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 offer

The Collegio Superiore didactic offer 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;
  • 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 A.Y. 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, who are 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 Regulation book.

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 A.Y. 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 by the Secretariat.

Lectures

There are three 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.

 

Final exam (in-depth essay)

The final exam involves the production of a written text and will have your Tutor as supervisor, possibly supported by a University teacher, internal or external.

For Collegiates enrolled in a 5 or 6 year Ordinary Course (60-72 CFU - single cycle and 2nd cycle students) the activity must have the following characteristics:

• production and public discussion of an in-depth paper, for example in the form of a research project or in the form of a scientific article, agreed with your Tutor, on a topic of your choice in a disciplinary (high specialist level) or interdisciplinary field, that does not duplicate the topic of one's master's or single-cycle master's thesis, or the topic of a possible research project for the doctorate;

• length of 6/10 thousand words and it can be written in English.

For Collegiates enrolled in a 3-year Ordinary Course (36 CFU - 1st cycle students) the activity must have the following characteristics:

• production and public discussion of an original paper or an in-depth analysis and expansion of an individual paper presented as an exam test for an integrated course or seminar during the three-year period (exclusively for the cohorts prior to the A.Y. 2022/23, the test will consist of a in-depth analysis and public discussion of one of the individual papers presented as an exam test for an integrated course over the three-year period);

• length of 4500 words and it can 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.