1. To Students, their families and schools

The University of Ferrara’s training programs

Teaching, together with research, constitute the main pillar of the University of Ferrara’s activities, as well as the vehicle for the externalization of the social goals as contained in the University’s mission. High quality in teaching requires a strong engagement, both in terms of lectures and training courses and in terms of instruments and services for students, from educational guidance at the entry to assistance when going to the job market. Furthermore, high quality teaching needs the setting up of monitoring systems in order to verify the compatibility of training programs with student’s expectations.

Training programs consist of 78 courses, 42 of which are Bachelors of Science (3 years), 33 Master of Science (3 + 2 years) and 3 5-years-Master Degree Program. Training programs are organized and managed by 8 Faculties: Architecture, Economics, Pharmacy, Law, Engineering, Literature and Philosophy, Medicine and Surgery, Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences.

In the academic year 2008/2009 the enrolled students were 17.151, 9.305 of which were enrolled in the Bachelor of Science study programs, 6.776 in the Graduate Study Program, and 1.071 in the 5-year-University Program (Old University System). 45,7% of all enrolled students were men and 54,3% women; 66,8% of the enrolled students had passed their exams within the prescribed time while 33,2% had not. The number of students enrolled in e-learning training programs was 965, 5,6% of the overall enrolled students.

Moreover, in the same academic year graduated students were 2.694. 41,7% of them graduated within the prescribed time, while 25,3% did not (12,9% within a 2 years delay and 20% with more than a 2 years delay).

Services to students

Students at the University of Ferrara are offered several services all along their study period. Those services are meant to preserve everybody’s right to high education and to improve quality of life within the University. Among the services delivered, particularly significant are those aiming at guiding and assisting students since their enrolment. The SMS Service (Servizio Disabilità, Metodo di Studio e Servizio di Counselling – Disability, Study Method and Counceling ), the “Unit for Guidance, Promotion and Tutoring”, and the Job Centre are responsible for the delivering of services to students. Furthermore, the SMS Service and the Unit Unit for Guidance, Promotion and Tutoring, as well as all services they deliver, obtained the UNI EN ISO 9001 certification for their Quality Management System.

As for services meant to support students in their choosing of study programs, the University of Ferrara has developed several initiatives, both at its main seat and at single Faculties, with the objective of assisting students starting during their last years in secondary school. Every Faculty organizes initiatives, specifically designed in accordance to their own peculiarities and characteristics, ranging from orientation days, internships, open days, conferences, ad hoc meetings in schools and in training and scientific institutions, education guidance sessions, etc.

The main initiatives developed at the University central seat are: direct orientation counseling (front office, phone calls, mails etc.) and an annual orientation forum. In 2009, the University of Ferrara signed an agreement with the Department of School of the Veneto Region aimed at delivering education guidance to students attending the region’s secondary schools. In particular, the agreement intends to strengthen the link between school and university by means of better final scores in school in order to facilitate admission in Universities, and incentives for the pursuit of excellence all along the training period.

With reference to orientation initiatives for e-learning course, targeted and detailed information is provided to all students requiring it on the University’s website, as well as to those filling in the ad-hoc form for information request during the annual Orientation Forum.

The orientation initiatives carried out during the course of studies intend to help students tackle problems that could interfere with their studies. Among them two are especially worth mentioning: the Training Tutor and the SMS Service, this last one dealing with disability and offering psychological and method of study support. The Training Tutor service is carried out by either last year students or by graduates, in order to address any issue students may encounter during their studies. In the academic year 2008/2009 Training Tutors were 179.

The service is financed with ministerial funds related to the Law 170/2003, as well as with further funding provided by the University of Ferrara. Thanks to these funds, in 2005 the University of Ferrara set up two other orientation tools. The first one, called Orientation Tutoring Service, was created in order to provide support to potential and newly enrolled students; the second one, called Erasmus Tutoring Service and introduced in 2008, intends to provide assistance to Erasmus students arriving at the University of Ferrara, offering them detailed information about training courses. In 2008, 13 tutors carried out the service for a total of 529 hours.

As for the SMS Service, it offers three kinds of assistance:

• Disability service – the service is devoted to disabled students, providing them with the technical and training support needed to pass exams. Students can take advantage of a specialized tutor whose duty is to remove all conditions and situations that may interfere with the students’ equal right to education and treatment;
• Method of Study – the service aims at supporting those students in need of help  to achieve an efficient method of study;
• Psychological Counseling Service – the service, that in May 2009 replaced the Service for Psychological Support, is dedicated to those students who wish to solve personal problems considered to have a negative impact on their performance at University. Highly qualified professionals are available for students who need to address fears and distress, as well as to learn how to manage emotions, improve memory, etc.

In 2009, 167 students used the Disability service, while 228 used the Method of the Study and the Psychological Counseling services. All services mentioned above are delivered on demand, for free and under the privacy regulation. Since 2005, moreover, a network of so called Training Managers is operating at the University of Ferrara in order to improve the services related to training programs and to ease interaction between students and teachers/administrative staff. Thus, Training Managers operate as facilitators by supporting, on the one hand, the training and administrative management and, on the other hand, students.

The network consists of 26 Training Managers, all chosen by means of a public selection based on educational curriculum and qualification criteria. Coordinated by a single University Manager, Training Managers have the following main tasks:

• Providing students with information on training courses and training services offered by the Faculties, assuring an adequate coordination with professors and administrative staff;
• Contributing to the editing of training regulations and study programs;
• Providing assistance in the planning and management of training activities, in the orientation for newly enrolled students, in tutoring activities, as well as in services like International mobility, internships, etc.;
• Providing support in the quality assessment process for training programs as well as for the services offered.

Within orientation activities, the “Student Week” is dedicated to Multiculturalism. The initiative, in 2009 at its third edition, was organized by the Ferrara’s Africa Students Association (Associazione Studenti Africani – A.S.C.A.F.) and dedicated to Gilles Donald Djoumessi Nguimfack, a student from Cameroon prematurely passed away. Within the Student Week a Round Table on “The cooperation between the University of Ferrara and the Université Des Montagnes (Cameroon)” was held.

The last set of orientation services to students are those designed to support graduates or last year students in their quest for a job. Among the existing services, the AlmaLaurea database, created and managed by the namesake inter-university Consortium, gathers up and makes available on-line to companies the curriculum vitae of graduated students.

Together with the AlmaLaurea database, the University’s Job Centre has developed programs to guide and assist graduates entering the job market (internships, curricular and non curricular traineeships, etc). In the academic year 2008/2009 the Job Centre helped 1.567 graduates to find internships, 1.215 of them having a Bachelor of Science, 216 having a Master of Science, and 136 having a single 5-year-Master Degree.

Furthermore, thanks to the FIxO Program (Education and Innovation for Placement) – promoted and funded by the Ministry of Labor, and managed by Italia Lavoro together with the University of Ferrara – this latter was able to strengthen its role as intermediary with the job market, develop enhanced services for job placement, and better integrate scientific research and technology transfer to the firms operating on the territory.

Finally, since December 2008 a desk for the consultation of the AlmaLaurea database was opened, thanks to an agreement signed with the Consortium. The desk offers the following services: providing curriculum vitae to companies, publishing job offers and company descriptions, newsletters to advertise master and training courses. The service is a useful tool for the University of Ferrara to efficiently manage its relations with companies on the territory, and therefore be able to provide students with further traineeship opportunities.

Agreement of the activation of a double degree with the Istituto Politecnico de Tomar (Portugal)

In May 2010, the University of Ferrara and the Istituto Politecnico de Tomar (Portugal) signed an Agreement for the activation of an integrated study program aimed at creating a double degree recognized both in Italy and Portugal. The study program will start with academic year 2010/11 and provides for:

• the integration of courses within the 5-years-Master Degree Program in Quaternary, Prehistory and Archaeology;
• at least 40 credits that students have to obtain by attending courses;
• the admission of at least 2 students enrolled at the University of Ferrara among those already attending the 5-years-Master Degree Program in Quaternary, Prehistory and Archaeology. A Commission, appointed by the Council for the Degree Program in Quaternary, Prehistory and Archaeology, will be responsible for the selection of participants according to meritocratic criteria;
• the admission of at least 2 students enrolled at the Istituto Politecnico de Tomar and among those already attending the Maestrado en Tècnicas de Arqueologia;
• the appointment of a bilateral Commission composed by the Director of the Maestrado en Tècnicas de Arqueologia, the President of the Degree Program in Quaternary, Prehistory and Archaeology, as well as by two professors chosen by both Universities;
• an initial duration of three years, renewable after the assessment of this first collaboration.

Postgraduate Placement

The percentage of graduates accessing the job market after graduation, as well as the time lap between graduation and placement, are important indicators of a University’s courses’ quality. This information is provided by the AlmaLaurea Universities Consortium survey, carried out periodically and aimed at assessing the ease with which students of member Universities can access the job market. The following chart shows the results of the AlmaLaurea Survey for 2008. The data in the chart shows placement rates one year after graduation for students at the University of Ferrara having obtained their Bachelor of Science in summer 2006 – 2007 – 2008. These are then compared to the national average.

As for students who obtained their Bachelor of Science in summer 2008, the percentage of those among them who found a job within one year after graduation is 40,5%, higher than the average for Italian universities (30,8%). On the contrary, the percentages of the same category of graduates “having a job and being enrolled in a Master of Science Degree” (11,5%) or “enrolled in a Master of Science Degree” (34,7%) are lower than the national average (respectively 14,9% and 42,3%). The percentage of those graduates “not employed and looking for a job” is slightly higher than the national average (respectively 9,7% and 8,9%).

As far as Master of Science Degree graduates are concerned, in 2008 around 59,7% of them was employed, a percentage lower than 2007 (68,4%) but higher than the national average (55,9%). The percentage of the same graduates category “not employed but looking for a job” was in 2008 20,6%, higher than the 2007 percentage (13,2%) but lower than the national average (26,3%). Finally, with regard to those graduates being “not employed and not looking for a job” in 2008 a percentage of 19,6% was recorded for the University of Ferrara, higher of both 2007 rate (18,4%) and national average (17,8%). Finally, as far as 5-year-Bachelor of Science graduates are concerned, the percentage of those among them being employed in 2008 was higher than the national average (respectively 56,3% and 42,5%). On the contrary, the percentages of graduates “not employed but not looking for a job” (29,8%) and graduates “not employed and looking for a job” (13,9%) are both lower than the national average (respectively 38,4% and 19,1%).

Among actions carried out by the Job Centre is the PIL Project (Percorsi di inserimento Lavorativo – Work Placement Programs,) dealing with the creation of a labour market oriented training path for all undergraduates and post-graduates. The Project gives students the opportunity to work in a company or public institution with a one year contract and after going through a dedicated 6 months training program.

Since its start in 2001, the PIL Project has helped 500 students to find a job, placed 300 students and involved 200 companies.

The University of Ferrara effort to experiment the coordination of regional and ministerial funding initiatives has continued with Action 3 of the FIxO Program “Education and Innovation for Job Placement”. The Program, implemented by Italia Lavoro, is an initiative of the Italian Ministry of Employment and aims at encouraging the development of an effective integration between the university system and the business world. The Universities involved in the project are asked to strengthen their role as intermediary and graduates’ guide to the job market, to develop efficient job placement services, and encourage the integration of scientific research and technology transfer to businesses.

The FixO Project – action 3

Witihin Action 3 of the FIxO Project - “Promotion of training programs in the field of technology transfer and innovation for business for young unemployed graduates” - three courses have been launched in 2009, whose teaching method is based on the one used in the above mentioned Master Degrees. 90 students coming from all over Italy have enrolled and 60 local companies have been involved. The courses are the following:

• “Building Site and Work Management”, promoted by the Faculty of Architecture and Engineering. 30 companies have been involved for a total of 42 job opportunities for placement (of which 6 under a 2 years apprenticeship contract;
• “MaSTeM”, curriculum “Techniques,Technologies and Materials for the Environment”, promoted by the Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences, with the participation of 19 companies offering 36 jobs (of which 2 under a 1 year contract);
• “Education and Human Resources Management”, promoted by the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy, with 18 companies involved and 22 jobs offered (of them 2 being under a 1 year contract).

FixO action 4 – Actions aiming at supporting academic spin-offs

Within the framework of action 4 of the FIxO Project – aiming at supporting research by helping the development of academic spin-offs – in 2009 a partner in the University of Ferrara’s spin-off Verdenora s.r.l. was involved in a dedicated training in economics and marketing, commercial and civil law, as well as intellectual property rights. The lectures were held by both teachers of the Economy and Law Faculties of the University of Ferrara and experts working in a chemical multinational.

The Alma Laurea Helpdesk

Among the Job Centre’s initiatives for graduates’ placement, the AlmaLaurea helpdesk is particularly significant. The helpdesk offers services such as curricula distribution, release of job announcements, company profiles and alerts for master and training courses.

The Post - graduation Traineeships ( Tirocini Post Laurea - TPL)

In consideration of the experience gained with the FIxO Project, the Job Centre launched a program for post - graduation traineeships (Tirocini Post Laurea – TPL). The Program has been possible thanks to the creation, by means of graduated students’ spontaneous applications, of a local database of curricula. The Job Centre webpage has, furthermore, a section dedicated to “Services to Companies/Institutions” whereby these latter can announce their job offers by filling in an ad hoc form. Moreover, in order to ease the encounter of traineeships supply-side and demand-side, in 2009 several promotional initiatives were developed (phone calls, mails, fax) involving more than 4.500 companies operating both in adjoining provinces/regions and the entire national territory.

The postgraduate education

Postgraduate education is divided into three different training paths, designed in order to tailor them to both the labour markets and the university needs.

As for PhD. the University of Ferrara offers 17 courses in three major fields: economics – law –classical – social  studies; medical – biological studies; scientific – technological studies. In the academic year 2008 389 students enrolled in a PhD program, 47% of which are men and 53% women. PhDs, as well as the related structures and services, are managed by the IUSS Ferrara 1391.

Master and Specialization Courses represent a second and more job market oriented category of post-graduate training. 8 first level Master Degrees, 6 second level Master Degrees and 8 Specialization Courses were offered during the academic year 2008/2009, for a total of 712 enrolled students. The above mentioned postgraduate training programs allow the University of Ferrara to achieve strong synergies between education and research, as well as to better meet industry and public institutions needs. In the medical field, postgraduate programs includes 36 medical and 3 sanitary specialization courses, for a total number of 485 enrolled students in the academic year 2008/2009.

Finally, postgraduate training programs offered by the University of Ferrara also include the “Postgraduate School for Middle School Teaching”. The School is aimed at students desiring to acquire the methodological, didactical and pedagogical skills necessary to work as a teacher. The SSIS School proposes courses in three major study areas: Natural Sciences Studies; Physics- Information Technology-Mathematical Studies; Human Sciences Studies; Economic-Law Studies; Motor Sciences.

In the academic year 2008/2009 201 students were enrolled in SSIS.

Quality assessment of training programs and services

The monitoring of students’ opinion on the quality of their training programs is part of a larger quality assessment process carried out by the University of Ferrara. This process is a precious and useful source of information for the improvement of both accountability and quality of training programs. In 2009 the University of Ferrara conducted a quality assessment survey on training programs and services. The result was a overall satisfaction rating equal to 75,54%, higher than the rating recorded both in  2008 (74,12%) and 2007 (75,44%).

Furthermore, in 2009 the University of Ferrara carried out for the forth time in a row a survey aiming at evaluating the doctoral candidates’ perceived quality of their training courses: in a range from 1 to 10, the students assessed the usefulness of training courses with a 6,7 rate.

The survey on the library services

As part of the Good Practice Project 2009, the University of Ferrara carried out a survey aiming at assessing students and professors’ satisfaction with regard to library services. The survey, was carried out by means of a paper questionnaire distributed in five University libraries (Architecture, Chemistry and Biology, Letters and Philosophy, Law, Science). Students and professors were asked to express their opinion about the quality of library services, assigning scores on a scale from 1 to 4. The results show a high general level of satisfaction, being the average of students vote 3,20. The highest scores were recorded by “assistance to students” (reliability 3,53% - courtesy 3,56 – support in general 3,21), lending services (3,33) and on line catalogue (3,24).

As far as professors’ level of satisfaction is concerned, the survey was carried out by means of an on line questionnaire. For professors too, the level of satisfaction is high on average (3,30).

The survey on the admission office

In May 2009, the University of Ferrara polled students’ perceived quality of the services offered by admission offices. The survey was carried out by means of a paper questionnaire, (distributed and then collected by the University’s Training Managers) and involved 1.528 students. Altogether, students assessed the quality of the services given by the admission offices, as well as the staff's competence and courtesy, as being in-between “sufficient” and “good”.

On a general basis, students consider themselves satisfied of the admission office’s services. In particular, on a scale from 1 (very unsatisfied) to 4 (very satisfied), with intermediate scores being 2 (more unsatisfied than satisfied) and 3 (more satisfied than unsatisfied), the students’ overall level of contentment was 3,22.

The Library’s opening times in the evening

In June 2008 the University of Ferrara signed a new Agreement with the Zanotti Foundation in order to implement a series of services aiming at meeting both students’ study and free time needs as well as easing socialization (as stated in art.2 of the Agreement).

Thanks to this agreement, some reading rooms of the Faculty of Medicine’s library can now be open until 23 from Wednesday to Friday. On Saturday opening times have been extended to 9 to 18.