Scuola superiore di Catania
Encyclopedia
Scuola Superiore di Catania
Catania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...

(SSC) is a high excellence learning institute in Italy. It was founded in 1998 on the model of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
The Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, also known in Italian as Scuola Normale , is a public higher learning institution in Italy. It was founded in 1810, by Napoleonic decree, as a branch of the École Normale Supérieure of Paris...

.

Scuola Superiore di Catania

The aims of Scuola Superiore di Catania are:
  • to develop young students’ skills through additional courses and seminars and the precocious start of research activity.
  • to offer postgraduate formative paths through PhD
    PHD
    PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

     Courses, Advanced Formation Courses and 2° level Masters.
  • to ensure synthesis of teaching, research and employment.


Ordinary students, admitted through a concourse, live for free within a collegial structure.

In 2004, after a positive valuation by the Minister, Scuola Superiore was institutionalized within University of Catania
University of Catania
The University of Catania is a university located in Catania, Italy, and founded in 1434. It is the oldest university in Sicily, the 13th oldest in Italy and the 29th oldest university in the world...

.

In September 2006 several ex-students founded their own association, called “Alumni Scuola Superiore di Catania”.

Students


The students of Scuola Superiore di Catania attend the ordinary courses at University of Catania; they are required to maintain good academic standing in their exams at the public university (average grade of at least 27/30 and no grade below 24/30) in order to maintain their scholarship. Moreover, they are required to attend seven internal courses, two of which are interdisciplinary, held by important Italian and foreign professors. Scuola Superiore provides each ordinary student with free board and lodging housing, the reimbursement of tuition fees and a monthly contribution, beside residential services.

The students are actively involved in the organization of every day's life within Scuola Superiore, both by managing the library service and organizing a book society, a cinematographic review, cultural meetings, conferences and sport activities.

Scuola Superiore promotes study and research activities abroad by funding international mobility and stages with public and private companies or universities.

In 2009/2010 Scuola Superiore counts approximately ninety undergraduate students and fifty postgraduate students. Some of them come from other regions of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, and others from other Mediterranean countries.

Residence


Scuola Superiore is currently located in the Etna Building, near the University, though it will soon be moved to Villa San Saverio, a nineteenth-century noble palace restructured as campus. Students stay generally in single or double rooms. Among the services offered to the students there are a canteen, a library, a wireless LAN, several study rooms with multimedia material, some recreation rooms, a football pitch and a volleyball field.

Admission

The admission is subject to a concourse for students in possession of a high school diploma. The admission concourse, which generally takes place in September, consists of two written tests and an oral exam which focus on the topics of the chosen first degree course. In order to be admitted to the oral exam it is necessary to obtain a minimum average score of 7/10. Within the oral test, the knowledge of English is also tested.

During the period of the concourse, Scuola Superiore offers board and lodging to candidates from other regions or other nations. In winter and summer Scuola Superiore organizes short periods of educational guidance for high school students.

Internal courses

During their university career, students of Scuola Superiore must successfully attend a minimum of seven internal courses. Five of these courses regard specialistic topics pertaining to a specific degree course, while two of them are interdisciplinary, regarding topics which can be interesting for students from different degree courses (e.g. neuroinformatics
Neuroinformatics
Neuroinformatics is a research field concerned with the organization of neuroscience data by the application of computational models and analytical tools. These areas of research are important for the integration and analysis of increasingly large-volume, high-dimensional, and fine-grain...

, rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...

, contemporary history).
Specialistic courses are proposed by both teachers and students, and need to be approved by the didactic commission of the Scuola Superiore.

Apart from the seven mentioned courses, students must attend auxiliary courses of foreign languages and computer science. The students are trained to obtain international certifications of English and attend at least another language class among French, German and Spanish.

Laboratories

Scuola Superiore currently comprises the following laboratories
  • Laboratory for the Protection of the Human Rights
  • Laboratory of Design of the Landscape
  • Complex Systems Laboratory

International PhDs

The following International PhDs are at the moment present at Scuola Superiore:
  • Energy;
  • Nanoscience;
  • Stem cell
    Stem cell
    This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...

     research;
  • Global politics and European Integration;
  • Nuclear physics
    Nuclear physics
    Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons technology, but the research has provided application in many fields, including those...

     and Particle Astrophysics;

Alumni

In September 2006 the Association of ex-students of Scuola Superiore was founded, with the name “Alumni Scuola Superiore di Catania”. The Association aims at maintaining relationships between former students and contributing to the purposes of Scuola Superiore by promoting activities for current students. The Scientific Director of the Scuola Superiore is an honorary member of the association.
As of September 2009, the Association is composed by 42 members. Among its activities, the meetings of professional guidance are important occasions in which the ex-students expose a clear outlook of postgraduate choices in Italy and abroad.

External links

SSC - Scuola Superiore di Catania Unict.it - Official website of University of Catania
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