Multimedia classrooms, courses on artificial intelligence and 110 more places in Medicine. These are some of the innovations announced by the rector Massimo Midiri on the occasion of the start of the university enrollment campaign for the 2023/24 academic year.
“At the center of our concrete and strategic action plan – says Midiri – are our male and female students. We are aware that we have a precise and full responsibility: that of training women and men capable of designing a future that corresponds to their dreams, their expectations and their merit.Our objectives focus on the quality of teaching, on the renewal of spaces, on sustainability, on digitization, on the close link with businesses to guarantee our students a new way of living the present of university experience and future entry into the world of work. The increase in enrollments and other important results achieved confirm the great attractiveness and competitiveness of our University”
Training offer
In the next academic year, the training offer will be made even wider and more attractive with a record number of 18 new training courses, including three-year and master’s degree courses and new activations in the territorial centers of western Sicily. In the 2023/24 academic year, the University will activate a total of 74 three-year degrees, 70 two-year master’s degrees and 9 single-cycle master’s degrees, 4 telematic degrees and 25 study paths in the Territorial Poles (8 in Agrigento, 5 in Caltanissetta and 12 in Trapani). The new 23/24 training offer is enriched in terms of quality with new proposals designed together with numerous companies that have chosen UniPa to invest in young people and in the local area.
New three-year degree courses
The new courses in Robotic Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Gastronomic Sciences, Pharmaceutics and Animal Nutraceutics (with free access) will be activated at the Palermo site, as well as two professional degrees in Digital Technologies for Architecture (with limited access – 40 students) and Techniques for buildings and the territory (restricted access – 30 students).
New master’s degree courses
The two-year degree courses in Sciences and technologies for the defense and conservation of the soil, Precision Agriculture and Communication for food and wine (with open access) and in Sciences of health prevention and prevention (with limited access – 30 students) will be activated . The new fully telematic degree with free access in Digital Humanities for culture and industry will also be activated.
New courses in English
From next academic year, the master’s degree course entirely taught in English in Spatial Planning will be active and the Economics curriculum will also begin to be provided in the three-year degree in Economics and Finance. There are now 16 degree courses or curricula entirely in foreign languages in the University’s educational offer. Fifteen of these courses, in various disciplinary fields (among others, engineering, economics, tourism, information technology, international relations) are taught in English and one (Transnational German Studies) is in a mixed German/English language and offers the possibility of achieving a Joint Degree with other European universities.
Increased places in Medicine
From the next Academic Year there will be 110 more places to enroll in the limited number of Degree Courses in Medicine and Surgery (a total of 590 places, of which 80 in the MED-IT technological course).
Taxes and contributions for the 2023/24 academic year: no tax area up to € 25,000 of university Isee; reduction of late payments for the payment of the first and third installments for the lowest income brackets; reduction from 25 to 50% of the all-inclusive tuition fee for the first year for the most deserving students (high school graduates with a grade equal to or greater than 95); exemption from payment of the 1st year all-inclusive contribution for those who transfer to UniPa from other universities (based in other Regions); possibility of part-time enrollment with reduction of the all-inclusive fee; reduction from 15% to 10% of the increase foreseen for the payment of the all-inclusive contribution by non-course students; exemption from the payment of the all-inclusive contribution for students detained or who benefit from alternative measures to detention, for Tab staff of the university and for foreign citizens who have been recognized as political refugees, as persons eligible for subsidiary protection or temporary protection.
Digitization projects
Teaching innovation. UniPa has started the implementation of an innovative system of multimedia classrooms at the University to support teaching based on virtual, augmented and immersive reality and for hybrid teaching. The initial project calls for an investment of around 1.4 million euros to equip 12 classrooms and will continue in the immediate future with the modernization of a further 9 classrooms. Both interventions are expected to be completed by 2023. The objective of the project is also the standardization of the technological devices present in the classrooms and of the monitoring and management tools, to allow students and teachers to be able to make the most of the technological equipment present .
Strengthening of laboratories
A systematic modernization plan is underway for the computer labs present in the various campuses of the University. The first investment amounts to around 300,000 and provides for the replacement, by 2023, of around 240 obsolete workstations with new PCs and large screens. The modernization of all the University’s computer workstations is expected to be completed by 2024. The physical workstations will be joined by an innovative system of virtual workstations, capable of supporting up to 300 concurrent users, which will allow ubiquitous access to the computer laboratories (expected to be operational by October 2023).
Construction and spaces
The University has launched a variety of building interventions aimed not only at maintaining the efficiency of the existing building stock, through extraordinary maintenance and energy redevelopment interventions for around 10 million euros and overall improvement of safety conditions for over 2.7 million euros, but also and above all to raise the quality of the services offered to students, through the following main lines of investment:
Expected renovation and modernization of 17 classrooms for a total of over 3,200 seats and construction of a new classroom for a total of 160 seats, in the monumental complex of Sant’Antonino, for a total investment of approximately 9.5 million EUR; investments intended for interventions on the internal roads and green areas of the Viale delle Scienze Campus, with the creation of areas equipped for students, the construction of a gym with changing rooms for a total of 1,400 m2 and the restoration of the athletics track at the University Center sports, Restoration and recovery interventions of the historic garden of the Botanical Garden under the PNRR, for over 9 million euros;
The anti-violence helpdesk was also established and the trusted advisor, Claudia Pedrotti, was appointed. The counter is open in presence on Wednesday afternoons at the headquarters of the A.Mu.U. (university medical clinic) in viale delle Scienze.
