Higher Education Systems - Italy

Higher education in Italy is organized according to the Bologna agreement in two levels: a Bachelor’s degree level (called Laurea or Laurea Triennale) and a Master’s degree level (called Laurea Magistrale). Degree programs are defined by the Ministry at a very high level in terms of teaching goals and required disciplines. Each University can then specialize this general framework, subject to approval by the Ministry itself. Universities can be public or private, but in either case they have to conform to Ministry regulations in terms of degree programs and their requirements. A University can provide just a few or many degrees. The standard name is "Università", but some universities are called "Politecnico" (Polytechnic) simply because for historical reasons they have focused on teaching and researching in technical areas. Medical schools are usually part of Universities. There is no classification in “Research” Universities and “Applied Sciences” Universities: therefore, any University is able to offer doctoral programs as well as professionally oriented degrees. Most universities are public, and private universities have to follow the same requirements set forth by the Ministry.

Higher education in Informatics is provided in the classes of degrees in Sciences and in the classes of degrees in Engineering, and to a smaller extent in other areas.

At the Bachelor’s level there are the following degree programs:

• Laurea in Scienze dell'Informazione (L-31), in the area of Science
• Laurea in Ingegneria dell'Informazione (L-8), in the area of Engineering.

At the Master’s level there are the following degree programs:

• Laurea Magistrale in Informatica (LM-18), in the area of Science
• Laurea Magistrale in Ingegneria Informatica (LM-32), in the area of Engineering
• Laurea Magistrale in Metodologie Informatiche per le Discipline Umanistiche (LM-43), in the area of Humanities
• Laurea Magistrale in Tecniche e Metodi per la Società dell'Informazione (LM-91), also in the area of Humanities
• Laurea Magistrale in Sicurezza Informatica (LM-66), in the area of Science.

Any student with a secondary level degree (called Maturità) can enter a University, but for areas regulated by the European Union (e.g., Medicine, Architecture, ...) there is an entrance exam to comply with the numerus clausus requirement. Some universities or degrees may have an entrance evaluation, which is not selective, but may impose some additional teaching duties to students below a given threshold. This may happen for Informatics degrees.

Teaching is usually organized in semesters of about 13 weeks each, typically October-January and March-June. Course load is always measured in ECTS. For Informatics degrees, it's typical to use courses of 6 credits (one semester course) or 12 credits (two semester course).

Company internship is foreseen by the national regulation only at the Bachelor’s level. It is not required, but if performed credits are assigned to students, up to a maximum of 15 credits. Internship can be done in every period, but is usually done during the last year.

Both for Bachelor and Master there is some kind of final work to be done. It is typically 6 credits for the Bachelor and 30 for the Master. While for the Master it is explicitly envisaged the production of a written thesis, for Bachelor each University can freely decide the format of such a work.