Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Latin: Universitas Catholica Sacri Cordis Jesu
Motto	In the heart of reality
Established	7 December 1921
Type	Private
Rector	Prof. Lorenzo Ornaghi
Admin. staff	4,160
Students	42,000
Location	Milano, Italy
Campus	Urban
Sports teams	CUS Milano
Colors	Blue and gold
Affiliations	EUA FIUC FUCE ISEP INU EUCEN EAIE Consorzio Milano Ricerche IPBS EFMD
Website	unicattolica.it

The Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC) is an Italian private research university founded in 1921. The UCSC is the biggest private university in Europe and the biggest and one of the most distinguished Catholic universities in the world. Its main campus is located in Milan, Italy with satellite campuses in Brescia, Piacenza, Cremona, Rome, and Campobasso.The University is organized into 14 faculties and 7 postgraduate schools. Cattolica provides undergraduate courses (Bachelor's degree, which corresponds to italian Laurea Triennale), graduate courses (Master's degree, which corresponds to Laurea Magistrale, and specializing master) and PhD programs (in Italian are called Dottorati di ricerca). In addition to these, the University runs several double degree programs with other institutions throughout the world. Degrees are offered both in Italian and in English.UCSC has been granted five stars by QS Stars, a global university rating system, in the following fields: employability, teaching, infrastructure and engagement.
Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic serves as the teaching hospital for the medical school of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and owes its name to the university founder, the Franciscan friar, physician and psychologist Agostino Gemelli.

History

The project

The embryonic project of a Catholic university was founded towards the 1870, supported by representatives of all the Catholic cultural current which acts as a guide Giuseppe Toniolo. In September 1918, when the First World War was ending, Giuseppe Toniolo, before dying, recommended to Father Agostino Gemelli and his staff to provide the University with the following words: "I do not see the end of the war, but you, when it is finished, do it, do the Università Cattolica".

The foundation and the establishment of faculties

In 1919 Father Agostino Gemelli, Ludovico Necchi, Francesco Olgiati, Armida Barelli, and Ernesto Lombardo founded the «Giuseppe Toniolo Institute for Higher Studies». On June 24 1920 the Institute was legally recognized with a decree signed by the Minister of Education, Benedetto Croce; at the same time, the Pope Benedict XV officially recognized the University's ecclesiastical status.

Milan Campus

On December 7, 1921, the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore was officially inaugurated with a special mass celebrated by Father Gemelli, in the presence of Achille Ratti, the Cardinal and Archbishop of Milan, who three months later was elected as Pope Pius XI. The first campus was located in the Palazzo del Canonica, in via Sant'Agnese 2. In October 1930 it was moved to the ancient St. Ambrose Monastery, where the main campus remains today. 68 students enrolled in the university's two available programs, philosophy and social sciences, in 1921. As of 2011, 14 programs were offered to over 40,000 students distributed over the Milan, Rome, Brescia, Piacenza and Campobasso campuses.

In 1924, following legal recognition from the Italian state allowing the awarding of legally-recognized degrees (the charter of the Università Cattolica was approved by Royal Decree on October 2, 1924, and published on October 31 on the Gazzetta Ufficiale), the Humanities and Law Programs were inaugurated. In 1923 the Istituto Superiore di Magistero was opened, and in 1936 became an independent program, later evolving to become, in 1996, the School of Education Sciences.

Cattolica plaque

In 1926 the Political and Economical Sciences Department became independent from the School of Law and, in 1931, became the School of Political, Economical, and Business Sciences which awarded, until 1947, the university's business degrees as well. In 1936 the School of Political Science became independent. The work and efforts of the Università Cattolica continued throughout the post-war period with new campuses and programs opening. The School of Economics, officially opened in 1947, offered night classes. On October 30, in the presence of Italian President Luigi Einaudi, the first stone of the Piacenza campus was laid, with the official opening of the School of Agriculture Sciences taking place in November 1952.

On August 4, 1958, the official decree for the opening of a Medical School in Rome, which had been advocated by Father Gemelli, was approved. Enormous difficulties had made this long and complicated, and it was not until the end of the 1950s that the Biological Institutes and the university Polyclinic, named after Fr Gemelli were built in Rome. Construction began in 1959; in 1961 Pope John XXIII opened the Medical School, with the first medical doctors graduating in 1967. The school now offers both medical and dentistry programs.

In 1956 the Brescia campus of the Università Cattolica was inaugurated with the opening of the School of Teaching and Education. In 1971, thanks to the initiative of important figures in the mathematical field, the School of Mathematics, Physics, and Natural Sciences was opened. During the 1990s other schools were opened in Milan: the School of Banking, Finance, and Insurance Sciences (1990); the School of Foreign Languages and Literature (today the College of Linguistics) and Foreign Literature (1991); and the School of Psychology (1999). In 1997 in Piacenza the School of Economics, once part of the Milan curriculum, opened independently, and the School of Law in 1995.

In 2000 thirteen Cultural Centres were opened across Italy. In these Centers, through advanced satellite technology, distance-learning courses have been activated in collaboration with the major university campuses. During the 2001-2002 academic year the new School of Sociology, the fourteenth college of the Università Cattolica, was opened in Milan

World War II

During World War II, Ezio Franceschini, who supported the Resistance, organized in the university the meetings of the Freedom Volunteer Corps (coordination structure of the partisans). At the end of the war, in 1944, the professor of medieval Latin letters hid in the basement of Cattolica a box containing documents and books on the Resistance and FRAMA group (a group founded by Ezio Franceschini, who played an important role in the fight against the Nazis). The SS rummaged everywhere in UCSC to find those cards, but buried among the bones of fifty skeletons, dead for an epidemic of plague in the sixteenth century, they remained there and emerged only after the war.

The grand staircase

Partially destroyed by bombing in World War II on 15-16 August 1943, the Cattolica was rebuilt starting development that would take at present. During the bombing were destroyed several classrooms, administration building, the office building, a cloister by Bramante, the class acts of academic Pius XI, the proud and ancient staircase, the hall of honor and some colleges. The reconstruction work began immediately, moved by the words of Agostino Gemelli "rise again more beautiful and bigger than before".

Protests of 1968

The protests of 1968 in Italy began in UCSC of Milan. After that the university had increased tuition fees, Nov. 15, students decided to take the first occupation of the University. The same night the rector Ezio Franceschini expelled the occupants with the help of the police, headed by Commissioner Luigi Calabresi. After three days 30,000 students marched through Milan to the archbishop and the protest spread to every major university in the country. On 21 March, the Cattolica is reoccupied, after being evacuated, is closed indefinitely. A few days later, on March 25, there is the so-called "battle of Largo Gemelli": thousands of students trying to reopen the university, but are strongly repelled by police. The leader of the mutiny was Mario Capanna, a student of philosophy at the Università Cattolica.

The Italian cabinet of 2011

In November 2011 the Prime Minister Mario Monti appointed three professors as ministers. The rector Lorenzo Ornaghi was appointed Minister for Heritage and cultural activities; Renato Balduzzi, professor of constitutional law, was appointed minister of health, and Dino Piero Giarda, professor of public economics at the faculty of Economics, became minister for relations with Parliament.

After the appointment of Professor Lorenzo Ornaghi as minister, all the powers and functions belonging to the office of president were entrusted to the vicar vice chancellor, prof. Franco Anelli, for the period of Professor Ornaghi's term of office as a mimistert.

Rectors

The Rector is the highest academic authority.

Agostino Gemelli (1921–1959)
Francesco Vito (1959–1965)
Ezio Franceschini (1965–1968)
Giuseppe Lazzati (1968–1983)
Adriano Bausola (1983–1998)
Sergio Zaninelli (1998–2002)
Lorenzo Ornaghi (from 2002)

Organization

Faculties

The UCSC offers a wide range of degrees in 14 schools.

School of Agriculture, Piacenza-Cremona (founded 1951)
School of Arts and Philosophy (1923)
School of Banking, Finance and Insurance Sciences (1990)
School of Economics (1947)
School of Economics, Piacenza-Cremona (1990)
School of Education (1936)
School of Law (1923)
School of Law, Piacenza-Cremona (1995)
School of Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences, Brescia (1968)
School of Medicine and Surgery, Rome (1958)
School of Language Sciences and Foreign Literature (1968)
School of Political Sciences (1926)
School of Psychology (1999)
School of Sociology (2001)

Courses

Master of International HR management
Master in Economics and Finance of Public Economics
Master in International Relations
Master in Insurance Management and Tecniques
Master in International Cooperation and Development
Bachelor of Biochemistry
Master in Economics and International Policies
Bachelor of Business Economics and Management
Master in Media Relation
Bachelor of Computer Science
MBA – Global Business and Sustainability
Bachelor of Business Economics
Master in Banking, Mutuality and Development - MIBASMS
Bachelor of Law (LL.B.) - Tax Law

Postgraduate Schools

Postgraduate Schools (Alte Scuole) are centers of excellence in research and teaching.

ALMED - Postgraduate School of Media Communications and Performing Arts (established 2002)
ALTIS - Postgraduate School Business & Society (2005)
ASA - Postgraduate School of Environmental Studies (2008)
ASAG - Postgraduate School of Psychology Agostino Gemelli (2000)
ASERI - Postgraduate School of Economics and International Relations (1995)
SMEA - Postgraduate School of Agricultural and Food Economics (1984)
ALTEMS - Postgraduate School of Health Economics and Management (2008)

Campus

UCSC Great Hall

Cattolica is characterized by a campus extending to six Italian cities, with its seat is in the historic Cistercian monastery situated near the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in the heart of Milan.

A cloister

Originally a monastery built by Benedictine monks in the 8th century, the UCSC Milan campus has expanded under the care of Cistercian friars in the 15th century and military and social developments both during the Napoleonic era and World War II.

The restructuring of the Benedictine monastery by Giovanni Muzio in collaboration with the engineer Pier Fausto Barelli began in 1929 and finished twenty years later.

The campus is characterized by the Facade entrance to the main campus constructed by famed Italian architect Giovanni Muzio, the Chapel of the Sacred Heart, as well as the Great Hall (Aula Magna). The campus is nestled within the original city walls of Milan.

The main section of largo Gemelli consists of the following buildings: Monumental building (cloister by Bramante), office building, Gregorianum building, Antonianum building, Via Lanzone 18 building, Ambrosianum building, Franciscanum building and Domenicanum building.

Academics

Research

Lesson at UCSC

The research university has nearly 3,000 research projects underway in 2009 and 4,668 publications have been prepared. The research is divided into 22 departments, 54 institutes, 70 research centers and 4 atheneum centers. The 22 departments (if these are added to 16 which refer to the area medical care) are aimed to promote and coordinate the activities of institutional research and contribute to the organization of doctoral research (PhD). The atheneum centers were established in 2007 and have structures for the conception, development and implementation of research projects and training on social issues. The specific fields on which to focus the atheneum centers are bioethics, the family, the social teaching and international solidarity.

The University holds 12 patents both domestically and internationally with the release of specific hedges occurred in Italy, USA, United Kingdom and other countries.

Admission

The admission test of the School of Medicine "Agostino Gemelli" is one of the most selective of the university. This test consists of a written test and followed by an oral exam. In the admission test in 2011, which took place, not only in Rome, but also in Milan and Bari, there was 7333 candidates for 282 seats.

Libraries

The UCSC Library System works with numerous national and international bodies: IFLA - International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, AIB - Associazione Italiana Biblioteche, AIDA - Associazione Italiana per la Documentazione Avanzata, NDLTD - Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, LIBER - Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche, LOCKSS - Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe, CLOCKSS - Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe, NEREUS e INNOVATIVE.

The library of the Milan campus, established since the founding of the University in 1921 with capital of 50,000 volumes, is the largest and oldest of the libraries of the whole University. The library consists of a central library with deposit, 8 section libraries (located at institutes and departments), the Reference Room "Joseph Billanovich" and 12 reading rooms.

Rankings & Internationalization

The Cattolica, according to a study of International Student Barometer survey of a sample of 65 universities in Europe, is the second and fourth position at the international level between "the universities recommended by foreign students.

UCSC is a part of a series of international networks including: LLP - Erasmus Network, UCSC International Bilateral Agreements, ISEP Network, International Network of Universities (INU), Fédération des Universités Catholiques Européenes (FUCE), Fédération Internationale des Universités Catholiques (FIUC), IPBS - The International Partnership of Business Schools e Cooperation Projects.

Media

The publishing house of UCSC is Vita e pensiero (publishing), which was founded in 1918. The owner is the Giuseppe Toniolo Institue for Higher Studies.

There are various publications and magazines published in the UCSC. Vita e pensiero, founded in 1914 by Agostino Gemelli, becomes the official magazine of the Cattolica since its inception. Presenza is the UCSC's house organ and it aims to examine topical issues and latest news of the University. The magazine is divided into two main blocks. In the first part, there are services and insights into current affairs, in the second part, the space is devoted to news from the headquarters of Cattolica (Milan, Brescia, Piacenza-Cremona, Roma and Campobasso). The magazine is distributed free to faculty, students, graduates and opinion makers at the national level.

Youcatt is the web tv of the university.

Student life

Residential colleges

Inside the UCSC campus there are some colleges: Augustinianum College (Milan), Marianum College (Milan), Ludovicianum College (Milan), Paolo VI College (Milan), Sant'Isidoro College (Piacenza), Ker Maria College (Rome), San Damiano College (Rome), Nuovo Joanneum College (Rome), San Luca - Armida Barelli College (Rome).

A short distance from the university there are other colleges located in urban: Orsoline (Milan), San Francesco (Milan), Stimmatine (Milan), Sacro Cuore Buonarroti (Milan), Franciscanum (Brescia), Sacro Cuore (Brescia), San Giorgio (Brescia), Villa Pace (Brescia), Orsoline (Piacenza), Capitanio (Rome), Renzi (Rome), Romitello (Rome), Sacra Famiglia (Rome).

Student associations

In the 5 campuses there are a lot of student associations.

Milan Campus

Aisec
Ateneo Studenti
Athenaeum
Azione Universitaria - Movimento della Libertà
Boulevart
Capramagra
Centocanti
Circolo Tocqueville
Comunicando
Comunità Antagonista Padana
C.U.I.B. Comitato Universitario Iniziative Di Base
Elsa - The European Law Students' Association
Exchange Students And Erasmus Guide
Formica democratica
Giovani per EXPO 2015 Cattolica
Gruppo Co-Raggio
F.U.C.I. Gruppo "Giuseppe Lazzati"
Il Cavallo Rosso
Il Circolo Università Cattolica
Il Fatto
Il Laboratorio - il Cambiamento in Cattolica (Radio Catt; Inside)
JECatt
Morozzo della Rocca
Movimento Universitario Padano
Movit - Movimento per la Vita
Presenza studentesca Africana Dell'Università Cattolica
Studenti Amici UC
Studenti per le Libertà
U.L.D. - Studenti di sinistra

Brescia Campus

Ateneo Studenti
CUT La Stanza
Dafne
Elea
F.U.C.I. - Gruppo di Brescia
L'Idea
Pier Giorgio Frassati
UCID Giovani Brescia

Rome Campus

Ateneo Studenti
ECO - EsserCi Ora
F.U.C.I.
Gli amici di Bacco
Gruppo Phos-Laboratorio della fede
I Soliti Ignoti
Il Giornalone
Know How
MoVit - Movimento per la Vita
Sognatori in cantiere
Sorrisi Gemelli
Studenti Protagonisti
U.C.S.C. Erasmus Appointment

Piacenza-Cremona Campus

ASUP - Associazione sportiva universitaria europea
Ateneo Studenti
Athenaeum
Dialogo e rinnovamento
F.U.C.I. UCSC Piacenza
Giovani Europei
Movimento Universitario Padano
SMINT
RINIA
Triskele Di Azione Universitaria

IT services

I-Catt is the personal page of the student in which can find informations like suspended classes, exam schedule, notices of teachers. Cattolica uses Blackboard Inc., as platform, for e-learning on which teaching materials are posted by professors. The telecommunication stations UCPoint & InfoPoint, located in all campuses, perform clerical duties and provide information related to teaching and services. In each location are available to computer labs and wireless connections.

Sports

The University hosted the IFIUS 2009 World Interuniversity Games in October.

The university's sports activities and practices of the degree course in "Physical Education and Sports" were held in the sports center UCSC "Rino Fenaroli" of Milan. The teams have won editions 2006/2007, 2008/2009, 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 Collegiate Championships in Milan.

Traditions

Inner yard

Virgins garden

It is said that those who pass through one of two inner yard of Milan campus not graduate in UCSC. But after earning his degree, the graduate of the Cattolica is usually to make a round of racing in one of the cloisters.

In the Milan campus there is a garden (the garden of St. Catherine of Alexandria) which access is allowed only for the girl students. For this reason it is nicknamed "the Virgins Garden".

During May, the so-called party of the Cattolica Collegiate are wont to throw buckets of water to the freshmen. This rite of passage that is repeated for several decades is called "nicchiato". Another common tradition of UCSC colleges are the "processes" evening. These are the shows on the road where the collegiales, undress their clothes and social participants, make each other personal questions and then finish with questions concerning the general culture.

Ludovico Necchi Association

Ludovico Necchi Association was founded in Milan in 1930 and it collects all the graduates in the various professional fields of the UCSC. The Association every year consigns the Agostino Gemelli award, which consists of a medal and a diploma, to the best student of each school.

Faculty and alumni

List of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore people :

Cattolica has produced alumni distinguished in their respective fields. Among the best-known people who have attended Università Cattolica are Italian political leaders Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Ciriaco de Mita, Amintore Fanfani, Giovanni Maria Flick, Romano Prodi, Lorenzo Ornaghi; banker Angelo Caloia; ENI founder Enrico Mattei; fashion designer Nicola Trussardi; post-Keynesian economist Luigi Pasinetti; religious leaders Paolo Sardi and Angelo Scola; singer Roberto Vecchioni; gymnast Igor Cassina and among its young alumni the internet entrepreneur Augusto Marietti.

Among its most famous faculty members are banker Giovanni Bazoli, archaeologist Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Communion and Liberation founder Luigi Giussani, international relations scholar Michael Cox, economist Massimo Beber, and theorist of international relations and United States foreign policy John Ikenberry.

Photo of University