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 2021/22 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;
  • extra-disciplinary – lectures primarily addressed to Collegiates of a different area/subject field from that of the professor holding the lecture. For these lectures, no prior specialist expertise is required, although Collegiates belonging to the same subject area of the lectures are discouraged, with the exception of those whose Tutor is the professor holding the lecture itself. The latter will carry out an activity of specialist “support” to the conduct of the lecture, previously arranged with the professor;
  • 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.