by increasing the use of appropriate technology for housing and building, the impact on new service to business start up, the impact of structural change in rural-urban pattern of the city.

The partnership is characterized by a common scientific field of study that is the city and its multidisciplinary aspects, concerning the general theme of urban policy and planning. With respect this common theme each partner acquires an important role in the academic and scientific international studies. The universities along Mediterranea that participating in the program are:

Finland Aalto University– (YtkLand and Use Planning and Use Studies Group)

Italy Sapienza University of Rome – (Centro di Ricerca sulla Valorizzazione e gestione dei centri storici minori / Fo.Cu.S.)

United Kingdom University of Salford– (School of the Built Environment / SOBE)

United States Northeastern University – (Department of Economics – School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs / NEUSUP)

United States San Diego State University – (School of Public Affairs / SDSU)

Schools

School of specialization for the legal profession (I and II year), with national programming exam:

Court – Forensic

Notary

School of High Formation in Architecture and Archeology of Classical City

Student Body

Most of the students come from Sicily and Calabria, but there is a good percentage of students coming from other Italian regions. The situation is different for foreigners. With the agreement between the Italian Republic and the Republic of China, were distributed the provisions governing the university registrations of foreign nationals. The program "Marco Polo", provides that the seats allocated for Chinese citizens, who can subscribe to the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, are: 30 in the Faculty of Agricultural Science, 50 in the Faculty of Architecture, 18 in the Faculty of Engineering and 20 in the Faculty of Law. In addition at the UNIRC are active, thanks to the Treaty of Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation between Italy and Libya, numerous scholarships for Libyan students who want to study in Italian universities.

Student facilities

4 Libraries: one for each faculty, with a collection of about 60,000 monographs, 500 periodicals, some 5,000 electronic journals and databases disciplines.

Learning Centres: the space is a public meeting and at the same time of cultural production. Individual and group study, meetings and conferences, multimedia presentations, video conferencing, on-line consultation.

Erasmus and Foreign courses

The Erasmus (European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) offers the opportunity to study at a European university or an internship in a country inside the EU.

Since 2005, every year, is organized during the summer months, an advanced course in English language, in collaboration with the St. Andrews University in Scotland. The study-tour is developed in the cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee, as well as the Lakes of the Highlands.

Rectors

Rectors of the new University of Reggio Calabria.

Years Rector

1982–1989 Antonio Quistelli

1989–1999 Rosario Pietropaolo

1999–2006 Alessandro Bianchi

2006–2012 Massimo Giovannini

2012–2018 Pasquale Catanoso

2018–oggi Santo Marcello Zimbone

The Scuola Normale Superiore (commonly known in Italy as "la Normale") is a university institution of higher education based in Pisa and Florence,Tuscany, Italy, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students.

It was founded in 1810 with a decree by Napoleon as a branch of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, with the aim of training the teachers of the Empire to educate its citizens according to educational and methodological "norms".

Eminent personalities from the world of science, literature and politics have studied at the Normale, among them Giosuè Carducci, Carlo Rubbia, Enrico Fermi and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Giovanni Gronchi, Giovanni Gentile, Massimo D'Alema as well as Alessio Figalli, in more recent times.

In 2013 the Florentine site was added to the historical site in Pisa, following the inclusion of the Institute of Human Sciences in Florence (SUM).

Since 2018 the Scuola Normale Superiore has been federated with the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa and with the Institute for Advanced Studies of Pavia, the only other two university institutions with special status that, in the Italian panorama, offer, in accordance with standards of excellence, both undergraduate and postgraduate educational activities.

It ranks first in Italy in the Per Capita Performance parameter of the "Academic Ranking of World Universities" (ARWU 2018), second among Italian universities in the "Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2019", and first in Italy in the Teaching parameter.

History

The Scuola Normale Superiore was founded in 1810 by Napoleonic decree, as a twin institution of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, itself dating back to the French Revolution jurisdiction.

The term école normale (scuola normale) was coined by Joseph Lakanal who, in submitting a report to the National Convention of 1794 on behalf of the Committee of Public Instruction, explained it as follows: "Normales : du latin norma, règle. Ces écoles doivent être en effet le type et la règle de toutes les autres."Normal : from the Latin norma , rule. These schools must indeed be the kind and rule of all others."

The Napoleonic period

The Napoleonic decree of 18 October 1810, concerning "public education establishments" in Tuscany – a province of the French empire since 1807 – established an "Academic student residence" in Pisa for university students. Twenty-five places were made available for students of the Faculties of Arts and Sciences, to create a branch of the Parisian École Normale Supérieure in countries where the use of the Italian language was authorized.

The Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa was thus established at the behest of Napoleon. The term "Normale" refers to its primary teaching mission, that is to train high school teachers to educate citizens according to coherent teaching and methodological "norms".

On 22 February 1811, the first call was issued, but the Pisa-based Normale began its activity only in 1813, when the first students of Arts and Sciences attended the Scuola. The first site of the Scuola was the convent of San Silvestro in Pisa: it was a student residence halfway between a military order and a convent, in which the life of the students was characterized by strict disciplinary regulations similar to those of the French Scuola of reference regarding admissions, occupations, punishments, rewards and even student clothing. Following the model of the École Normale Supérieure, the Scuola was entrusted to a "Director", assisted by the "Sub-director" and by the "Economo", in charge of administration, supervision of studies and the safeguarding of order.

The Normale was reserved at that time to the best high school students, aged between 17 and 24, who during their two years of studies also obtained degrees at the faculties of Arts and Sciences of the Imperial University. The students had particular commitments and were obliged to take additional courses: they were supervised by four "ripetitori", chosen by the Director among the students of the Normale, who "repeated" the university lessons daily and coordinated the "conferences", which were a sort of seminar. With this qualifying training, after graduation the students committed themselves to teaching in secondary schools for at least ten years.

The Napoleonic Scuola Normale had a short life: the only academic year was 1813/14, during which the physicist Ranieri Gerbi was Director. On 6 April 1814, Napoleon signed the act of abdication: the return of Grand Duke Ferdinand III to the throne of Tuscany coincided with the closure of the Scuola despite the various attempts to save it in the name of its function.

The grand-ducal period

The period of closure of the Scuola after the Napoleonic phase was actually quite short. The Grand Duke's decree of 22 December 1817 re-established the ancient Ordine dei Cavalieri di Santo Stefano (the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen) in Pisa: in 1843 the Council of the Order proposed to establish a "boarding school for young nobles" in the Palazzo della Carovana together with a Scuola Normale. It has to be said that even in the previous period novice Knights were often students of the University of Pisa and therefore the Palazzo was already, in effect, a "noble college".

To study the feasibility of the new project, Grand Duke Leopold II of Lorraine nominated a commission, which re-established the original function of the Scuola Normale Superiore, that of preparing secondary school teachers. On 28 November 1846, a grand-ducal Motuproprio established the Scuola Normale Toscana, also called Imperial Regia Scuola Normale (because it was connected to the Austrian system). On 15 November 1847, the new headquarters in Palazzo della Carovana were inaugurated.

The new Scuola was "theoretical and practical", intended to "train teachers of secondary schools";[8] it was a boarding school that offered ten free places (with advantages reserved for the Knights of the Order), which could be accessed by call at the age of eighteen, as well as other paid places.

The boarding school was attended exclusively by students of Philosophy and Philology, while students of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at the University were aggregated to the Scuola: the latter, however, were required to attend the pedagogy course and to practice teaching by doing teacher training in schools, in keeping with a strong professional connotation which was later to be abandoned. The course of studies lasted three years.

In the grand-ducal period the Scuola was affected by the political climate: following the enthusiasm of the Risorgimento, the fear of subversive movements and tumults led to reactionary and confessional attitudes much lamented by the students themselves, including Giosuè Carducci, who was a student there between 1853 and 1856.

The post-unification period

With the new unified state, the legislative and administrative structure of the Savoy Kingdom was extended to the whole of Italy. The Italian school system was therefore regulated for over sixty years by the Casati law of 1859, originally issued for the Piedmontese and Lombard institutions: based on a centralized model, it gave private bodies the possibility to provide education, at the same time establishing the "diritto dello Stato all’insegnamento universitario"(the right of the State regarding university education) as well as the right to 'supervise' all the levels of the school system.

In Tuscany the provisional government (1859–60) tried to protect the most illustrious local traditions, such as the Normale. After a long debate, in the Senate and in the press, on the opportuneness of maintaining this unique and anomalous institution, in 1862 it was officially named "Scuola Normale del Regno d'Italia".

Various draft laws were submitted to the Camera to establish the Pisan model[9] by extending it to other universities or to reorganize and expand the Scuola Normale of Pisa. But the new unified State, engaged in financial measures and public works deemed to be more urgent, approved, with the decree of 17 August 1862, only some modifications to the Scuola's regulations, so that it could continue to function as a Scuola Normale italiana.

The "new" Normale was introduced into the national legal system by the Matteucci Regulations of 1862, which eliminated any religious and confessional aspects, in line with the secular orientation of Italian politics. The years of study became four by ministerial decree in 1863, and a new organizational structure was established.

At the educational level, the board of directors was divided into two "sections", Letters and Philosophy and Physics-Mathematics, formed by the relative teaching staff; the latter sections were the forerunners of the current Faculties, under the control of the "Director of Studies".

The publishing activity of the Scuola began with the foundation of the two journals (Annali della classe di scienze in 1871 and Annali della classe di lettere e filosofia in 1873). With the development of the postgraduate course, the Scuola was increasingly taking on the function, as well as of a university college, of a higher institute of scientific education and research. At the political level the role of the "President" of the board of directors was defined as the authority responsible for the moral, educational and economic governance of the Scuola. Finally, at an organizational level, there was the increasingly important role of the Provveditore-Economo, who managed the services as well as the human and financial resources, and had disciplinary jurisdiction over the students. The Matteucci regulations followed those issued by Education Minister Coppino in 1877, establishing the opening of the boarding school also to the section of Sciences and simplifying the complex structure of the previous "Regulations of studies and examinations".

The Gentile Reform

In 1927, three years after the entry into force of the Gentile Reform, new regulations of the Scuola Normale were approved, which removed its qualification function while maintaining that of "preparing for teaching in secondary schools and for the examinations which award qualifications for such teaching"[10] and of promoting postgraduate studies, accessible by all graduates at national level.

Nationalist propaganda also took hold within the Normale and the control of the Regime became increasingly more invasive, up until the first serious episode of repression, with the arrest in 1928 of three normalisti for anti-Fascist activity. To deal with the disturbances caused by the political events and the decline of the Scuola, which had increasingly fewer students, the philosopher Giovanni Gentile, a normalista, as well as a prominent figure of Italian Fascism, ideologue of the Regime and minister of education, was nominated as commissioner; he later became Director of the Normale, in 1928.

Gentile carried out a structural revision of the institution so that it would acquire national importance; to this end he oversaw the expansion of the headquarters and a considerable increase in the number of students and internal activities. His authority, together with the consensus of the Regime, allowed him to find means and collaboration for his project. Meanwhile, the relationship between the State and the Church inaugurated by the Lateran Treaty facilitated negotiations with the Archbishopric to obtain the availability of the Puteano College building which, together with that of the Timpano, would later be used to house the young normalisti while the expansion of the Palazzo della Carovana took place.

The Normale Gentiliana, recognized by the Royal Decree of 28 July 1932, was inaugurated on 10 December. Equipped with a new Statute, the Scuola became an independent higher education institution, albeit still connected to the University of Pisa, and acquired legal status and administrative, educational and disciplinary autonomy. The Normale, affirming its uniqueness in the Italian school system, was expanded above all to educate an increasingly more selected cultural élite.

In 1938 the Scuola Normale, like all the universities of the Italian Kingdom, endorsed the racial laws, which affected students and teaching staff. The Normale at that time still had many free-spirited souls in its midst: it was also the Scuola of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi – who, a few years from then, would join the Resistance – and formerly of Aldo Capitini, theorist of non-violence and firm opponent of the Fascist Regime.

The war and post-war period

The Scuola Normale continued its activity despite the Second World War, although with some regulatory limitations and many practical difficulties. In the meantime, also after the issuing of the racial laws, the dissent towards the Regime was becoming increasingly more evident among students and teaching staff.

With the deposition of Mussolini by the Grand Council on 25 July 1943, the Normale remained under German domination, since geographically it belonged to the territory of the Republic of Salò.

After the tragic air raid on Pisa on 31 August 1943, the new Director, Luigi Russo, threatened with arrest for political reasons, had to leave the city and was replaced by the mathematician Leonida Tonelli, who protected the library and the furnishings of the Palazzo della Carovana, transformed into German barracks, and transferred the most important collections to the nearby Certosa di Calci.

On 2 September 1944 the city was liberated, but Palazzo della Carovana was requisitioned by the Anglo-American army: students and teaching staff were relegated to the Puteano College. Luigi Russo, reinstated as Director, continued the work of safeguarding the material of the Scuola and of its library, while the temporary site resumed its activities.

On 25 September 1945, the Palazzo was liberated and, in addition to the restoration of the building, it was decided to issue a call for seventy places for veteran or partisan students.[12] Luigi Russo and Leonida Tonelli initiated a long awareness campaign that allowed them to find financial resources, including contributions not coming from the state, and to create a heritage through donations and purchases, in accordance with a policy that would continue in the following years.

The post-war Normale was also the era of women: seventy years from the admittance of the first woman to the Normale, in 1959 a "Female Section" was finally established, with headquarters in Palazzo del Timpano, to enable women to lead a collegial life within the Scuola.

From the post-war period to today

In the 1960s, the Scuola Normale faced the challenges of the "university for the masses". Between 1964 and 1977, under the firm management of Gilberto Bernardini,[13] it affirmed its original vocation for the pure disciplines, renouncing the management of the medical and juridical Colleges (to which the Collegio Pacinotti for applied sciences had been added) : the process that would lead to the establishment of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies began from the latter Colleges.

Between 1967 and 1968 students and teachers of the Normale took part in the protests that had started in Pisa and had spread throughout Italy; at the Normale not only was the entire university system challenged, but also the approach of the Scuola and its fundamental regulations. The difficult dialogue between the institution and its students gave rise to the 1969 Statute, from which the new educational framework of the Scuola and the profile of Institute of Scientific Higher Education emerged: in particular, a significant increase in the internal teaching staff, the foundation and the strengthening of research structures and a rise in the number of undergraduate and postgraduate students were achieved. Finally, the law of 18 June 1989 recognized the equivalence of the Scuola's post-graduate diploma to that of PhDs issued by Italian universities.

In the academic year 2014/2015 the teaching curriculum for the postgraduate courses was expanded thanks to the merger with the Istituto di Scienze Umane di Firenze (SUM) (the Institute of Human Sciences of Florence, SUM), now named Department of Political and Social Sciences of the Normale. In 2018 the Normale was federated with the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa and with the University Institute of Advanced Studies in Pavia, to offer new educational opportunities that could integrate the skills of the three institutions in certain areas such as economic-political disciplines and the study of the physical-chemical dynamics that influence climate change and the repercussions in the agri-food sector. Following the merger between the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa and the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane (the Italian Institute of Human Sciences), Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and the Residenza Aldo Capitini were added to the buildings dedicated to the activities of the Scuola; the latter building, following its renovation, was assigned to the students of the postgraduate courses of the Department.

The Palazzone di Cortona (in the province of Arezzo) must also be added to this real estate; it is a branch of the Scuola used for conferences and summer schools organized also in collaboration with other authorities and academic and research institutions.

Academic structures

The Faculty of Humanities is divided into subject areas, within which the individual courses are organized. The subject areas refer to: Literature, philology and linguistics; Philosophy; History and paleography; History of Art and Archaeology; Ancient history and classical philology. The Faculty of Sciences is divided into subject areas, within which the individual courses are organized. The subject areas are:Chemistry and geology; Physics; Mathematics and computer science; Biological sciences. The Department of Political and Social Sciences covers the subject areas of political and social sciences.

Teaching curriculum

The Scuola Normale Superiore offers both undergraduate education (which corresponds to the university curriculum of the bachelor's and master's degree) and postgraduate (PhD) education.

Undergraduate courses

The undergraduate courses of the SNS (Bachelor's and master's degrees) cover the teaching curriculum of three macro-disciplinary areas: Letters and Philosophy, Sciences and Political-Social Sciences (the latter only for master's degrees).The students selected through competition must follow both the courses taught at the Normale and the corresponding courses of study of the University, respecting rigorous study obligations. Studies are free of charge.

Postgraduate courses (PhD)

The Scuola Normale Superiore was the first Italian institution to create a PhD programme, in 1927. To date, the PhD courses of the Faculty of Humanities are:

Cultures and societies of contemporary Europe

Philosophy

Global History and Governance

Literature, art and history of medieval and modern Europe

Sciences of antiquity

The PhD courses of the Faculty of Sciences are:

Astrochemistry

Data Science

Physics

Maths

Mathematics for finance

Methods and models for molecular sciences

Nanosciences

Neuroscience

The PhD courses of the Department of Political and Social Sciences are:

Political science and sociology

Transnational Governance

Admission

Admission to the undergraduate courses and to the postgraduate courses (PhD) takes place by competition. You can access the Normale from the first year of university, or after obtaining a three-year degree. Finally, you can be admitted to the Scuola as a postgraduate student (PhD).

For admission to the undergraduate courses, a commission formed by the research staff of the Scuola Normale and of other universities assesses candidates, attempting to identify talent for study and research. The tests, which usually take place in August and September, are written and oral, and concern the disciplinary fields chosen by candidates for their academic career. The exam topics are studied in such a way that admission to the Scuola is guaranteed not for notional and mnemonic skills but rather for originality and intuition.

For access to the first year, A-level results and any other previous qualifications are not assessed during the exam. For access to the fourth year, results obtained for the bachelor's degree and any other previous qualifications are not assessed during the exam. The selection is rigorous: only about 5% of those who take part in the competition are usually admitted. Students of the Scuola Normale Superiore do not pay any fees for their studies: university fees are reimbursed and accommodation and board are free.

For admission to the Postgraduate Course (PhD) the competition, open to graduates from all over the world, is based on qualifications and exams. Those selected receive a scholarship, as well as additional ad hoc grants for research activities in Italy and abroad.

Campus

The Scuola Normale is located in its original historical building, called Palazzo della Carovana, in Piazza dei Cavalieri, in the medieval centre of Pisa.

Library

The Library was established at the same time as the Scuola and is an essential tool for teaching and research. It currently occupies three locations overlooking Piazza dei Cavalieri – the Palazzo dell'Orologio, the Palazzo della Canonica and a part of the Palazzo della Carovana – and, a short distance away, the location of Palazzo del Capitano. The book collection, for the most part with open shelves, has now exceeded one million volumes in total. It focuses on the disciplines under study at the Normale, and also houses texts on information science, bibliography and librarianship. In addition to the regular acquisitions, it has also been enriched by donations by various scholars connected to the Scuola; among these we can mention Eugenio Garin, Michele Barbi, Francesco Flamini, Cesare Luporini, Vittore Branca, Giorgio Pasquali, Arnaldo Momigliano, Paul Oskar Kristeller, Delio Cantimori, Sebastiano Timpanaro, Clifford Truesdell and Ettore Passerin d'Entrèves. A digital library is also being developed as part of the library service.

Archives

The Archival Centre of the Scuola Normale Superiore, established in October 2013, preserves, in addition to the rich documentary heritage of the Scuola, numerous archives of 19th and 20th century cultural figures acquired through testamentary legacies, gifts and deposits but also thanks to a targeted purchasing policy. Many collections come from former students and / or former lecturers of the Scuola Normale (collections from the directors Enrico Betti, Alessandro d'Ancona, Ulisse Dini, Luigi Bianchi and Gilberto Bernardini), but also from gifts or purchases: among these, mention must be made of the Salviati archive, which, among its important documents, also preserves an autograph manuscript by Machiavelli.

Research centres and laboratories

The research centres and the laboratories operating at the Normale are:

Bio@SNS – Laboratorio di Biologia(Biology Laboratory)

CRM – Centro di Ricerca Matematica Ennio De Giorgi (Ennio De Giorgi Mathematics Research Centre)

DocStAr – Documentazione Storico Artistica (Artistic Historical Documentation)

NEST – National Enterprise for nanoScience and nanoTechnology

SAET – Storia, Archeologia, Epigrafia, Tradizione dell'antico (History, Archaeology, Epigraphy, Tradition of the ancient)

SMART – Strategie Multidisciplinari Applicate alla Ricerca e alla Tecnologia (Multidisciplinary Strategies Applied to Research and Technology)

STAR – Systems and Theories for Astrochemical Research

Colleges and canteen

The students of the Scuola Normale, in Pisa, are currently housed in four colleges, located in the town:

The Carducci College is located in via Turati, not far from Pisa central station; it has been owned by the Scuola since 1994. Partially restored in 2002, it is also being renovated at the moment. This building was dedicated to the illustrious poet and scholar, Giosuè Carducci, who was an undergraduate student of the faculty of humanities from 1853 to 1856 and a Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1906.

The Fermi college, owned by the Scuola since 1993, is located a few steps away from the Palazzo della Carovana and has been used as accommodation for students since 1996. It is dedicated to the distinguished Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, a normalista as well as Nobel Prize winner for physics in 1938.

The Faedo College, which opened in 2006, is the last residential college acquired by the Scuola Normale and is shared with the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna. The building is located in Via del Giardino, near the Palazzo di Giustizia, and is dedicated to Alessandro Faedo, a normalista who subsequently became rector of the University of Pisa, president of the National Research Council and senator.

The Timpano College was the first real estate donation to the Scuola, in 1932: located on the Lungarno Pacinotti, it was donated to the Scuola by a singular character, the Calabrian Domenico Timpano, who had made a fortune selling, in the United States at the time of Prohibition, alcohol-based restorative products from his pharmaceutical industry. The building, damaged during the Second World War by the explosion of the nearby Ponte Solferino, was rebuilt in the 1950s, and was initially the female housing section for students of the Scuola Normale Superiore. Currently it is assigned to students and scholarship holders and is divided into three colleges: Timpano, Timpanino and Acconci (the latter acquired in 1967).

Students of the postgraduate course do not usually stay in the colleges, but receive a monthly grant for accommodation; in Florence, however, the Residenza Capitini – a building owned by the City of Florence, recently renovated with funds made available by the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research – can accommodate students of the postgraduate courses of the Department of Political and Social Sciences .

Those who have right of access to the canteen of the Scuola Normale, located on the lower floors of Palazzo D'Ancona (in the immediate vicinity of the Palazzo della Carovana, in Via Consoli del Mare 5) are: undergraduate students, Italian and international PhD students, research grant holders, scholarship holders, teaching and administrative staff, and guests of the Scuola.

Rankings

The Academic Ranking of World Universities puts this system at the first place in Italy (National Rank # 1) and within the best 30 universities in Europe.

Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, together with Scuola Normale Superiore are named as leading institutions in Italy's six top higher education institutes by Times Higher Education World University Rankings,[18] where for 2014–2015 was ranked at 63rd place in the world and 15th in Europe.[19] As for 2019 rankings, Times Higher Education World University Rankings puts Scuola Normale Superiore 161 place in the world and 2nd in Italy. According to Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Scuola Normale Superiore is the first in Italy for teaching.

According to QS World University Rankings, Scuola Normale Superiore are part of the initiative "Invest Your Talent in Italy" which puts Italian graduate programmes on the world's stage.

The European Research Ranking, a ranking based on publicly available data from the European Commission database puts Pisa University System among the best in Italy and best performing European research institutions.

Notable alumni and faculty

Notable alumni and faculty of the Scuola Normale include:

Aldo Andreotti, mathematician, noted for his fundamental contributions to the theory of functions of several complex variables

Giuliano Amato, politician and former Prime Minister of Italy, also studied at the Collegio Medico-Giuridico of the Scuola Normale Superiore, which today is Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies

Paola Barocchi, Art historian

Luigi Bianchi, mathematician, a leading member of the vigorous geometric school which flourished in Italy during the later years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century

Giosuè Carducci, poet, 1906 Nobel Prize in Literature

Antonio Cassese, jurist who specialized in public international law, President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, also studied at the Collegio Medico-Giuridico of the Scuola Normale Superiore, which today is Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies

Sabino Cassese, Professor of Administrative Law and a judge of the Constitutional Court of Italy, also studied at the Collegio Medico-Giuridico of the Scuola Normale Superiore, which today is Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies

Lamberto Cesari, mathematician, remembered for his achievements on the Plateau's problem, on the theory of parametric minimal surfaces, on Lebesgue measure of continuous and related other variational problems: he also worked in the field of optimal control and studied periodic solutions of systems of nonlinear ordinary differential equations by using methods of nonlinear functional analysis

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and tenth President of the Italian Republic from 1999 to 2006. Until his death, he served as Senator for life in the Italian Senate

Pietro Citati, writer and literary critic

Massimo D'Alema, President of the Italian Cabinet

Ennio De Giorgi, mathematician who worked on partial differential equations and the foundations of mathematics, solved the 19th Hilbert problem, won Wolf Prize in 1990

Enrico Fermi, physicist, 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity, particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics. Fermi is widely regarded as one of the leading scientists of the 20th century, highly accomplished in both theory and experiment. Along with J. Robert Oppenheimer, he is frequently referred to as "the father of the atomic bomb".

Alessio Figalli, mathematician, 2018 Fields Medal winner. He works primarily on calculus of variations and partial differential equations.

Guido Fubini, mathematician, known for Fubini's theorem and the Fubini–Study metric

Giovanni Gentile, Minister of Public Education (1923) and neo-Hegelian Idealist philosopher, a peer of Benedetto Croce, described himself as 'the philosopher of Fascism', and ghostwrote A Doctrine of Fascism (1932) for Benito Mussolini, also devised his own system of philosophy, Actual Idealism, and Professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore

Carlo Ginzburg, noted historian and proponent of the field of microhistory. He is best known for his Il formaggio e I vermi (1976, English title: The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth Century Miller) which examined the beliefs of an Italian heretic, Menocchio, from Montereale Valcellina

Giovanni Gronchi, politician, President of Italy from 1955 to 1962

Eugenio Elia Levi, mathematician, noted for his fundamental contributions to group theory, the theory of partial differential equations and theory of functions of several complex variables

Michela Marzano, philosopher, writer

Medea Norsa, Papyrologist

Francesco Orlando, Literary Theorist

Carlo Rubbia, Knight Grand Cross particle physicist and inventor who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Simon van der Meer for work leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN

Francesco Ruggiero, contributor to the design of the Large Hadron Collider

Salvatore Settis, archeologist, former director of the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities and also of the Scuola Normale itself, now President of the Scientif Committee of the Musée du Louvre

Walter Siti, writer

Ruxandra Sireteanu, neuroscientist

Leonida Tonelli, mathematician, most noted for creating Tonelli's theorem, usually considered a forerunner to Fubini's theorem.

Vito Volterra, mathematician and physicist, known for his contributions to mathematical biology and integral equations.

Jiyuan Yu, moral philosopher noted for his work on virtue ethics

The Associazione Normalisti and the Normale bulletin

Various associations of alumni and professors have been operative at the Scuola at various stages of its history. After the first initiative by the philosopher Giovanni Gentile in 1933, later revitalized in the 1950s, in 1997, at the proposal of Alessandro Faedo, the current Association was founded, simply called Associazione Normalisti.

The current president is Roberto Cerreto; previous presidents were Luigi Arialdo Radicati di Brozolo, Claudio Cesa, Franco Montanari and Umberto Sampieri. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi was an honorary president.

The Association publishes the Normale bulletin every six months or every year; the bulletin is the official organ of the association, registered at the Tribunal of Pisa; its current graphic design is the work of Paolo Peluffo, former Consigliere per la Stampa e l'Informazione del Presidente della Repubblica (Press and Information Councillor of the President of the Republic) and sottosegretario di Stato alla Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri (Undersecretary of State at the President's Office of the Cabinet) of the Monti Government. The director is Andrea Bianchi.

Cinema and literature

Some narrative works of the 21st century are set at the Scuola Normale Superiore, such as L'etica dell'Aquario by Ilaria Gaspari and some pages by Walter Siti of Scuola di nudo. The Scuola Normale also features in Elena Ferrante's The Story of a New Name (2013), second installment of the four-volume work known as the Neapolitan Novels: the protagonist of the novel, Elena, is admitted to the Normale and describes her years in Pisa. The Scuola Normale Superiore has also appeared in the following films: Now or Never (Ora o mai più) and Il Giocatore invisibile.

The Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (Italian: SSSA, Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento Sant'Anna) is a special-statute, highly selective public research university located in Pisa, Italy.

The rector is Sabina Nuti, who took office on 7 May 2019. Before her, the rector of the school was Pierdomenico Perata, elected on 8 May 2013 after the resignation of Maria Chiara Carrozza, due to her election as Member of Parliament and appointment as Minister of Education, Universities and Research.

Since January 2014, the school has been presided over by Yves Mény, until the School joined the first Federation of Universities in Italy, together with the other two Scuole Superiori Universitarie (Grandes Écoles):Scuola Normale Superiore and Scuola Superiore Studi Pavia IUSS. Before him, the president was Giuliano Amato, a former prime minister of Italy and currently judge of the Constitutional Court.

The Allievi Ordinari of the School are selected through a rigorous public examination with written and oral tests, with about 5% admission rate. They are all awarded a full government-funded scholarship which includes accommodation, canteen, research and travel grants. In exchange, they are expected to hold the highest standards in their studies at both the School and at the partner Universities.

History

The present-day Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies is the descendant of several institutions modelled on the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, also known in Italian as Scuola Normale (English: Normal School), which is a higher learning institution in Pisa. It was founded in 1810, by Napoleonic decree, as a branch of the École Normale Supérieure of Paris.

The school, whose origins, in the context of the Pisa university reality, are rooted in the Collegio Medico-Giuridico already attached to the Scuola Normale Superiore and the Collegio ‘Antonio Pacinotti, and was formally established by the Law of 14 February 1987, No. 41, which marked the unification of the Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento Law (7 March 1967), No. 117, and the Conservatorio di Sant’Anna, the Royal Decree of 13 February 1908 No. LXXVIII.

Origins of Sant'Anna

Sant'Anna Church and Convent

The present-day site is acquired from a very ancient religious educational establishment. The Sant'Anna Church and Convent was established in 1406, while the church was finished in 1426, by the Order of the Benedictine Nuns (OSB).

Conservatorio di Sant'Anna

In 1785, the Conservatorio di Sant'Anna was initiated by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor as a consequence of abolition of the religious orders due to Leopold's reforms;[clarification needed] the convent was suppressed in 1786.

Conservatorio di Sant'Anna, an educational institution; later under the tutelage of the Ministry of Education of the Kingdom of Italy and the Italian Republic.

Sant'Anna replaced Antonio Pacinotti in 1987, when the School gained its current headquarters. In 1987 the Benedictine Nuns dedicated the Sant'Anna Church and Convent to the Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e Perfezionamento (previously the Collegio Medico-Giuridico of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa), provided the School carried the name of Sant'Anna.

The origins of Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies within Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa: the Scuola Normale Superiore was founded in 1810 by Napoleonic decree, as twin institution of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, itself dating back to the French Revolution jurisdiction. The term "École Normale" ("Scuola Normale") was coined by Joseph Lakanal who, in submitting a report to the National Convention of 1794 on behalf of the Committee of Public Instruction, explained it thus: "Normales: du latin norma, règle. Ces écoles doivent être en effet le type et la règle de toutes les autres."

The Decree of Foundation - Napoleon I rethought the project of an École Normale in 1808, by establishing a Normale Hall of Residence in Paris to house young students and train them in the art of teaching the humanities and sciences. The project was replicated in Tuscany by a decree dated 18 October 1810, with the foundation in Pisa, seat of one of the Imperial University academies, of a branch of the Paris-based École Normale Supérieure, "Scuola Normale Superiore".

The Grand-Duchy Period: 1847-1859 - on 28 November 1846, a grand-ducal motu proprio founded a Tuscan Scuola Normale in Pisa (also referred to as the Imperial Royal Scuola Normale, as it was linked to the Austrian system),[clarification needed] with both theoretical and practical aims, under the patronage of the Order of Saint Stephen, but depending on the University of Pisa.

The Scuola Normale during the Kingdom of Italy: 1859-1862 - on 17 October 1862 the Minister of Education of the Kingdom of Italy Carlo Matteucci implemented new regulations in a decree that transformed the institution to the Normal School of the Kingdom of Italy, which was to have an organic division between the faculties of Arts and Sciences.

The Scuola Normale under Gentile: 1928-1943 - philosopher Giovanni Gentile, was placed at the head of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa as commissioner in 1928 and as director in 1932. He reformed the Scuola, gave it formal autonomy and sought an expansion to other disciplines, with the creation of the Collegio Mussolini per le Scienze Corporative (1931), and the Collegio Nazionale Medico (1932). The new colleges were later merged to form the Collegio Medico-Giuridico, which continued to operate (in the fields of Law and Medicine) under the jurisdiction of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.

Post-war Period - Scuola Normale Superiore in 1951, established the Antonio Pacinotti boarding school i.e. Collegio ‘Antonio Pacinotti, reserved to students of the faculties of Agriculture, Economics and Engineering, with plans to be further opened to other faculties.

The origins of present-day structure of Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies: the present structure of Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies was established in 1967 as Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e Perfezionamento, by a merger of the Collegio Antonio Pacinotti (Scuola per le Scienze Applicate A. Pacinotti; founded 1951), and the Collegio Medico-Giuridico of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. The new institution, committed to the model established by the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, was administered by the University of Pisa.

Establishment of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies; Law of 14 February 1987 No. 41 - Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento Sant'Anna.[clarification needed][citation needed] In 1987 Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies acquired complete independence (Law of 14 February 1987, No.41) and maintains strong ties with both the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and the University of Pisa, creating the Pisa University System.

The present-day structure

Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and the University of Pisa create the Pisa University System. The Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies has been given separate university status by the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (Italy) and together with Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa is leading the model of Scuole di Eccellenza, i.e. Superior Graduate School in Italy (Grandes écoles)

Organization

Students are admitted after passing public national and international competitions. Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies offers to those who decide to take excellence, a multi-disciplinary approach to learning, research, and internationalization.

Academics and research

Students are admitted after passing public national and international competitions. The fields of study and research are:

Social Sciences Class

Business Sciences,

Economic Sciences,

Legal Sciences

Political Sciences

Experimental Sciences Class

Agricultural Sciences,

Medical Sciences,

Industrial Engineering and

Information Engineering.

Undergraduate programs

Potential under graduates undergo a rigorous public examination, and only the very best are creamed off to combine their Pisa University studies with the extra options available at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, thus these students are called Honors College Students(Italian: Allievi Ordinari). Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna is also integrated with the Scuola Normale Superiore and Honors College Students are free to attend courses provided by departments other than their own, as well as those provided by the Scuola Normale Superiore.

As of 2020, 50 freshmen are admitted per year, equally divided between the Class of Social Sciences and the Class of Experimental Sciences. The School offers all of its services free of charge (accommodation, canteen, internet connection, library); students also receive a small yearly income for their didactic expenses. While attending the Pisa University courses, the Honors College Students (allievi) live in the school's college. Students have to achieve a high average grade in university exams (at least 27/30) and attend internal courses (including foreign language classes offered in French, Spanish, German and Chinese) taught by professors and researchers working at the School, both as an integration and as an extension to the regular academic schedule.

Graduate programs

The School also offers graduate courses such as master and doctoral programmes, provided by its research laboratories and joint ventures with foreign universities, leading enterprises and international organizations.

Doctoral programs (PhD)

The first institution in Italy to create a doctoral program (PhD) was Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa in 1927 under the historic name "Diploma di Perfezionamento".

Research doctorates or PhD (Italian: Dottorato di ricerca) in Italy were introduced with law and Presidential Decree in 1980 (Law of 21 February 1980, No. 28 and the Presidential Decree No. 382 of 11 July 1980), referring to the reform of academic teaching, training and experimentation in organisation and teaching methods.

Hence, the Superior Graduate Schools in Italy (Grandes écoles)(Italian: Scuola Superiore Universitaria), also called Schools of Excellence (Italian: Scuole di Eccellenza) such as Scuola Normale Superiore and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies still keep their reputed historical "Diploma di Perfezionamento" PhD title by law and MIUR Decree.

The Doctoral Programmes at Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies grant Diploma di Perfezionamento, a degree fully equivalent to a PhD and are recognized International Doctoral Programmes involving various forms of collaboration and joint ventures with foreign universities.

Post-doctoral education and research

There are also worldwide important international corporations and industrial partners that are closely linked to Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, such as: the nearby Piaggio where there are special Sant'Anna Laboratories at the Polo Sant'Anna Valdera (PSAV), which contributes to the industrial process, Leonardo, Fiat (Centro Ricerche Fiat), Telecom Italia, Marconi Communications, Ericsson Research, Deutsche Telekom, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd, etc.

Polo Sant'Anna Valdera (PSAV) is a research center of Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies based in Pontedera (Pisa). It was inaugurated in 2002 thanks to the interest of the then president of Piaggio, Giovanni Alberto Agnelli. The property is housed in converted sheds donated by Piaggio. The main research is in the fields of robotics, bioengineering, biotechnology, precision engineering, computing and virtual environments. Polo Sant'Anna Valdera (PSAV) has 25 offices, 4 classrooms for teaching, 7 laboratories, 20 rooms, all six thousand square meters. There currently employs about hundred people. The most important project in these laboratories is a bionic hand for people to have an upper limb amputee. The ARTS Lab - Advanced Robotics Technology and System, created the famous breakthrough in the field of bio-robotics with the so-called CYBER HAND, shown on CNN International's Vital Signs Life Hand report. Sant'Anna also undertakes many international projects which are tied to the European Commission, the Government of Italy and its ministries, as well as regional projects of the Region of Tuscany and the Province of Pisa. The school maintains a number of research laboratories, some of which are located at the National Research Council (CNR) whose largest research center is in Pisa.

In the framework of the bilateral cooperation between Italy and China i.e. the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna hosts the third Italian Confucius Institute.

Research Institutes:

Institute of Management (Italian: Istituto di Management) includes the laboratories: MAIN, MES and SUM.

Institute of Economics (Italian: Istituto di Economia) includes the laboratory LEM.

Institute Dirpolis (Law, Politics and Development) (Italian: Istituto Dirpolis (Diritto, Politica e Sviluppo))includes the laboratories: Lider, Cdg, CSGS and Wiss.

Institute TeCIP - Institute of Communication, Information and Perception Technologies (Italian: Istituto TeCIP, Istituto di Tecnologie della Comunicazione, dell'Informazione e della Percezione) includes the laboratories: IRCPhoNet, Percro, Retis.

Institute of Biorobotics (Italian: Istituto di Biorobotica) includes the laboratories: ARTSLab, CRIMLab and EZ-Lab.

Institute of Life Sciences (Italian: Istituto di Scienze della Vita) includes the laboratories: Laboratory of Medical Sciences, Biolabs, LandLab and PlantLab.

Laboratories and research centers

Management

MAIN - Management & Innovation Laboratory

[MeS Lab - Management and Health Laboratory

SUM LAb - Sustainability Management

Economics

LEM - Laboratory of Economics and Management

CAFED - Centre for the Analysis of Financial and Economics Dynamics

EZ-Lab - Center for Research on the technology and support services for the Longevity

Laws

LIDER - International and Comparative Law Research Laboratory

STALS -Sant’Anna Legal Studies

Research Centre on Social, Juridical and Human Rights Sciences

Political Science

CDG Laboratory - International Research Laboratory on Conflict, Development and Global Politics

ITPCM - International Training Programme for Conflict Management

Iran Electoral Archive

Engineering

ARTS Lab - Advanced Robotics Technology and System, which created the famous breakthrough in the field of bio-robotics with the so-called CYBER HAND, shown on CNN International's Vital Signs Life Hand report

CRIM Lab - Center of Research In Microengineering

RoboCasa, the Italy-Japan joint laboratory for Research on Humanoid and Personal Robotics

Joint Lab Italy - Korea

CEIICP - Centre of Excellence for Information, Communication and Perception Engineering. The Centre is a result of a joint venture in the telecommunications sector between the Sant'Anna School and Marconi Communications SpA (now Ericsson). In partnership with CNIT (National Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications), the two parties signed an agreement for the creation of a research centre for photonic networks and technologies, thus realizing through CEIICP a unique example of synergy in Italy.

IRCPHONET - Integrated Research Centre for Photonic Networks and Technologies

RETIS lab - Real-Time Systems Laboratory

PERCRO - Perceptual Robotics

Agrobiociences

Land Lab – Agriculture, Environment and Landscape

BIOLABS - BIOlogical LABoratorieS

PLANT LAB - Plant and Crop Physiology

Medicine

Laboratory of Medical Science

European Transplantation Management Centre - Research Centre on E-TX-MAN organ and tissue detection, donation and transplant and related

Partner universities and international agreements

Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies has signed international agreements with respected partner universities around the globe.

As part of the Pisa University System, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies is small and elite, specialised only in applied sciences. The Academic Ranking of World Universities puts it, together with Scuola Normale Superiore, at the 1st place in Italy (National Rank # 1) and within the best 30 universities in Europe.

In 2016 Times Higher Education World University Rankings the 150 Under 50 Rankings 2016, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies is ranked #10 in the world. As for 2015-16 rankings, Times Higher Education World University Rankings puts Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies at 180th place in the world, 90 place in Europe and 2nd in Italy, and Scuola Normale Superiore 112 place in the world, 50 place in Europe and 1st in Italy.[40][43][44] According to Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies is in top 20% in teaching, industry income and citations in the world, and Scuola Normale Superiore is in top 10% in teaching and top 20% in research on global level. Also, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies together with Scuola Normale Superiore are named as leading institutions in Italy's six top higher education institutes by Times Higher Education World University Rankings, where for 2014-2015 was ranked at 63rd place in the world and 15th in Europe.

Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies has been mapped by Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings as one of the most important educational institutions in Italy (section on Italy i.e. Top universities and specialisms ),having its Graduate/Postgraduate Profile.

For 2016 the QS World University Rankings has ranked Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in the subject categories economics and econometrics on world stage at # 201. As far as the rankings in the faculty category is concerned, it is ranked on world stage at # 385 for engineering and technology.

According to QS World University Rankings, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies is part of the initiative Invest Your Talent in Italy which "puts Italian graduate programmes on the world's stage."

The Scimago Institution Ranking are based on the SCOPUS bibliometric database, featuring thirteen performance indicators of, innovation and web visibility. The following are some of Sant'Anna Schools best results at the world and national level:

World The official agency of the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR), the Agenzia nazionale di valutazione del sistema universitario e della ricerca (ANVUR) ranks Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies the best small university for 2013 in Italy (National Rank # 1).

The European Research Ranking, a ranking based on publicly available data from the European Commission database puts Pisa University System among the best in Italy and best performing European research institutions .

In 2008, the Italian website La Voce published a ranking of Italian universities by h-index limited to the Departments of Economics, where Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies acquires the first (#1) place in Italy.

University of Perugia (Italian Università degli Studi di Perugia) is a public-owned university based in Perugia, Italy. It was founded in 1308, as attested by the Bull issued by Pope Clement V certifying the birth of the Studium Generale.

The official seal of the university portraits Saint Herculan, one of the saint patrons, and the rampant crowned griffin, which is the city symbol: they represent the ecclesiastical and civil powers, respectively, which gave rise to the university in the Middle Ages.

History

One of the "free" universities of Italy, it was erected into a studium generale on September 8, 1308, by the Bull "Super specula" of Clement V. A school of arts existed by about 1200, in which medicine and law were soon taught, with a strong commitment expressed by official documents of the City Council of Perugia. Before 1300 there were several universitates scholiarum. Jacobus de Belviso, a famous civil jurist, taught here from 1316 to 1321. By Bull on August 1, 1318, John XXII granted the privilege of conferring degrees in civil and canon law, and on February 18, 1321, in medicine and arts.

On May 19, 1355, the Emperor Charles IV issued a Bull confirming the papal erection and raising it to the rank of an imperial university. This unusual mark of favour was given to assist Perugia after the terrible plague years 1348–49. In 1362 the Collegium Gregorianum (later called the Sapienza vecchia) was founded by Cardinal Nicolò Capocci for the maintenance of forty youths. Gregory XI, by Brief of October 11, 1371, gave the privileges of a studium generale to the new faculty of theology. This faculty was suppressed and its property merged in the university in 1811. To this foundation the Sapienza nuova was transferred in 1829. The latter was founded by Benedetto Guidalotti, Bishop of Recanati in 1426, with Martin V's approval, as the Collegio di S. Girolamo. It was a free hostel for impecunious strangers who wished to study law and medicine. Suppressed by the French in 1798, it was reopened in 1807 by Pius VII as the Collegio Pio. In the Constitution of August 27, 1824, Leo XII made this the chief college of the university.

With the unification of Italy in 1860 the University of Perugia was established under the jurisdiction of the Rector and the Town Council, who issued statutes subject to approval by the Government. From 1944 to the present, the University of Perugia has achieved an outstanding reputation as one of the leading universities in Italy.

Since the time of Napoleon I the university has occupied the old Olivetan convent of Monte Morcino. There was a faculty of mathematics down to 1884. The statutes are modelled upon those of Bologna. The number of students at different dates were: 142 in 1339, 79 in 1881, 350 in 1911.

Organization

With its 16 faculties and a vast selection of first and second level and single cycle degree programs, the University of Perugia offers its main courses in Perugia and Terni, and specialized programs throughout the Umbria region in the cities of Assisi, Foligno, and Narni.

The faculties into which the university is divided are:

Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Science

Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Department of Economics

Department of Engineering

Department of Humanities, Ancient and Modern Languages, Literature and Cultures

Department of Law

Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

Department of Medicine and Surgery

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Department of Philosophy, Social Sciences and Education

Department of Physics and Geology

Department of Political Science

Department of Veterinary Medicine

Its research programs are conducted by 14 departments with a total of 1,200 full-time staff. The University's activities also include 25 service organizations and research centers as well as 11 libraries with rich collections and equipment. It had a total enrolment of over 27,000 students for the 2021–2022 academic year.

The University of Parma (Italian: Università degli Studi di Parma, UNIPR) is a public university in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It is organised in nine departments. As of 2016 the University of Parma has about 26,000 students.

History

During the 13th-14th centuries there was an educational institution, studium, in Parma, but it was closed in 1387 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. The university was opened in 1412 by Niccolò III d'Este, and, although no papal bull was issued, the degrees were granted. In 1420 Filippo Maria Visconti closed it again.

Although there were several attempts to revive the university, it functioned only as a "paper university", granting degrees without teaching. In 1601, the university was finally reopened by Ranuccio I Farnese, and the papal bill was given. It was a joint institution with a Society of Jesus, and a third of staff were teachers from a local Jesuit school, who taught in a separate building and by Jesuit curriculum. There were usually about 27-32 teachers and 300-400 students in the 17th century. Logic, natural history, mathematics and theology were taught by Jesuits and law and medicine by civil teachers.

In 1768, Ferdinand I expelled Jesuits and the curriculum was modernized.In 1831, the university was closed by Marie Louise due to students protests, and it was reopened only in 1854 by Louise Marie. The university consisted of the faculties of theology, law, medicine, physics and mathematics, philosophy and literature and schools of obstetrics, pharmacy and veterinary medicine.

After Risorgimento, there were too many universities in Italy, so they were divided into two grades; in 1862, the University of Parma was declared grade B, its financing was reduced and the quality of education degraded.[8] It was equalized with grade A universities only in 1887.

The University of Palermo (Italian: Università degli Studi di Palermo) is a university located in Palermo, Italy, and founded in 1806. It is organized in 12 Faculties.

History

The University of Palermo was officially founded in 1806, although its earliest roots date back to 1498 when medicine and law were taught there. A little later in history, from the second half of the 16th century from their seat at the Collegio Massimo al Cassero, the Jesuit Fathers granted degrees in Theology and Philosophy - subjects in which they had been masters for over 200 years.

In 1767 they were expelled from the kingdom by King Ferdinand I, until 37 years later, when they returned to take their seat - which in the meantime had been turned into the Regia Accademia.

At this time, the same King Ferdinand decided to grant a good seat to the Accademia, moving its location to the Convent of the Teatini Fathers next to the Church of St. Giuseppe.

After the unification of Italy in 1860, the University of Palermo was modernized under the impetus of the chemist Stanislao Cannizzaro and the minister and specialist in Arab studies Michele Amari, more or less assuming its present appearance. Since 1984 the main building of the University, housing the Rector's office, is Palazzo Chiaramonte-Steri, one of the most important historical buildings in Palermo, built in 1307 and formerly the residence of the Chiaramonte. Not far from Palazzo Steri, on land formerly belonging to the Chiaramonte, the Botanical Gardens of Palermo constitute a further admirable pearl of the University.

Today, the University has grown to be an institution of about 2000 lecturers and 50,000 students in which research in all main fields of study is carried out. In the past few years the university has actively taken part in international cooperation programmes.

Organization

These are the 12 faculties in which the university is divided into:

Faculty of Agriculture

Faculty of Architecture

Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Faculty of Economics

Faculty of Education

Faculty of Engineering

Faculty of Law

Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences

Faculty of Medicine

Faculty of Physics

Faculty of Pharmacy

Faculty of Political Sciences

The University of Padua (Italian: Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from Bologna. Padua is the second-oldest university in Italy and the world's fifth-oldest surviving university. In 2010 the university had approximately 65,000 students. In 2021 it was ranked second "best university" among Italian institutions of higher education with more than 40,000 students according to Censis institute, and among the best 200 universities in the world according to ARWU.

History

The university is conventionally said to have been founded in 1222 (which corresponds to the first time when the University is cited in a historical document as pre-existing, therefore it is quite certainly older)[citation needed] when a large group of students and professors left the University of Bologna in search of more academic freedom ('Libertas scholastica'). The first subjects to be taught were law and theology. The curriculum expanded rapidly, and by 1399 the institution had divided in two: a Universitas Iuristarum for civil law and Canon law, and a Universitas Artistarum which taught astronomy, dialectic, philosophy, grammar, medicine, and rhetoric. There was also a Universitas Theologorum, established in 1373 by Urban V.

The student body was divided into groups known as "nations" which reflected their places of origin. The nations themselves fell into two groups:

the cismontanes for the Italian students

the ultramontanes for those who came from beyond the Alps

From the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, the university was renowned for its research, particularly in the areas of medicine, astronomy, philosophy and law. During this time, the university adopted the Latin motto: Universa universis patavina libertas (Paduan Freedom is Universal for Everyone). Nevertheless, the university had a turbulent history, and there was no teaching in 1237–61, 1509–17, 1848–50.

The Botanical Garden of Padova, established by the university in 1545, is one of the oldest gardens of its kind in the world. Its alleged title of oldest academic garden is in controversy because the Medici created one in Pisa in 1544. In addition to the garden, best visited in the spring and summer, the university also manages nine museums, including a History of physics museum.

The University began teaching medicine around 1250. It played a leading role in the identification and treatment of diseases and ailments, specializing in autopsies and the inner workings of the body.

Since 1595, Padua's famous anatomical theatre drew artists and scientists studying the human body during public dissections. It is the oldest surviving permanent anatomical theatre in Europe. Anatomist Andreas Vesalius held the chair of Surgery and Anatomy (explicator chirurgiae) and in 1543 published his anatomical discoveries in De Humani Corporis Fabrica. The book triggered great public interest in dissections and caused many other European cities to establish anatomical theatres.

On 25 June 1678, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, a Venetian noblewoman and mathematician, became the first woman to be awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree.

The university became one of the universities of the Kingdom of Italy in 1873, and ever since has been one of the most prestigious in the country for its contributions to scientific and scholarly research: in the field of mathematics alone, its professors have included such figures as Gregorio Ricci Curbastro, Giuseppe Veronese, Francesco Severi and Tullio Levi Civita.

The last years of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century saw a reversal of the centralisation process that had taken place in the sixteenth: scientific institutes were set up in what became veritable campuses; a new building to house the Arts and Philosophy faculty was built in another part of the city centre (Palazzo del Liviano, designed by Giò Ponti); the Astro-Physics Observatory was built on the Asiago uplands; and the old Palazzo del Bo was fully restored (1938–45). The vicissitudes of the Fascist period—political interference, the Race Laws, etc.—had a detrimental effect upon the development of the university, as did the devastation caused by the Second World War and—just a few decades later—the effect of the student protests of 1968-69 (which the University was left to face without adequate help and support from central government). However, the Gymnasium Omnium Disciplinarum continued its work uninterrupted, and overall the second half of the twentieth century saw a sharp upturn in development—primarily due an interchange of ideas with international institutions of the highest standing (particularly in the fields of science and technology).

In recent years, the University has been able to meet the problems posed by overcrowded facilities by re-deploying over the Veneto as a whole. In 1990, the Institute of Management Engineering was set up in Vicenza, after which the summer courses at Brixen (Bressanone) began once more, and in 1995 the Agripolis centre at Legnaro (for Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine) opened. Other sites of re-deployment are at Rovigo, Treviso, Feltre, Castelfranco Veneto, Conegliano, Chioggia and Asiago.

Recent changes in state legislation have also opened the way to greater autonomy for Italian universities, and in 1995 Padua adopted a new Statute that gave it greater independence.

As the publications of innumerable conferences and congresses show, the modern-day University of Padua plays an important role in scholarly and scientific research at both a European and world level. True to its origins, this is the direction in which the university intends to move in the future, establishing closer links of cooperation and exchange with all the world's major research universities.

Rankings

The university is constantly ranked among the best Italian universities. The 2020 Times Higher Education World University Rankings lists the university at the fourth (tied with the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University).

Internationally, the 2020 Times Higher Education World University Rankings places the university in the 201–250 rank. In the 2020 US News & World Report World Best Global Universities Rankings the University of Padua is ranked the world's 116th (tied with the University of Bologna) and 48th in Europe.[7] ARWU ranks the university as a 201-300 world's best (year of 2019).

Departments

The University of Padua offers a wide range of degrees, organized by Departments:

Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and the Environment

Department of Biology

Department of Animal Medicine, Production and Health

Department of Biomedical Sciences

Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Sciences

Department of Chemical Sciences

Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering

Department of Communication Sciences

Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science

Department of Cultural Heritage: Archaeology and History of Art, Cinema and Music

Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation

Department of Economics and Management

Department of General Psychology

Department of Geosciences

Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World

Department of Industrial Engineering

Department of Information Engineering

Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry

Department of Linguistic and Literary Studies

Department of Management and Engineering

Department of Mathematics

Department of Medicine

Department of Molecular Medicine

Department of Neurosciences

Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences

Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Department of Political and Juridical Sciences and International Studies

Department of Private Law and Critique of Law

Department of Public, International and Community Law

Department of Statistical Sciences

Department of Surgery, Oncology and Gastroenterology

Department of Women's and Children's Health

Schools

Departments have been united in a limited number of Schools:

Agricultural science and Veterinary medicine

Economics and Political sciences

Engineering

Human and social sciences and cultural heritage

Law

Medicine and surgery

Psychology

Sciences

The Pegaso University (Italian: Università degli Studi Pegaso or Pegaso Università Telematica), often abbreviated as "Unipegaso", is an open (Italian: aperta) university founded in 2006 in Naples, Italy. The university is accredited and recognized by the Italian Ministry of Education.

Method of Study

It provides blended academic courses and it spreads across Italy (over 90 regions) and abroad.

Academic qualifications awarded by public or private Open Universities are equal in academic standard to qualifications issued by traditional on-campus institutions. They have the same legal value, they are well-respected, and they are highly-preferred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Structure and Organization

UniPegaso offers degree programmes upon a variety of academic fields including Economics, Law, Development and Engineering, Education, Linguistics, Communication and Media Studies, Tourism, Management, Psychology, etc.

All academic programmes are fully recognised by the Italian Government (MIUR GU n. 118 del 23.5.2006 – SO n. 125), being highly respected and approved of by similar open/distance institutions in Europe and abroad, including the Open University of the UK.

Pegaso International Higher Education Institution (Republic of Malta) is a stand-alone member institution, fully recognised by the Maltese Government, belongs to the British Commonwealth Academic Association, and offers International Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral programmes in Malta, Italy and abroad - all of which are fully and unconditionally recognized as European Qualifications.

It is part of Euro-Mediterranean Union (UNIMED), along with other universities such ad the University of Strasbourg (France), the University of Barcelona (Spain), the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece), the University of Cyprus (Cyprus), etc. As an international academic institution, Pegaso is fully accredited by ASIC UK (Accreditation Service for International Schools, Colleges and Universities) on the grounds of its Premises, Health, Safety, Governance, Learning, Teaching and Research Activity, Immigration Regulations etc.

This University belongs to the 21st century distance-learning institutions and goes in tandem with other recent and technologically-powerful institutions, like Università Telematica Universitas Mercatorum, Frederick University, Università degli Studi eCampus, Open University of Hong Kong, Open University Malaysia, Open University of the Netherlands etc.

Accreditation and Memberships

MIUR – Ministero dell' Istruzione / Ministero dell' Università e della Ricerca

ASIC UK Accredited

QISAN

ISO 14001:2004 certified

ISO 9001:2008 certified

EMUNI – Euro-Mediterranean University of Slovenia

UNIMED – Unione delle Università del Mediterraneo (Mediterranean Universities Union)

SVIMEZ – Associazione per lo sviluppo dell’industria nel Mezzogiorno (Association for the development of Southern Italy Business)

RUIAP – Rete Universitaria Italiana per l’Apprendimento Permanente (Italian Lifelong Learning University Net)

Pegaso Online University is member of Multiversity SpA alliance:

Universitas Mercatorum (Republic of Italy EU);

Pegaso International (Republic of Malta EU);

European Polytechnical University (Republic of Bulgaria EU)

University of Naples "L'Orientale" (Italian: Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale"), is a university located in Naples, Italy. It was founded in 1732 by Matteo Ripa and is organized in 4 Faculties. It is the oldest school of Sinology and Oriental Studies of the European continent and the main university in Italy specialized in the study of non-European languages and cultures, with research and studies agreements with universities from all over the world. It is one of the most prestigious universities in the world regarding Asian cultures and languages.

History

The Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale" is the oldest school of Sinology and Oriental Studies of the European continent.

Foundation

The name "L'Orientale" is an indication to the origins of the institution. In the mid-17th century, the Manchus established the Qing Empire in China and started a remarkable period of openness towards the west. This included welcoming Christian missionaries and priests. One such person was the missionary, Matteo Ripa, of the Propaganda Fide, from the Kingdom of Naples, who worked as a painter and copper-engraver at the imperial court of the Kangxi Emperor between 1711 and 1723. He returned to Naples from China with four young Chinese Christians, all teachers of their native language; they formed the nucleus of what would become the "Chinese Institute" of Naples, sanctioned by Pope Clement XII in 1732 to teach Chinese to missionaries and thus advance the propagation of Christianity in China.

The school buildings comprised the Complesso dei Cinesi located at the boundary of Capodimonte and the Rione Sanità. What was formerly a private palace had been converted into a monastery and church dedicated to Saint Frances of Rome. Under Matteo Ripa, the complex became a seminary for missionaries to China.

The school also would educate experts for the Ostend Company in Indian and Chinese languages.

Transformations starting in the 19th-century

After the unification of Italy in 1861, the institution was transformed into the "Royal Asian College" and other languages such as Russian, Hindustani, and Persian were added to the curriculum. The original buildings also were used as a school for orphans in 1897, and in 1910 into the Elena d'Aosta hospital.

The institution then became a secular school for the study of eastern languages in general, and then, over the course of decades, African languages and, indeed, all modern European languages. Today more than 50 languages are taught.

Architecture and Decoration

The main entrance to the institute has a frescoed coat of arms of the institute with a half bust of Matteo Ripa sculpted by Leonardo Di Candia.

The domed church of the Holy Family of the Chinese (Sacra Famiglia dei Cinesi) was built in 1732,[1] and refurbished in 1814. The single nave leads to a main altar with marble cherubs sculpted by Angelo Viva. The main altarpiece depicting a Holy Family adored by two of the first Chinese Seminarians (1769) was painted by Antonio Sarnelli.[2] Other paintings were by followers or pupils of Francesco De Mura, including his brother Gennaro. Four saints carved in wood were designed by Francesco Solimena. The Madonna della Misericordia was painted by Stanislao Lista. The sacristy has sculptures by Giuseppe Sammartino.

Institutions

L'Orientale moved into its current headquarters, Palazzo Giusso, in 1932. However, like most universities in Italy, the IUO has no single main "campus," but is spread around the city at a number of different sites. There are several buildings that make up the teaching facilities of L'Orientale. These include Palazzo Giusso in the historic center of Naples; the large converted monastery of Santa Maria Porta Coeli near the Naples cathedral; and the new Palazzo Mediterraneo on via Marina. Palazzo Mediterraneo now houses CILA, an acronym for Centro Interdipartimentale dei servizi Linguistici ed Audiovisivi— the "language lab," an award-winning facility that has satellite TV for international programming, an impressive recording studio, and computers for instant access to the Internet.

Four faculties:

Foreign Languages and Literature

Arabic-Islamic and Mediterranean Studies

Letters and Philosophy

Political Sciences

These are further sub-divided into nine areas:

Asian Studies

Classic world and Ancient Mediterranean

African and Arabic countries

Oriental Europe

Social Sciences

Philosophy and Politics

Comparative Studies

American cultural and linguistic studies

European literature and linguistic studies

Main Library:

Maurizio Taddei, Palazzo Corigliano (over 60.000 ancient volumes)

The Parthenope University of Naples (Italian: Università degli Studi di Napoli "Parthenope") is one of the universities located in Naples, Italy.

Historical notes

Now one of the fully accredited universities of Naples, the “Parthenope” University was founded in 1920 as the Regio Istituto Superiore Navale, that is, as the Royal Naval Technical Institute of the Kingdom of Italy. Initially, its purpose was to be a "support" institute for the promotion of studies aimed at improving maritime economy and naval technology.

In the 1930s it was further enlarged and improved, and its name was changed to Istituto Universitario Navale. It played a strategic role during Fascism: the University experts elaborated and calculated the exact and best air routes for the Oceanic trips performed by the Royal Italian Sea Planes, the "Trasvolata Atlantica". Several airplanes, leaving their base in Orbetello, arrived to New York City and, in a second trip, finally come to South America: it was a great technological and political success for the regime. Also, it was at the Istituto Universitario Navale that, during World War II, some scientist developed and realized the first Italian radar; unfortunately the political authorities did not understand the importance of such discovery, stopping the development and thus neglecting the possibility to produce such an instrument.

Notable personalities

Giuseppina Aliverti (geophysicist): developed the Aliverti-Lovera method of measuring the radioactivity of water.

Federico Cafiero (mathematician): worked as assistant professor to the chair of financial mathematics in 1944.

Renato Caccioppoli (mathematician): worked as professor on the chair of mathematical analysis during the academic years 1942/43 and 1952/53.

Carlo Miranda (mathematician): worked as professor on the chair of mathematical analysis during the academic years 1943/44 and 1955/56.

Mauro Picone (mathematician): worked as professor on the chair of mathematical analysis during the academic year 1926/27.

The university campuses

The main premises of the “Parthenope” University are located directly in the front of the passenger port of Naples. Additionally, “Parthenope” has acquired classrooms buildings on the Posillipo coast and in the former church of San Giorgio dei Genovesi, located in the centre of Naples. An additional location is under preparation at the new civic centre, the Centro Direzionale. With the increased extension and completion of main facilities and its final accreditation as a full university, the current student population of the Parthenope University is about 15,000 units.

Organization

The university is divided into 5 departments:

Economics

Engineering

Law

Exercise and Sports Science

Sciences and Technology

The University of Naples Federico II (Italian: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) is a public university in Naples, Italy. Founded in 1224, it is the oldest public non-sectarian university in the world, and is now organized into 26 departments. It was Europe's first university dedicated to training secular administrative staff, and is one of the oldest academic institutions in continuous operation. Federico II is the third University in Italy by number of students enrolled, but despite its size it is still one of the best universities in Italy and the world[citation needed], being particularly notable for research; in 2015 it was ranked among the top 100 universities in the world by citations per paper. The university is named after its founder Frederick II. In October 2016 the University hosted the first ever Apple IOS Developer Academy and in 2018 the Cisco Digital Transformation Lab.

History

The University of Naples Federico II was founded by emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Frederick II on 5 June 1224. It is the world's oldest state-supported institution of higher education and research. One of the most famous students was Roman Catholic theologian and philosopher Thomas Aquinas.

Political project of Frederick II

Frederick II had specific objectives when he founded the university in Naples: first, to train administrative and skilled bureaucratic professionals for the curia regis (the kingdom's ministries and governing apparatus), as well as preparing lawyers and judges who would help the sovereign to draft laws and administer justice. Second, he wanted to facilitate the cultural development of promising young students and scholars, avoiding any unnecessary and expensive trips abroad: by creating a State University, Emperor Frederick avoided having young students during his reign complete their training at the University of Bologna, which was in a city that was hostile to the imperial power.

The University of Naples was arguably the first to be formed from scratch by a higher authority, not based upon an already-existing private school. Although its claim to be the first state-sponsored university can be challenged by Palencia (which was founded by the Castilian monarch c.1212), Naples certainly was the first chartered one.

The artificiality of its creation posed great difficulties in attracting students; Thomas Aquinas was one of the few who came in these early years. Those years were further complicated by the long existence, in nearby Salerno, of Europe's most prestigious medical faculty, the Schola Medica Salernitana. The fledgling faculty of medicine at Naples had little hope of competing with it, and in 1231 the right of examination was surrendered to Salerno. The establishment of new faculties of theology and law under papal sponsorship in Rome in 1245 further drained Naples of students, as Rome was a more attractive location. In an effort to revitalize the dwindling university, in 1253, all the remaining schools of the university of Naples moved to Salerno, in the hope of creating a single viable university for the south. But that experiment failed and the university (minus medicine) moved back to Naples in 1258 (in some readings, Naples was "refounded" in 1258 by Manfred Hohenstaufen, as by this time there were hardly any students left). The Angevin reforms after 1266 and the subsequent decline of Salerno gave the University of Naples a new lease on life and put it on a stable, sustainable track.

Academics

The university has 13 faculties:

Agriculture

Architecture

Biotechnology

Economics

Engineering

Law

Letters and philosophy

Mathematical, physical and natural sciences

Medicine and surgery

Pharmacy

Political sciences

Sociology

Veterinary medicine

The University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italian: Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia), located in Modena and Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, is one of the oldest universities in Italy, founded in 1175, with a population of 20,000 students.

The medieval university disappeared by 1338 and was replaced by "three public lectureships" which did not award degrees and were suspended in the 1590s "for lack of money". The university was not reestablished in Modena until the 1680s and did not receive an imperial charter until 1685.

Some famous students who attended the University include Ludovico Antonio Muratori, a noted Italian historian and scholar who graduated in 1694, the playwright Carlo Goldoni in the 17th century and, in the last century, Sandro Pertini, who became President of the Italian Republic.

Brief History

The University of Modena dates back to 1175, a few decades after the birth of the University of Bologna, making it one of the oldest universities in Italy and the world. It was established by the city of Modena, which financed professors' contracts through local taxation. The first to be invited to teach was Pillio da Medicina from Bologna. The School of Law (Studium iuris) was subsequently formed around him and made up the nucleus of the University.

In the two centuries that followed, the Studium expanded from legal studies to include the training of notaries and the study of medicine as well. The subsequent history of the University was profoundly marked by the changing fortunes of the ruling Este family. Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the Court of Este settled in Ferrara, academic titles were no longer awarded, and the activities of the Studium were greatly reduced.

Only after the Court moved to Modena in 1772 did the University regain its original splendour and academic prestige, receiving an imperial charter from Duke Francis II. The University offered multiple disciplines, including law, medicine and surgery, pharmacy, and mathematical, physical, and natural sciences.

The Department of Economics was established in 1968, followed by the Department of Engineering in 1989. The year 1998 was of fundamental importance in the history of the University when the Reggio Emilia site was instituted and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia was founded, with the support of local institutions.

In fact, Reggio Emilia already had an ancient and noble tradition of university studies which ended in 1772 following the reform of Duke Francis II of Este. A School of Law, proposed by the city, is mentioned as early as 1188. In 1532, Emperor Carl V granted the College of Judges the privilege of awarding diplomas and degrees in Law. Duke Alfonse II of Este established a Medical College in 1561 and ten years later, Emperor Maximilian II authorized the conferral of degrees in medicine. In the seventeenth century, a School of Letters was opened at the Seminary and, in the following century, a chair of Scholastic Theology was established along with schools of grammar and rhetoric. In 1752, the University of Reggio was inaugurated in Palazzo Busetti and consisted of four faculties: Law, Theology, Medicine and Philosophy. However, its activities continued only until 1772 when, after the reform of Francis II, its right to grant degrees was taken away and given solely to the University of Modena.

The creation of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia not only combined the ancient traditions of the two cities into one institution, but also gave a new and powerful boost to the development of the University, resulting in a substantial growth of scientific and academic activities, which still continues today.

The Department of Engineering and Agriculture was established in Reggio Emilia in 1998, followed in 1999, by the Department of Arts and Humanities in Modena. Subsequently, the University witnessed the birth of the Departments of Communication Sciences and of Education Sciences in Reggio Emilia, while growth continued in Modena with the institution of the Department of Biosciences and Biotechnologies.

Organization

The university is divided into fourteen Departments:

Area: Technology

"Enzo Ferrari" Department of Engineering

Department of Engineering Sciences and Methods

Area: Life

Department of Life Sciences

Area: Society

Department of Communication and Economics

"Marco Biagi" Department of Economics

Department of Education and Humanities

Department of Law

Department of Studies on Language and Culture

Area: Health

Surgical, Medical and Dental Department of Morphological Sciences related to Transplant, Oncology and Regenerative Medicine

Department of Diagnostics, Clinical and Public Health Medicine

Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences

Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences

Area: Science

Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences

Department of Physics, Informatics and Mathematics

Humanitas University (Italian: Università HUMANITAS di Milano), also known as Hunimed, is an Italian private university dedicated to the medical sciences. The campus is based in the municipality of Rozzano, a part of the Metropolitan City of Milan, and is located within the Humanitas Research Hospital Campus.

Humanitas University provides a six-year course in Medicine taught in English. They also provide a three-year course in Nursing and a three-year course in Physiotherapy, which are taught in Italian. As part of their speciality school degree programs, the university offers 11 courses. Including an advanced postgraduate course in Cardiovascular MR Imaging, a Master's in Endoscopy and a Master's in Urology.History

The Institute was established and legally recognized on the 20th of June 2014 by way of a decree signed by the Italian Minister of Education.

Campus

"Humanitas University is built by the hospital, inside the hospital. All the tutors are specifically trained and work as medical doctors or nurses in the hospital. All campus facilities are located within the hospital area."

Organization

The university is part of the Humanitas Group, a private hospital group that also operates the Humanitas Research Hospital in Milan. Humanitas Group is part of a larger company, Techint Group. In 2016 Humanitas University signed an agreement with Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, United States, to facilitate admission of Benedictine College pre-med students into its Medicine and Surgery degree program.

Academic programs

The university offers the Doctor of Medicine and Surgery degree program taught entirely in English. Its speciality schools grant degrees related to general surgery, cardiovascular diseases, digestive system diseases, internal medicine, medical oncology and diagnostic radiology. Master's degrees are awarded in the fields of Endoscopy and Urology.

The university also offers a Cardiovascular MR Imaging course, It is tailored for technologists with strong core expertise in the fields of magnetic resonance imaging or cardiology.

The Endocrinology, Metabolic Disorders and Nuclear Medicine programs are developed with the collaboration of other leading teaching institutes.

An agreement between Humanitas University and Benedictine College allows Humanitas students to take the United States Medical License Examination Steps 1 and 2. This makes students eligible for the medical residency program in the United States.

Student placement

For student placements, Hunimed implements a collaboration with the US National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) with the following aims:

Reviewing the educational program – curriculum and student assessments – to meet U.S. standards;

Providing Advice on:

The usage of the most appropriate assessment instruments applied in North America and International medical schools.

How best to prepare students for these assessments.

The Vita-Salute San Raffaele University (Italian: Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele Also known as UniSR) is a private university in Milan, Italy. It was founded in 1996 and is organized in three departments; Medicine, Philosophy and Psychology.

History and profile

The Vita-Salute San Raffaele University was first established in 1996 with the Department of Psychology stemming from the Department of Cognitive Science founded by Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini with Andrea Moro in 1993. The program follows the general-cognitive and the experimental-clinical lines of thought.

The San Raffaele College and University was fundamentally born as the offspring of an internationally renowned research hospital structure, where students attend basic research laboratories in many research fields, including neurology, neurosurgery, diabetology, molecular biology, AIDS studies among others. It has expanded since then to include research fields in Cognitive Science and Philosophy. Among the issues that are being studied in this university, beside clinical issues, are: philosophy of science, perception, biolinguistics, generative grammar and vision. San Raffaele University is a private university but all the professors teaching there do have the same status as public university professors and must have undergone a national selection as all other university professors in the country, such as the case of the Università Cattolica or the Bocconi University in Milan.

The Faculty of Medicine and Surgery proposes courses in Medicine and Surgery and in Biotechnology, both with strong scientific connotations, where the students go on ward rounds from their very first year. Moreover, the University Courses in Nursing and in Physiotherapy offer advanced teaching together with intense practical clinical training. In addition to these courses the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University also houses a number of Medical Training Programmes.

From 1999 a new Department has been created: the Department of Philosophy.

A new medical course was commenced alongside the Italian medical course in 2010. The International MD Program at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University has been designed to foster a new kind of doctor. This doctor will possess the necessary human, cultural, and professional values to provide healthcare and share ideas in today’s globalized world. The course is entirely in English and offers an innovative curriculum. Half of the seats are reserved for EU citizens while the other half for Non-EU citizens, making it truly international.

On July 18, 2011, the Italian national newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore published a general ranking of Italian universities. Vita-Salute San Raffaele University was awarded the top placement among Italian private universities.

The University has two student residences on campus; Cascina Melghera and Cassinella.

Departments

Medicine

Advanced Degree Course of Medicine and Surgery (in Italian)

International MD Program (in English)

Degree Course in Nursing

Degree Course in Physiotherapy

Degree Course in Dental Care

Degree Course in Biotechnology

Advanced Degree Course of Medical, Molecular and Cellular Biotechnology

Psychology

Degree Course in Psychological Sciences

Advanced Degree Course of Clinical Psychology

Advanced Interdepartmental Degree Course in Cognitive Neuroscience (including dept. of Medical Studies and Philosophy)

Degree Course of Sciences of Communication

Philosophy

Degree Course in Philosophy

Advanced Degree Course in Philosophy

PhD Program in Philosophy and Cognitive Sciences

The IULM University - Milan (Italian: Libera Università di Lingue e Comunicazione IULM) is a university located in Milan, Italy. It was founded in 1968 and is organized in four faculties.

History and profile

The University Institute for Modern Languages (IULM) was founded by Carlo Bo, poet, literary critic and professor of Spanish and French language and literature and Silvio Baridon, French language and literature professor at Bocconi University, in 1968. It was renamed in 1998, as the IULM University of Languages and Communication, to reflect its teaching of both languages and communication.

IULM University offers six three-year degree courses:

Interpreting and Communication

Corporate Communication and Public Relations

Communication, Media and Advertising

Tourism, Management and Territory

Arts, Media, Cultural Events

Fashion and Creative Industries

In addition to these three-year undergraduate degree courses, IULM University offers one- and two-year post-graduate degree courses, and also research doctorate schools.

Teaching staff include managers and professionals from media and communication, professional services, business, public administration and cultural organisations. Teaching is done through lectures, classroom activities and case studies, continuous assessment, internships in Italy and abroad and through international student exchanges.

Campus

IULM University campus includes a study centre with modern teaching facilities.

The main building houses a reception desk, students’ admin. offices, the Dean’s office, the library and classrooms. New buildings have recently been added: a canteen catering for about 400 people, a building intended to become a research institute, an auditorium and a hall of residence.

Organization

These are the 3 faculties in which the university is divided into:

Faculty of Communication

Faculty of Interpreting and Translation

Faculty of Arts and Tourism

Bachelor Programs

Interpreting and Communication

Corporate Communication and Public Relations

Communication, Media and Advertising

Tourism, Management and Territory

Arts, Media, Cultural Events

Fashion and Creative Industries

Master's Degree Courses

Specialised Translation and Conference Interpreting

Marketing, Consuption and Communication

Strategic Communication

Artificial Intelligence for Business and Society

Television, Cinema and New Media

Hospitality and Tourism Management

Arts, Valorisation and Markets

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (English: Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, colloquially the Catholic University of Milan), known as UCSC or UNICATT or simply Cattolica, is an Italian private research university founded in 1921. Cattolica, with its five affiliated campuses, is the largest private university in Europe and the largest Catholic University in the world. Its main campus is located in Milan, Italy, with satellite campuses in Brescia, Piacenza, Cremona and Rome.

The university is organized into 12 faculties and 7 postgraduate schools. Cattolica provides undergraduate courses (Bachelor's degree, which corresponds to Italian Laurea Triennale), graduate courses (Master's degree, which corresponds to Laurea Magistrale, and specializing master) and PhD programs (Dottorati di ricerca). In addition to these, the university runs several double degree programs with other institutions throughout the world. Degrees are offered both in Italian and in English.

UCSC has been granted five stars by QS Stars, a global university rating system, in the following fields: employability, teaching, facilities and engagement.

Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic serves as the teaching hospital for the medical school of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and owes its name to the university founder, the Franciscan friar, physician and psychologist Agostino Gemelli.

History

The project

The embryonic project of a Catholic university began around 1870, guided by representatives of various Catholic cultural currents. In September 1918, when the First world war was ending, Giuseppe Toniolo, before dying, recommended to Father Agostino Gemelli and his staff to found the university, saying: "I will not see the end of the war, but you, when it is finished, do it, found the Università Cattolica".

The foundation and the establishment of faculties

In 1919 Father Agostino Gemelli, Ludovico Necchi, Francesco Olgiati, Armida Barelli, and Ernesto Lombardo founded the Istituto Giuseppe Toniolo di Studi Superiori. On June 24, 1920, the institute was legally recognized with a decree signed by the Minister of Education, Benedetto Croce; at the same time, Pope Benedict XV officially recognized the university's ecclesiastical status.

On December 7, 1921, the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore was officially inaugurated with a special Mass celebrated by Father Gemelli in the presence of Achille Ratti the Cardinal and Archbishop of Milan, who three months later was elected Pope Pius XI. The first campus was in Palazzo del Canonica, at via Sant'Agnese 2. In October 1930 it was moved to the ancient St. Ambrose Monastery, where the main campus remains today. In 1921, 68 students enrolled in the university's 2 available programs, philosophy and social sciences. As of 2016, 14 programs were offered to 30,263 students distributed over the Milan, Brescia, Cremona, Piacenza and Rome campuses.

In 1924, following recognition from the Italian state allowing the awarding of legally-recognized degrees the Humanities and Law Programs were inaugurated. The charter of the Università Cattolica was approved by Royal Decree on October 2, 1924, and published on October 31 on the Gazzetta Ufficiale. In 1923 the Istituto Superiore di Magistero was opened and in 1936 became an independent program, later evolving to become, in 1996, the School of Education Sciences.

In 1926 the economics and politics departments became independent from the School of Law and, in 1931, the autonomous Faculty of Political, Economic and Social Sciences was born, awarding also the university's business degrees until 1947. In 1936 the School of Political Science became independent. The work and efforts of the Università Cattolica continued throughout the post-war period with new campuses and programs opening. The School of Economics officially opened in 1947 with both day and night classes. On October 30, in the presence of Italian President Luigi Einaudi, the first stone of the Piacenza campus was laid, with the official opening of the School of Agricultural Sciences taking place in November 1952.

On August 4, 1958, the official decree for the opening of a Medical School in Rome, which had been advocated by Father Gemelli, was approved. Enormous difficulties had made this long and complicated, and it was not until the end of the 1950s that the Biological Institutes and the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic were built in Rome. Construction began in 1959; in 1961 Pope John XXIII opened the Medical School, with the first medical doctors graduating in 1967. The school now offers both medical and dentistry programs.

In 1956 the Brescia campus of UCSC was inaugurated with the opening of the School of Teaching and Education. In 1971, at the initiative of important figures in the mathematical field, the School of Mathematics, Physics, and Natural Sciences was opened. During the 1990s other schools were opened in Milan: the School of Banking, Finance, and Insurance Sciences (1990); the School of Foreign Languages and Literature (today the College of Linguistics) and Foreign Literature (1991); and the School of Psychology (1999). In 1997 in Piacenza the School of Economics, once part of the Milan curriculum, opened independently, and the School of Law in 1995.

In 2000 thirteen Cultural Centres were opened across Italy. In these Centers, through advanced satellite technology, distance-learning courses were activated in collaboration with the major university campuses. During the 2001–2002 academic year the new School of Sociology, the fourteenth college of the Università Cattolica, was opened in Milan.

In 2012 two new schools were established: the school of Political and Social Science in Milan (from the union of the existing Faculty of Political Science and Sociology) and the School of Economics and Law in Piacenza-Cremona (from the union of the Faculty of Economics and Law Piacenza-Cremona).

World War II

During World War II, Ezio Franceschini, who supported the Resistance, organized meetings of the Freedom Volunteer Corps (coordination structure of the partisans) in the university. Towards the end of the war, in 1944, the professor of medieval Latin letters hid, in the basement of Cattolica, a box containing documents and books on the Resistance and FRAMA group founded by Ezio Franceschini. The SS rummaged everywhere in UCSC to find those cards but, buried among the bones of fifty skeletons dead from an epidemic of plague in the sixteenth century, they remained there and emerged only after the war.

The Cattolica was partially destroyed by bombing on August 15–16, 1943, including several classrooms, an administration building, the office building, a cloister by Bramante, an ancient staircase, the hall of honour, and some colleges. The reconstruction work began immediately, moved by the words of Agostino Gemelli "rise again more beautiful and bigger than before".

Protests of 1968

After the university increased tuition fees on November 15, 1968, protests began at UCSC, Milan, and spread throughout Italy. Students who occupied the university were expelled by the rector Ezio Franceschini with the help of the police led by Commissioner Luigi Calabresi. Three days later 30,000 students marched through Milan to the archbishop's residence and the protest spread to every major university in the country. On March 21, the Cattolica was reoccupied by the police, after being evacuated and closed indefinitely. A few days later, on March 25, there was the so-called "battle of Largo Gemelli", where thousands of students tried to reopen the university but were strongly repelled by police. The leader of the protest was Mario Capanna, a student of philosophy at the Università Cattolica.

The Italian cabinet of 2011

In November 2011 the Prime Minister Mario Monti appointed three professors as ministers. The rector Lorenzo Ornaghi was appointed minister for heritage and cultural activities; Renato Balduzzi, professor of constitutional law, was appointed minister of health; and Dino Piero Giarda, professor of public economics at the faculty of economics, became minister for relations with Parliament.

After the appointment of Professor Lorenzo Ornaghi as a minister, all the powers and functions belonging to the office of rector were entrusted to the vicar vice-chancellor, Prof. Franco Anelli, for the term of Ornaghi's office.

Rector

See also: Rector of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

The Magnifico Rettore is the most senior post in this institution, elected every 4 years by the board of directors. The role of the Rector is to represent the university and to convene and chair the board of directors, the management committee, the academic senate, and the board of the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic.

Organization

Schools

See also: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Schools

The UCSC offers a wide range of degrees in 12 faculties.

Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Piacenza-Cremona (1951) ‒ Piacenza-Cremona

Faculty of Arts and Philosophy (1924) ‒ Milan, Brescia

Faculty of Banking, Finance and Insurance Sciences (1990) ‒ Milan

Faculty of Economics (founded in 1947) ‒ Milan, Rome

Faculty of Economics and Law (2000) ‒ Piacenza-Cremona

Faculty of Educational Sciences (1936) ‒ Milan, Brescia, Piacenza

Faculty of Law (1924) ‒ Milan

Faculty of Linguistic Sciences and Foreign Literatures (1991) ‒ Milan, Brescia

Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences (1968) ‒ Brescia

Faculty of Medicine and Surgery (1958) ‒ Rome

Faculty of Political and Social Sciences (1931) ‒ Milan, Brescia

Faculty of Psychology (1999) ‒ Milan, Brescia

Postgraduate Schools

Postgraduate Schools (Alte Scuole) are centers of excellence in research and teaching.

ALMED - Postgraduate School of Media Communications and Performing Arts (established in 2002) ‒ Milan

ALTIS - Postgraduate School Business & Society (2005) ‒ Milan

ASA - Postgraduate School of Environmental Studies (2008) ‒ Brescia

ASAG - Postgraduate School of Psychology Agostino Gemelli (2001) ‒ Milan

ASERI - Postgraduate School of Economics and International Relations (1995) ‒ Milan

ALTEMS - Postgraduate School of Health Economics and Management (2009) ‒ Rome

SMEA - Postgraduate School of Agricultural and Food Economics (1984) ‒ Cremona

Campuses

Milan campus

Cattolica has campuses in six Italian cities, with its seat in the historic Cistercian monastery near the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in the heart of Milan. Originally a monastery built by Benedictine monks in the 8th century, the UCSC Milan campus expanded under the care of Cistercian friars in the 15th century and from military and social developments both during the Napoleonic era and World War II.

The restructuring of the Benedictine monastery by Giovanni Muzio in collaboration with the engineer Pier Fausto Barelli began in 1929 and finished twenty years later.

The campus, nestled within the original city walls of Milan, features a facade by Giovanni Muzio, the Chapel of the Sacred Heart, the atrium of the zodiac, and the Great Hall (Aula Magna).

The main section of Gemelli consists of the following buildings: monumental with cloister by Bramante, offices, Gregorianum, Antonianum, Via Lanzone 18, Ambrosianum, Franciscanum, and Domenicanum.

Most of the buildings, colleges, and campus facilities are located in St. Ambrose district, within the city centre of Milan. The seat in Via Necchi 5/9 was the historic seat of the Augustinianum College, containing, in addition to classrooms and offices, the economic institutes, the department of economics and the department of linguistics, library, science, economics, mathematics and statistics, catering services for staff and students, and the Domus restaurant. The seat in Via Carducci 28/30 is located in the Palazzo Gonzaga and was built by Arpesani in a Lombard style incorporating the existing cloister of St. Jerome. Here is the main office and the office of international relations. The historical site of St. Agnese Catholic is on route 2, consisting of the Palazzo del Canonica. ALMED is located in this building.

Satellite campuses

The Cattolica is based in Piacenza at the Palace Ghisalberti. The construction of the headquarters of Piacenza, which would house the Faculty of Agriculture, started in 1953 at the bidding of Agostino Gemelli. The headquarters of Piacenza has a sports centre of 8,000 m2 called San Martino. The students of UCSC of Piacenza and Cremona participate, under the ASUB student association (Associazione Sportiva University Piacenza), in football, volleyball, basketball, capoeira, and table tennis. The headquarters of Cremona was inaugurated November 19, 1984, by the academic activities of the SMEA.

The UCSC 37-hectare medical campus is situated in Rome. In 1934 Pope Pius XI granted Istituto Giuseppe Toniolo di Studi Superiori the property of Monte Mario to construct the buildings of the future Faculty of Medicine, followed by a speech by Pope Pius XII to start the execution phase of the project. In 1958, the Higher Council of Education approved the teaching and scientific project and on June 18 of that year with the decree of the President of the Republic, work began on the biological institutes, with classes beginning in November 1961. In 1961 construction began on Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic, completed in 1964. The Rome campus has 2 faculties, 34 institutes, 18 research centres, and over 7,000 students (5,000 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate).

The Catholic University of Brescia has four facilities distributed in the historic centre of the city. The historic headquarters is located at Via Trieste 17, in the Palazzo Martinengo Cesaresco dell'Aquilone. These were added to the sixteenth-century complex of the Good Shepherd located in Via dei Musei 41, which accommodates classrooms and laboratories for the Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences. Other venues are located in Contrada Santa Croce 17, Via Aleardo Aleardi 12, and Via San Martino della Battaglia 11, for a total of approximately 23,464 square meters. Some projects in 2007 included the extension of the university with a new headquarters in the northern district of Brescia, for a total of about 20,000 m2 of additional space. This includes 25 new classrooms, 16 laboratories, a library, a canteen, study halls, ample spaces for socialization and sports activities as well as offices for administrative and teaching staff.The new complex should be available by the end of 2018 and will host the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics as well as other graduate courses.

On 19 March 1995 Pope John Paul II laid the foundation stone of the Center for High Technology Research and Education in Biomedical Sciences in Campobasso, which was inaugurated on September 16, 2002. The foundation later was renamed John Paul II Foundation for Research and Treatment. By 2010 the site had more than 700 students enrolled in the bachelor programs for the health professions.

Academics

The programs of the university are accredited by various departments of the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research.

Research

Research activities of the university included nearly 3,000 research projects underway in 2009 and 4,668 publications and 4 atheneum centres. The research is divided into 22 departments, 54 institutes, and 70 research centres. The 22 departments (if these are added to 16 which refer to the medical care area) are aimed to promote and coordinate the activities of institutional research and contribute to the organization of doctoral research (PhD). The atheneum centres were established in 2007 and have structures for the conception, development, and implementation of research projects and training on social issues. The specific fields of focus for the atheneum centres are bioethics, the family, social teaching, and international solidarity.

Admissions

All schools have a limited number of seats and most of the schools require an admission test to enrol.

The admission test of the School of Medicine "Agostino Gemelli" is one of the most selective of the university. This test consists of a written test and/or an oral exam. In the admission test in 2017, which took place in Rome and Milan, there were 8907 candidates for 300 seats.

Libraries

See also: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Library

The UCSC Library System works with numerous national and international bodies: IFLA - International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, AIB; Associazione Italiana Biblioteche, AIDA; Associazione Italiana per la Documentazione Avanzata, NDLTD; Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, LIBER; Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche, LOCKSS; Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe, CLOCKSS; Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe, NEREUS e INNOVATIVE.

Rankings & Internationalization

The Cattolica, according to a study of the International Student Barometer, a survey of a sample of 65 universities in Europe, is the second in Europe and fourth position at the international level among the most recommended universities by foreign students.

According to QS World University Rankings 2018, Cattolica is ranked 481 overall. Globally by subject, as of 2017, Cattolica is among top 100 in law and legal studies, top 150 in economics and econometrics, top 180 in agriculture and forestry, top 200 in accounting and finance, top 250 in business and management, etc. In addition, the university is ranked between 81 and 90 in graduate employability.[8] UCSC is a part of a series of international networks including: LLP – Erasmus Network, UCSC International Bilateral Agreements, ISEP Network, International Network of Universities (INU), Fédération des Universités Catholiques Européenes (FUCE), Fédération Internationale des Universités Catholiques (FIUC), and International Partnership of Business Schools (IPBS).

Programs of international mobility that UCSC has with other universities include: UCSC dual degree (London school of economics, Thomas Jefferson University, Boston University, Cass Business School, Paris-Sorbonne University, Fordham University, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Dublin City University, Higher School of Economics), UCSC Exchange Programs (University of Geneva, Waseda University, Maastricht University, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile), Premier Scholars Program (UCLA, University of Chicago), LaTE (University College London, Columbia University), Focused Programs Abroad (Stanford University, Boston University), UCSC International Thesis Scholarship. The university offers internships abroad in cooperation with such institutions as The Intern Group and the Emerald Cultural Institute.

EDUCatt

EDUCatt is the foundation for the right to study at Cattolica University. The foundation focuses on students receiving financial aid and counselling, accommodation, catering, health care, psychological counselling, study trips and cultural activities. EDUCatt deals with the creation of books useful for the study, commissioned by the teachers, taking care of the editing, layout and graphics, to quality control and implementation, also depending on the demands and the type of publication.

Media

The publishing house of UCSC is Vita e pensiero, founded in 1918. The owner is the Istituto Giuseppe Toniolo di Studi Superiori.

The following are the publications and magazines of the UCSC. Vita e pensiero, founded in 1914 by Agostino Gemelli, has been the official magazine of the Cattolica since its inception. Presenza is the UCSC in-house organ, examining topical issues and the latest news of the university. The magazine is divided into two main parts. the first covering services and current affairs, and the second devoted to news from the headquarters of Cattolica (Milan, Brescia, Piacenza-Cremona and Rome). The magazine is distributed free to faculty, students, graduates, and opinion makers at the national level. Comunicare is a bimonthly magazine, founded in 1990, for the School of Medicine and Surgery of Rome and the Policlinico Agostino Gemelli.

Youcatt, the web TV of the UCSC(Brescia), debuted in September 2009 and is in charge of the university hosted events, foreign experiences of students, and topical issues. It also carries "Books in brief". In 2011 Youcatt won the award Teletopi for the best Italian web TV.

In UCSC there are some student media like Radio Catt and TV Catt, which were founded in 2012.

Student life

Residential colleges

Inside the UCSC campus there are some colleges: Augustinianum College (Milan), Marianum College (Milan), Ludovicianum College (Milan), Paolo VI College (Milan), Sant'Isidoro College (Piacenza), Ker Maria College (Rome), San Damiano College (Rome), Nuovo Joanneum College (Rome), San Luca - Armida Barelli College (Rome).

A short distance from the university there are other colleges located in urban areas: Orsoline (Milan), San Francesco (Milan), Stimmatine (Milan), Sacro Cuore Buonarroti (Milan), Franciscanum (Brescia), Sacro Cuore (Brescia), San Giorgio (Brescia), Villa Pace (Brescia), Morigi De Cesaris College (Piacenza), Orsoline (Piacenza), Capitanio (Rome), Renzi (Rome), Romitello (Rome), Sacra Famiglia (Rome).

Ex-alumni of the colleges of the Cattolica have formed associations: Agostini Semper (Augustinianum College) and Associazione Mea (Marianum College).

Code of ethics

On November 1, 2011, the code of ethics was introduced. This document contains the values that characterize the Cattolica and the rules of conduct. Each student must sign the code before enrolling. The code is based on principles such as integrity, honesty, legality, solidarity, subsidiarity, hospitality, dialogue, excellence, dignity, the promotion of merit, and individual skills, as well as the prevention and rejection of any unjust discrimination, violence, abuse and improper treatment. The code is formulated to implement the Treaty of Lisbon.

Student associations

See also: UCSC Student Associations

There are many student associations over the five campuses. They organize cultural activities and publish several magazines that are distributed free of charge within the university. Associations are also active both dealing with intramural matters and outlooking to social issues.

IT services

I-Catt is the student home page which contains information about suspended classes, exam schedules, and teachers' notices. Cattolica uses Blackboard Inc. as the e-learning platform on which professors post teaching materials. The telecommunication stations UCPoint & InfoPoint, located on all campuses, perform clerical duties and provide information related to teaching and services. In each location computer labs and wireless connections are available.

Sports

The university's sports and activities of the degree course in "Physical Education and Sports" are held in the UCSC sports center "Rino Fenaroli" of Milan. As of 2011, the teams had won the Milan Collegiate Championships four of the previous five seasons.

The university hosted the IFIUS 2009 World Interuniversity Games in October 2009.

Traditions

In the Milan campus the garden of St. Catherine of Alexandria is open only to female students. For this reason it is nicknamed "The Virgins' Garden".

During May, the so-called party of the Cattolica Collegiate have a tradition of throwing buckets of water at the freshmen. This rite of passage that has been repeated for several decades is called "nicchiato". Another common tradition of UCSC colleges are the "processes" evenings, which help students let down their defenses and get to better know one another.

Alumni Cattolica Ludovico Necchi Association

The Alumni Cattolica Ludovico Necchi Association was founded in Milan in 1930 and includes all the graduates in the various professional fields of the UCSC.[44] Every year the Association awards the Agostino Gemelli award, which consists of a medal and a diploma, to the best student of each school.

Faculty and alumni

See also: List of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore people

Cattolica has produced alumni distinguished in their respective fields. Among the best-known people who have attended Università Cattolica are Italian political leaders Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Ciriaco De Mita, Amintore Fanfani, Giovanni Maria Flick, Romano Prodi, Lorenzo Ornaghi; Italy's first woman cabinet minister, Tina Anselmi; former Governor General of Canada and former Secretary-General of La Francophonie, Michaëlle Jean; banker Angelo Caloia; ENI founder Enrico Mattei; fashion designer Nicola Trussardi; post-Keynesian economist Luigi Pasinetti; religious leaders Paolo Sardi and Angelo Scola; singer Roberto Vecchioni; gymnast Igor Cassina and among its young alumni the internet entrepreneur Augusto Marietti.

Among its most famous faculty members are banker Giovanni Bazoli, archaeologist Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Communion and Liberation founder Luigi Giussani, international relations scholar Michael Cox, economist Massimo Beber, and theorist of international relations and United States foreign policy John Ikenberry.

In fiction and popular culture

In the Manzoni classroom, an advertisement for Pocket Coffee was filmed and broadcast on national networks for several years.

The mystery of Cattolica is the name of the famous unsolved murder of Simonetta Ferrero, which happened on July 24, 1971, at the Cattolica University of Milan. On April 28, 1999, the third episode of the second series of the television program Blue was devoted to the mystery, by Carlo Lucarelli.

The Polytechnic University of Milan (Politecnico di Milano) is the largest technical university in Italy, with about 42,000 students. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and higher education courses in engineering, architecture and design. Founded in 1863, it is the oldest university in Milan.

The Polytechnic University of Milan has two main campuses in the city of Milan, Italy, where the majority of the research and teaching activities are located, as well as other satellite campuses in five other cities across the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions. The central offices and headquarters are located in the historical campus of Città Studi in Milan, which is also the largest, active since 1927.

According to the QS World University Rankings for subject area 'Engineering & Technology', it ranked in 2020 as the 20th best in the world. It ranked 6th worldwide for Design, 9th for Civil and Structural Engineering, 9th for Mechanical, Aerospace Engineering and 7th for Architecture. Its notable alumni or professors include Nobel laureate Giulio Natta, novelist Carlo Emilio Gadda and architects Renzo Piano and Aldo Rossi.

History

The Polytechnic University of Milan was founded on 29 November 1863 by Francesco Brioschi, secretary of the Ministry of Education and rector of the University of Pavia. It is the oldest university in Milan. Its original name was Istituto Tecnico Superiore ("Higher Technical Institute") and only Civil and Industrial Engineering were taught. Architecture, the second main line of study at the university, was introduced in 1865 in cooperation with the Brera Academy.

There were only 30 students admitted in the first year. Over the decades, most of students were men: the first female graduate from the university was in 1913.

In 1927 the university moved to piazza Leonardo da Vinci, in the district now known as Città studi (City of Studies), where the university's main facilities are still today. At the time, it was named Regio Politecnico ("Royal Polytechnic"). The word Regio was removed as Italy was proclaimed a republic at the end of World War II. The historical building still in use today was designed and built by engineers and architects all graduated from the university itself.

The present logo, based on a detail of the preparatory sketch of Raphael's School of Athens, was adopted in 1942. Until then, there was no official logo for the institution.

In 1954, the first European centre of electronic computation was opened at the university by Gino Cassinis and Ercole Bottani. In 1963 Giulio Natta received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on crystalline polymers, polypropylene in particular. In 1977, the satellite Sirio, jointly developed by the university and other companies, was launched.

Since the end of the 1980s, the university has begun a process of territorial expansion that would have resulted in the opening of its satellite campuses in Lombardy and Emilia Romagna. A university program in industrial design was started in 1993. In 2000, the university's faculty of design was created with new courses in undergraduate and postgraduate programs of graphic & visual, fashion and interior design along with the already existent industrial design.

In April 2012, the university announced that, beginning in 2014, all graduate courses would be taught only in English.This decision was then partially revised, after the decision of the Italian Supreme Court, that stated Italian language could not be totally abolished nor downgraded to a marginal role.

Campuses

The University is spread over seven campuses: two main campuses in Milan and another five satellite campuses across Lombardy and Emilia Romagna.

Milan Leonardo

Milan Leonardo is the oldest of the university's campuses still in use. The first buildings on Piazza Leonardo da Vinci were inaugurated in 1927. Over the years, the complex has been expanded and is now generally referred to as "Città Studi", City of Studies, which also refers to some faculties of the University of Milan in the same area. The campus extends over several streets: Leonardo, Bonardi, Clericetti, Mancinelli, Gran Sasso and Colombo.

The Leonardo Campus is the main campus of the university, and comprises the central administration offices, the rectorate, and most of the research departments.

Milan Bovisa

The Milan Bovisa campus is located in the Bovisa district of Milan and became active in 1989; campus Bovisa is today composed of campus Durando, opened in 1994, and campus La Masa, inaugurated in 1997. The first is the seat of the School of Design, while the second is dedicated to Industrial, Mechanical, Aerospace, and Energy Engineering faculties. Bovisa also houses the related research facilities, including the wind tunnel.

Other campuses

The first satellite campuses opened in 1987 in Como and in 1989 in Lecco. During the 1990s other three branches opened in Cremona (1991), Mantua (1994), and Piacenza (1997).

Academics

The Polytechnic University of Milan offers several three-year undergraduate courses, two-year graduate courses, one-year master courses and PhD programs in the fields of engineering, architecture and design. The university offers 32 first level (Bachelor) degree programs.

The academic year is divided into two terms, or semesters, the first from mid-September to late January and the second from March to late June. There are 3 exam sessions: those at the end of each semester (in February and July) and one more in September. Students need to achieve 60 "university credits" (CFU or Crediti Formativi Universitari) per year during their Bachelor and master's degrees. Therefore, the 3-years Bachelor requires 180 credits while the 2-years Master 120. The university, like most universities in Italy, is organized to comply with the framework of the Bologna Process.

The university maintains several relations with foreign universities and offers a wide range of international projects for student exchange, The university encourages the enrollment of foreign students by providing several courses in English, German and Spanish. It participates in the ENTREE network for student exchange among Electrical Engineering colleges in Europe and it is a member of Top Industrial Managers for Europe (TIME) network.

The Alta Scuola Politecnica is a joint institution of the Polytechnic University of Milan and Polytechnic University of Turin addressed to young talents who want to develop their interdisciplinary capabilities for leading and promoting innovation, and runs in parallel to the two-year programs of laurea magistrale (graduate courses).

International opportunities

PoliMi offers several opportunities for students that want to integrate their studies with an experience outside Italy.

Some of them are:

ATHENS Programme

ERASMUS Programme

Erasmus Mundus Programme

Master of European Design

Partnership of a European Group of Aeronautics and Space Universities

UNITECH International

Double degree with Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Global Engineering Education Exchange

PhD students may also take advantage of "Progetto Rocca MIT-PoliMi Program", an international program that allows them to spend a visit period working at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Rankings

According to the QS World University Rankings the university is ranked as 137th overall in the world, the first Italian university in this ranking. By field of study, it is ranked 5th for Design, 11th for Architecture, and 16th for Engineering and Technology. More specifically, it was also ranked as the 7th best university in the world regarding civil and structural engineering topics.

As for Italian national rankings, the university was ranked the best university for Engineering and among the top big universities in Italy in the CENSIS-Repubblica Italian University rankings for academic year 2011-2012.[29] In 2009 an Italian research ranked it as the best in Italy over indicators such as scientific production, attraction of foreign students, and others.

Admission

Engineering

The admission in the undergraduate program in engineering at the university is bound to an admission test, aimed to verify the starting preparation of every student. The main goal of this test is to point out the lacks of the aspiring students and, in case, to assign them an extra course. Only some programs have a strictly limited number of places, even if the Academic Senate fixes an approximate maximum number of students for every program. The admission test for any Engineering school, except Construction Engineering, is divided in four parts, each about one of the following general subject: English Language; Logic, Mathematics and Statistics; Verbal Comprehension; Physics

Architecture, Design and Construction Engineering

Architecture, Design and Construction Engineering schools have a limited number of students admitted every year and the selection is based on a national test administered by the Ministry of Education. The test is divided into five parts, each about one of the following general subject: Logic and General Knowledge; History; Drawing and Representation; Mathematics and Physics.

Graduate programs

Admission to the graduate programs in the university requires an undergraduate degree and a set of requirements specific for each school, such as the time spent in obtaining the undergraduate degree or the grade point average scored during the undergraduate program.

The university also offers courses of study for the title of Dottore di Ricerca (Ph.D.), MBA courses, and other postgraduate courses. MIP Business School is one of the most prominent management school in Italy and was ranked as 96th best business school in the world by Financial Times in 2011.

Departments

The Polytechnic University of Milan is organized in 12 departments:

DaSTU - Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani (Architecture and Urban studies)

ABC- Architettura, Ingegneria delle Costruzioni e Ambiente Costruito (Architecture, Built Envirorment and Construction Engineering - ABC)

DCMC - Chimica, Materiali e Ingegneria Chimica "Giulio Natta" (Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering)

Design

DEIB - Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria (Electronics, Information and Bioengineering)

Energia (Energy)

Fisica (Physics)

DICA - Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

Ingegneria Gestionale (Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering)

Matematica (Mathematics)

Meccanica (Mechanics)

DAER - Scienze e Tecnologie Aerospaziali (Aerospace Science and Technology)

Library System and publishing

The library system of the university counts more than 470,000 records distributed over the libraries in the campuses. The system comprises four central libraries along with teaching libraries (department libraries). The titles registered in the library system can be searched through an online public access catalogue (OPAC).

Since autumn 2004, the Polytechnic University of Milan has owned a publishing trademark, Polipress, created mainly to publish researches by the university community. Polipress publishes also the free Politecnico periodical.

Scientific research

The Polytechnic University of Milan participates in European and international networks of scientific research. In year 2004 alone, about 60 large scale, multi-year international research projects have been initiated or participated by the university, just in the context of the European Research framework. As of 2012, the university takes part in over 132 current FP7 research projects. The University raised almost 80% of its research funds from external sources in 2008, from participation in national and international calls for proposals by its researchers and from research contracts stipulated with companies. The Polytechnic University of Milan was the first university in Italy for total number of European research funding awarded under the Horizon 2020 program, with 296 projects and a total of €125.7 million.

The university has a long history of research. Many scientists working in the university have received awards and recognition by the scientific community: among them, the most famous is Giulio Natta, the only Italian Nobel laureate for Chemistry, in 1963, who was the head of the Department of Industrial Chemistry. The University also operated the first research nuclear reactor in Italy, the 50 kW LM54, from 1959 to 1979 in the "Enrico Fermi Nuclear Research Institute" and now operates several important laboratories such as one of the biggest wind tunnels in Europe.

As of 2005, a number of professors at the Polytechnic University of Milan are ACM or IEEE fellows. The university participates in associations and consortia for applied research, has offices to assist technological transfers and continuing education for professionals. The university supports the establishment of research spin-offs (20 spin-offs from 2000 to today), and also of high-tech companies during their start-up phase, with a structure named Acceleratore d'Impresa (Start-up Incubator).

According to the SIR 2013 World Report about the quality of scientific research produced, the university has a normalized impact factor of 1.42, and 16.62% of the articles produced fall within the 10% most cited in the international bibliography.

Governance

The Rector, the Academic Senate and the Board of Directors (Consiglio di Amministrazione) are the governing bodies of the university. Internal Financial Auditors (Collegio dei revisori dei conti) controls the management and finance of the University. There are several other consulting bodies, among them the Students' Council, which is directly elected by students and serves in an advisory role.

The Rector represents the University and coordinates the Academic and Research activity. The tenure of the Rector is six years, and can serve only one term.

Student life

Tuition fees at the Polytechnic University of Milan depend on each student's family income. They range between about 150 €/year and 3726 €/year. Students with an outstanding GPA (usually ≥ 27/30 or 29/30) are granted partial or full rebates, in addition to various kinds of scholarships. There are many scholarships for international students as part of the recent university internationalization strategy.

Most Italian universities do not offer accommodation for their students on campus. The university manages a limited number of approximately 2000 beds available for students. Most students from outside the city are either commuters or renters. It is common for both Italian and international students to share flats due to the expensive real-estate market of the city.

All the university campuses are covered by a Wi-Fi network, connected and interoperable with the Eduroam service.

Organizations

The Istituto per il Diritto allo Studio Universitario (ISU) manages additional student facilities such as scholarships, student housing, open libraries, lending of computers, cafeterias and study spaces.

Educafe is a cultural center in the Leonardo campus, where students can meet and events are held regularly.

Among the student organizations:

BEST Milano (Board of European Students of Technology) a European non-profit and politically neutral organization, focus on Empowered diversity, done by students for the students and present in more than 30 countries.

ESN (Erasmus Student Network) a non-profit organization, gathering exchange student and encouraging exchange project.

Euroavia, an organization founded to gather aerospace students of the Polytechnic University of Milan and make easy to contact other aerospace students in Europe.

Associazione Ingegneri Ambiente e Territorio (Environment and Territory Engineers Association), a student association composed by students in Environmental Engineering.

Teatro delle Biglie ('Theatre of the Marbles'), an independent non-profit organization, born as a theatre association.

POuL (Politecnico Open Unix Labs), a student association for students interested in promoting open source and free software.

POLI.RADIO is the student web radio.

IEEE Student Branch of the Polytechnic University of Milan.

BEA - Biomedical Engineering Association, an independent bioengineering students organization to create a network between students and professors, to promote activities and projects

Skyward Experimental Rocketry, an association with the goal of design and developing small sounding rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Professional opportunities and statistics

The 2007 graduate survey shows that 80% of graduates of the Polytechnic University of Milan find a job within three months from graduation, and almost 95% within six months. The figures are similar for the bachelor and the masters level graduates. A specialized "Career Service" facilitates contacts between graduates and the industry, it invites companies for presentations and prepares statistics about graduated students. It posts several stage and job offers every day both for students and graduates.

Approximately 55% of undergraduate students complete their studies on time, and approximately 80% of them graduate within an additional year. Similar figures apply to graduate students.

Student politics

Students at the university elect representatives in the Academic Senate, the Board of Directors and in the Boards of Schools. Currently, there are four main political groups in student's elections:

La Terna Sinistrorsa ("The left-hand coordinate system"), the left-wing organization. The name is a pun on the Cartesian three-dimensional coordinate system.

Lista aperta per il diritto allo studio ("Open list for the right to study"), a movement based on the value of student's quality, generally considered as conservative because of its affinity to the Catholicism and Communion and Liberation, even if it defines itself as not politically oriented;

Svoltastudenti - La Students' Union del Politecnico di Milano ("The Students' Union of the Polytechnic University of Milan"),which takes inspiration from the Anglo-Saxon student-groups, is not politically oriented or religiously sided and its main purpose is to provide services to students.

Studenti Indipendenti ("Independent Students")

There are also other smaller groups. However, participation in student elections is generally low, as a result of low participation in the extra academical activities. In the last elections it figured out a new wave of interest, with 20% of participation (after the 16% of the previous ones)

The University of Milan (Italian: Università degli Studi di Milano; Latin: Universitas Studiorum Mediolanensis), known colloquially as UniMi or Statale, is a public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Europe, with about 60,000 students, and a permanent teaching and research staff of about 2,000.

The University of Milan has ten schools and offers 140 undergraduate and graduate degree programmes, 32 Doctoral Schools and 65+ Specialization Schools. The University's research and teaching activities have grown over the years and have received important international recognitions.

The University is the only Italian member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), a group of twenty-one research-intensive European Universities. It consistently ranks as first university in Italy (ARWU) sharing the place with University of Pisa and Sapienza University of Rome, and is also one of the best universities of Italy, both overall and in specific subject areas in other ranking systems.

The university has been frequented by many notable alumni, including one Nobel laureate in physics, Riccardo Giacconi, one Fields medalist, Enrico Bombieri, as well as the former Prime Ministers Silvio Berlusconi and Bettino Craxi. The university has also been affiliated with notable faculty such as the Nobel Laureate in chemistry Giulio Natta, and the Wolf Prize in Physics Giuseppe Occhialini.

Academics

The University of Milan is a public teaching and research university, the second largest university in Italy, which – with nine schools and a teaching staff of about 2,200 – comprises a wide variety of disciplinary fields.

Schools

The University comprises 10 Schools (facoltà):

School of Law

School of Medicine

School of Humanities

School of Veterinary Medicine

School of Agricultural and Food Sciences

School of Pharmaceutical Sciences

School of Science and Technology

School of Exercise and Sport Sciences

School of Political, Economic and Social Sciences

School of Linguistics and Cultural Mediation

Admissions

Degree programmes at the University of Milan are divided into:

open-admission programmes: Each degree programme defines the knowledge and requirements for matriculation; these may be verified through a compulsory test and/or through an interview for assessing the student's educational background, prior to matriculation.

capped-enrolment programmes: To enrol, students must register for an entrance examination, pass it and rank high enough to be awarded one of the places available.

To enrol at the University of Milan is required an English language assessment, which can be demonstrated by an international language certificate (CEFR), or through the university language centre (SLAM). The required level for Bachelors usually stands at B2 (Intermadiate), while for Masters is C1. Those who will not have attained the language level required by their degree programme via Placement test or certification must attend an English language course, and pass the final exam. With the University of Milano-Bicocca, and the Alma Mater of Bologna, is the most sought-after location for medical students, with an acceptance rate of about 5%.

Graduation

Full-time students are expected to earn 60 credits (CFU) in one academic year. The credits awarded can be recognized for continuing studies, both in Italian universities and abroad. To be awarded a bachelor, the student must earn at least 180 CFU, while to get a master 120 CFU are needed. Also, to obtain the highest level of university education, the Dottorato di Ricerca (Ph.D.), at least other 3 to 4 years of studies are required.

Financial Support

The University of Milan provides several types of financial support for students:

Education incentive Programme: Regional scholarships consisting of a sum of money and free access to refectory services, awarded yearly, via competition, to university students meeting certain merit, income and regular attendance requirements. Additional DSU allowances and grants includes Disability, International mobility, and Special grant allowances.

University scholarships: Need-based and merit scholarships from 1.800 to €6.000 per year

International scholarships: "Excellence Scholarships" for students enrolled in the first year of a master's degree programme, providing €6.000 grant, full tuition and accommodation paid.

The university also provides Accommodation, Refectory services and meals allowances for a large amount of students.

Research

There are 53 research centres. Research is organised in 33 different departments:

Law: Private Law and Legal History, Italian and Supranational Public Law, Law.

Medicine: Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Oncology and Hematology-Oncology, Biomedical Sciences for Health, Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Sciences, Clinical Sciences and Community Health, Health Sciences.

Humanities: Cultural and Environmental Heritage, Philosophy, Foreign Languages and Literatures, Literary Studies, Philology and Linguistics, Historical Studies.

Veterinary Medicine: Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Science for Health, Animal Production and Food Safety.

Agricultural and Food Sciences: Agricultural and Environmental Sciences - Production, Landscape, Agroenergy, Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences, Environmental Science and Policy

Pharmaceutical Sciences: Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Science and Technology: Biosciences, Chemistry, Physics, Computer Science, Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Environmental Science and Policy.

Exercise and Sport Sciences: Biomedical Sciences for Health.

Political, Economic and Social Sciences: Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods, Social and Political Sciences, International, Legal, Historical and Political Studies.

Linguistics and Cultural Mediation: Language Mediation and Intercultural Communication.

The University of Milan is a leading Italian university for investment in research infrastructure and human capital: two essential elements for tackling the complex challenges of knowledge in a rapidly changing social and industrial context.

As a public institution concerned with the development and progress of knowledge, the University has always been committed to research projects that influence the quality of life of citizens. Research is mostly conducted in the departments and the many specialised structures, favouring the creation and growth of networks of collaboration locally, nationally and internationally.

Scientific activity involves the whole academic community from professors, researchers, doctoral students, fellowship-holders and fellows to undergraduates.

Quality and impact of research (2020)

Publications in 2020: 9536

Open access publications in 2020: 5074

Top 10% area publications (SciVal): 33,9%

Field Weighted-Citation Impact (SciVal): 1,78

Unimi publications/national publications (SciVal): 5,55%[14]

ERC grants since the beginning of the project: 37[15]

Governance

The governance structure at the University of Milan is composed by 17 committees, headed by the Rector. The most important boards are:

The Board of Directors

It has the function of strategy definition and management, approval of the annual and three-year financial and personnel planning documents, and supervision of economic and financial sustainability. It's composed by the Rector, the Vice Rector, the General Director, and selected internal and external members.

The Academic senate

The Academic Senate has functions of proposal, supervision and verification in the field of teaching, research and student services, and it's composed by Rector, Vice Rector, the 10 faculty directors, and elected representative of professors, researchers and students.

Patent Committee

Its statutory duties are to review patent applications, express an opinion on patents filed whenever a decision is required, and also express an opinion on industrial property clauses in commissioned research and patent enhancement contracts, and in research agreements with other institutions. It's composed by the General Director, three selected professors, and two external experts.

University Sports Committee

The University Sports Committee promotes and encourages sports activities for the entire University community and oversees management guidelines for sports facilities and development programmes. The chairman of this board is the Deputy Rector. Every year the Committee presents a report on the University sports facilities, next year's programmeand financial plan to the Ministry of Education, University and Research.

Research Observatory

It is composed of scientific experts belonging to various scientific disciplinary sectors as well as administrative and technical sectors. Its members are renewed every three academic years. The Observatory, as per the Regulations collects and analyzes information on University research findings; as part of this function, it analyzes and compares the results of national research assessment exercises. It also proposes criteria and new methodologies for assessing University research findings, taking into account the specificities of each area and submits improvement actions to the main governing bodies, with a view to increasing research quality, attractiveness, national and international visibility

Campuses

The University of Milan possesses an important artistic and cultural heritage that includes important historic buildings, inherited and acquired collections, archives, botanical gardens and the old Brera Astronomical Observatory commissioned by Maria Theresa of Austria. The University's departments are housed in important historic buildings in the centre of Milan and in modern buildings in the area known as Città Studi (City of Studies). Among the palazzos that house the University's facilities are the old "Ca’ Granda" ("the big house"), a monumental complex from the 15th century in the heart of the historical city centre; the 18th-century Palazzo Greppi designed by Giuseppe Piermarini (architect of La Scala in Milan) and the 17th-century Sant’Alessandro College commissioned by the Arcimboldi family. The book collection, which is one of the richest in the region, is preserved in 47 libraries, while the APICE Centre collects rare and valuable book stocks and archives.

The total university surface area is about 500,000 m2 (5,400,000 sq ft), comprising 356 classrooms with approximately 27,382 seats, 203 teaching and computer laboratories with approximately 1,831 seats and 171 libraries and study rooms with approximately 4,417 seats.

Headquarter - City Centre Campus

The old "Ca’ Granda" ("the big house"), and other several historical buildings that surrounds the centre of Milan, close to the Cathedral, is a complex from the 15th century, by Filarete, that has been renewed in the last decade. It was one of the first Renaissance buildings in Milan and had a large following throughout northern Italy. Nowadays it is the seat of the University of Milan, where are located a large part of the humanistic studies, as well as law, and the main offices.

Città Studi - Scientific Campus

Since the late 60s the exponential growth of the number of enrolled students forced the university to build other structures in the Città Studi neighbourhood. Here are located the main building of all the scientific schools and departments, as well as the majority of the research facilities. In the quarter is all located the 'Politecnico', the Technical University of Milan.

Città Studi Campus Sostenibile (CSCS, Città Studi Sustainable Campus) is a joint project launched by the University of Milan and the Milan Polytechnic in 2011 to turn the Città Studi (the historic university quarter in the city, home to the city's two main university campuses) into a forum on issues of sustainable development, thereby creating a model for the city at large to follow.

Devised as six roundtables on areas of intervention – People, Energy, Education, Mobility, City and Food and Health – the project aims to implement a series of best practices with the goal of improving the quality of life for those living in the university quarter, through projects, events, and programmes.

Milan Innovation District - MIND

Australia-based Lendlease has been contracted to design, build and manage the MIND campus of the University of Milan by a resolution of the board of directors. The project for the new campus for Milan University science faculties in the Milan Innovation District (MIND), in the former Expo 2015 area, covers a total area of over 190,000 square meters. The new area will be shared with Human Technopole, Italy's new research institute for life sciences, and the new IRCSS Galeazzi Orthopedic Institute for medicine. The project has a total value of approximately 338 million €.

Hospital campuses

The Faculty of Medicine and Surgery has teaching sectors at the following hospitals in Lombary:

IRCSS Ca 'Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital

"San Paolo" Hospital

"Luigi Sacco" Hospital

IRCSS San Donato Polyclinic

"San Giuseppe" Hospital

Gaetano Pini Orthopedic Institute

IRCSS Monzino Cardiology Center

IRCCS National Cancer Institute Foundation

IRCSS Galeazzi Orthopedic Institute

IFOM-IEO Campus

"San Carlo Borromeo" Hospital

Niguarda Ca 'Granda Hospital

"Fatebenefratelli" Hospital

Outside Milan

The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, and The University of Milan Centre for Clinical Veterinary Medicine and Experimental Zootechny are located outside the city area, in Lodi. The Department of Studies in Language Mediation and Intercultural Communication is instead located in Sesto San Giovanni.

Rankings

The University of Milan is the only Italian member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), a group of twenty-one research-intensive European Universities, which it helped found.

It is ranked first in Italy (three-way tie) by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), sharing the place with University of Pisa and Sapienza University of Rome.

The university consistently ranks as Italy's best university in a number of areas. In the most recent ranking of Italian universities released by ANVUR in February 2017, Statale ranked first among Italian universities in the areas of political science, sociology, law, and philosophy. It also ranked among the top three in economics and statistics, earth science, history, and antiquities.

The university is ranked third in Italy by Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) and fourth in the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities. while the Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranks it sixth to ninth (tied with four other universities).

Publishing

Since before 2009, the University of Milan has published journals in Open access, of which about ten have already been included in the Directory of Open access journal . The fields of scientific interest are different: for linguistics and philology, for example, Italian LinguaDue and Carte Romance.

History

Early years

The University of Milan was founded in 1924 from the merger of two institutions that boasted a great tradition of medical, scientific and humanistic studies: the Accademia Scientifico-Letteraria (Scientific-Literary Academy), active since 1861, and the Istituti Clinici di Perfezionamento (Clinical Specialisation Institutes), established in 1906. By 1928, the University already had the fourth-highest number of enrolled students in Italy, after the University of Naples, Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Padua. Its premises are located in Città Studi (the City of Studies), the university district built from 1915 onwards (that is also home to the Politecnico di Milano), where scientific schools have its headquarters, and in several buildings in the historic city centre, which house the humanities schools.

At the time of its foundation, there were four "traditional" schools – Law, Humanities, Medicine and Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences; then, in the 1930s, the Schools of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture were introduced, after the aggregation of the old schools of Veterinary Medicine (1792) and Agriculture (1871).

At the end of the Second World War, the old Ospedale dei Poveri (Hospital for the Poor) building, known as "la Cà Granda" (the Big House), was assigned to the University. The building, one of the first Italian examples of civil architecture – commissioned in the 15th century by the Sforza family, the dukes of Milan – was seriously damaged by the bombings of 1943. In 1958, after a complex series of reconstruction and renovation works, it became home to the University Rector's Office, the administrative offices and the schools of Law and Humanities.

1960s reformation

In the 1960s, due to the extension of compulsory school attendance and the subsequent liberalisation of access to higher education, the number of people entering Italian universities progressively increased and the University of Milan enrolled more than 60,000 students. The University added to its range of courses and at the same time increased its number of centres. Two new schools were established, Pharmacy and Social and Political Sciences, which were based, respectively, in Città Studi and in Via Conservatorio, in Milan city centre.

Città Studi was also the site of a new complex, intended entirely for the biology departments, which was the work of architect Vico Magistretti. There was also an increase in the number of agreements with the city's hospital facilities, where students from the School of Medicine receive their clinical training. In 1968, the University was occupying approximately 127,000 m2 (1,370,000 sq ft); by the beginning of the 1980s this had increased to 205,000 m2 (2,210,000 sq ft). In 1989 there were 22 degree courses and 75,000 enrolled students, which increased to 90,000 by 1993.

1980s streamline process

In view of this increase, the University began a process of streamlining and delocalising its facilities: from 1986 onwards, new centres began to appear in other areas of Milan, particularly in the Bicocca district, as well as in other parts of the region: in Como, Varese, Crema and Lodi.

In 1998, the University split in two and the city's second public institution was founded: The University of Milan-Bicocca. The University of Insubria was also established in Varese, bringing together courses that were already offered at Varese and Como by the Universities of Milan and Pavia. At the conclusion of this process, notwithstanding the reduction in the number of students, the University of Milan was still the largest institution in Lombardy and still one of the largest in the country.

The 2001 law that transformed the education system opened a new phase of change. The University updated its range of courses, trying to adapt them to better suit the evolution of the social demand for education and the innovation of the production system: thus, the number of degree courses rose to 74 and there was a new increase in enrolments. There was also an increase in the University's commitment to providing student services (orientation, internships and training, online education) and in investments for new education and research facilities, covering approximately 80,000 m2 (860,000 sq ft).

The most recent phase of expansion concerned the fields of communication science, intercultural mediation and art, but there are also ongoing projects relating to the sectors of information technology, veterinary medicine and biomedicine. Furthermore, there was also a strengthening of commitment to technology transfer and the practical application of scientific research results in the economic-production context.

Present

At the present time, the University comprises 9 schools, 134 study courses (both undergraduate and graduate), 19 doctoral schools (scuole di dottorato) and 92 specialisation schools (scuole di specializzazione). Approximately 65,000 students are enrolled at the University. The teaching staff is composed of 2,500 tenured professors and researchers and approximately 500 adjunct professors. More than 2,300 people work in the technical and administrative sector. The University of Milan was one of the institutions that helped to found LERU, the League of European Research Universities, and is the only Italian University to be a member of the organisation. Thanks to its commitment to basic and applied research, the University is among the top institutions in the main national and international rankings.

Budget

In 2010, income – excluding special accounting and clearing entries – amounted to €562 million, primarily from:

State: €331 million for normal running costs

Students: €91 million in the form of fees and contributions

Public and private institutions: €59 million for research activities

Sports, arts and entertainment

Sporting activities

Centro Universitario Sportivo (CUS), University Sports Centre, is an amateur sports association which, for the last 60 years, has promoted the practice of physical education and sport by students and university collaborators. Every year, the centre organises a vast range of sports courses, which cover everything from traditional disciplines, such as swimming and athletics, to more modern activities, such as hydro-biking, yoga and capoeira.

Arts and entertainment

University of Milan students can take part in music and theatre initiatives organised by the University's resident cultural institutions, which include the Orchestra, the Choir and the CUT, the University Theatre Centre. The University of Milan Orchestra offers students the possibility to audition for a classical music ensemble in collaboration with the "Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatory of Milan and with the direction of Maestro Alessandro Crudele.

The University Choir is composed of university staff, students, professors and enthusiasts from outside the university. It is possible to become a member by passing an audition.

The Centro Universitario Teatrale (CUT), University Theatre Centre, is currently directed by Professor Alberto Bentoglio and collaborates actively with groups of university students who have been involved in theatre productions for several years.

Concessions for cultural activities

The University works closely with cinema, theatre, dance and music agents, to provide their students and collaborators with access to cultural initiatives and services at reduced prices.

The University of Messina (Italian: Università degli Studi di Messina; Latin: Studiorum Universitas Messanae), known colloquially as UniME, is a state university located in Messina, Sicily, Italy. Founded in 1548 by Pope Paul III, it was the world's first Jesuit college and today it is counted among the oldest universities in Italy.

It is organized in 12 departments offering more than 80 Graduate and Undergraduate Degrees, over 20 Master's Degrees and 13 PhD Programmes. Among them, 7 are English-taught. The University counts more than 23.000 students distributed in the 4 campus facilities spread across the city.

Over the centuries the University of Messina has been a centre of attraction for esteemed scholars and historical figures, such as Giovanni Pascoli, Marcello Malpighi, Gaetano Salvemini and Vittorio Emanuele Orlando.

Organization

The university comprises 12 departments:

Department of Ancient and Modern Civilizations

Department of Economics

Department of Law

Department of Engineering

Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine

Department of Adult and Childhood Human Pathology “Gaetano Barresi”

Department of Biomedical, Dental, Morphological and Functional Imaging Sciences

Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences

Department of Cognitive Science, Education and Cultural Studies

Department of Mathematical and Computer Science, Physical Sciences and Earth Sciences

Department of Political and Juridical Sciences

Department of Veterinary Sciences

Campuses

The University occupies four main sites in Messina:

The Central Administration Buildings and the Faculties of Economics, Political Science, Law and Education are located in the centre of Messina in the historical site of the University or Polo Centrale.

The Faculty of Medicine is held in the main hospital of the city Policlinico G. Martino, situated in the southern area of Messina.

The Faculties of Sciences and Engineering are located inside Polo Papardo, overlooking the famous Strait of Messina.

The Faculties of Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacy and Humanities are established in the Polo Annunziata facility, which is also the Sport Centre of the University.

History

The Studiorum Universitas was formally established by Pope Paul III in November 1548, although the city of the Strait boasts an ancient cultural tradition as well as a teaching tradition connected to a Law school in the late 13th century and a well-known Ancient Languages school in the 15th century.

However, the regular working activity of the Athenaeum was paralysed by disputes with the Jesuits, in order to prevent them from monopolizing the Universities of the whole island.

The University began its activities only in 1596. It was the beginning of a short but intense existence which ended in 1678, when the Athenaeum was closed as a result of the anti-Spanish insurrection. During these years the University of Messina represented a strong political and cultural influence. It reached high levels, featuring top professors including Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Pietro Castelli, Giovan Battista Cortesi, Carlo Fracassati, Giacomo Gallo, Mario Giurba, Marcello Malpighi and Francesco Maurolico.

The Athenaeum was refinanced in 1838 by King Ferdinando II, but it was closed again in 1847 because of an Anti-Bourbon Revolt and reopened only 2 years later.

After these years the University included numerous prominent lecturers such as Pietro Bonfante, Leonardo Coviello, Vittorio Martinetti, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, Giovanni Pascoli and Gaetano Salvemini.

In 1908 an earthquake destroyed the city of Messina. Fourteen lecturers died under the ruins, while the majority of libraries and scientific facilities were destroyed. The University reopened in October 1909 starting with the Faculty of Law.

During the years 1914-1915, the Faculty of Sciences, Pharmacy and Medicine reopened among outstanding difficulties.

Between 1919 and 1920 all the courses of the Faculty of Medicine were carried out thanks to the local institutions, which approved the establishment of a consortium managing the Civil Hospital where clinics had a temporary location.

In the same year, the University of Messina proved the recovery of its dynamism by regaining the title of Athenaeum of the Strait.

Year by year, the Athenaeum strengthened its buildings and was playing a major role in cultural events of the country, overcoming also the difficult period of reconstruction after World War II, thanks to the Rectors Gaetano Martino and Salvatore Pugliatti.