Structure of the Collegio’s didactic offering

The Collegio Superiore covers two main disciplinary areas:

  • The humanistic-social area includes the degree courses of the following main subject areas:  Economics and Management; Law; Languages and Literatures, Interpreting and Translation; Psychology; Education; Political Sciences; Statistics; Sociology; Humanities;
  • The scientific-technological area includes the degree courses of the following main subject areas:  Pharmacy and Biotechnology; Engineering and Architecture; Medicine; Veterinary Medicine; Sciences; Agricultural and Food Sciences; Sports Science.

Collegiates are required to attend at least 72 hours per year of supplementary classroom lectures.

Didactic offering

The Collegio Superiore didactic offering consists of:

  • integrated courses (educational activities) consisting of 24 hours of classroom lectures, at the conclusion of which a mandatory exam is taken with a mark out of 30 awarded;
  • six hours of lectures given by the Collegio Superiore’s Tutors, at the conclusion of which a final evaluation of eligibility must be passed. Collegiates belonging to Student Cohorts prior to that of AY 2021/2022 will have to attend two additional hours of classroom lessons for each lecture (optional for neo-Collegiates);
  • ISA Lectures held by Visiting Fellows, meaning international professors selected annually by the Institute of Advanced Studies;
  • written in-depth paper,  an activity that includes writing a paper, followed by a discussion with a final grade out of 30.

At the beginning of each academic year, Collegiates are asked to present a study plan, as indicated in the Collegio Superiore’s Regulations.

During their academic career, each Collegiate is mentored by a Tutor, meaning a high-profile professor teaching at the University of Bologna. All Collegiates are asked to attend any lectures by their Tutor, if already assigned.

The didactic offering for AY 2024/25 includes some educational activities consisting of laboratory hours to be carried out in various places, at different times. In the case of limited numbers of seats, pre-registration will be required, according to the terms and deadlines provided for by the Secretariat.

Lectures

There are four kinds of lecture:

  • subject – specialist lectures. These are open to all Collegiates in possession of the required subject prerequisites, in order to ensure full fruition of the lecture;
  • interdisciplinary – lectures open to all Collegiates regardless of their prior specialist expertise;
  • workshop – lectures consisting of laboratory activities; they provide training on research or practical activities; to take part in lectures with limited seats, pre-registration is mandatory.

 

Written in-depth paper

The activity of written in-depth paper can be chosen only once in the second cycle, and it consists of the production of a composition under the supervision of the assigned Tutor, possibly backed up by a professor, from the University or external. This activity must have the following characteristics:

  • in the style of a research project or a scientific article, about a chosen topic in the subject area (of a highly specialised level) or interdisciplinary, but without being a duplicate of the degree dissertation or doctoral research, where applicable;
  • length of 6-10thousand words, and may be written in English.

 

Additional educational activities (extra-credits)

Collegiates can add extra-credits up to a maximum of 5 ECTS/year (7 ECTS/year for those collegiates belonging to a student cohort prior to that of AY 2021/22), by including other educational activities scheduled annually by the Collegio Superiore, in addition to the mandatory ones. Collegiates belonging to student cohorts prior to that of AY 2021/22 and enrolled in a second-cycle program have the possibility to add, once in the whole cycle only, the activity of “Written in-depth paper”.

The educational activities inserted on the study plan as extra-credits, those for which an evaluation of eligibility or a mark is not expected, are to be considered as non-inserted, since they are not regarded as mandatory by the academic Regulations.