Charter of University Colleges

1. The role of colleges in the Italian University system

1.1 History, characteristics and aims

The University colleges, each with their own history but with the same aims, are legally recognised by the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Universita’ e della Ricerca: M.I.U.R).  They are unique within the Italian university system and have strong traditional roots in Europe.  Their foundation is linked with a medieval tradition, which started in 1180 when an English pilgrim on his way back from the Holy Land purchased a dormitory from the Hotel Dieu in Paris, in order to accommodate, free of charge, eighteen ‘scholares clerici’ in need of financial aid.  This date coincides with the origins of the University Colleges, highlighting the fact that these institutions have always been an integral part of the European Universities, even from the beginning – a history that coincides with modern western culture.  The first Italian university colleges date back to the XIV Century, but there is a marked difference between these institutions between the XVI and XX Centuries.  Their principal objective is and was to offer concrete help and to accommodate without charge students who are not well-off financially, favouring a social promotion based on merit rather that wealth.  The fourteen institutions built since 1954, are today recognised by the M.I.U.R, which manages a total of 45 Colleges in fourteen cities.  They are institutes of a private legal nature, which provide services for the public, contributing to the widening of the university offer, by carrying out educational projects aimed to foster the intellectual, professional and human growth of the students.  The activities are mainly carried out within the college structure, within which services are guaranteed to help complete the full university degree within the foreseen time and aimed at favouring a free and structured but responsible personal growth. 

1.2 The educational project of the Colleges

The colleges, legally recognised by the M.I.U.R, are different from every other type of university residence, due to their educational offer: their main objective is to value the student as a person, rather than as a resource, or an element of the system.  This translates into the colleges offering many formative options, rather than just services, pursuing excellence with the intention of preparing the young students for the complexities of today’s society, allowing them to develop a sense of judgement and an awareness of autonomous choice.
Every college proposes a specific educational project for its own students, personalised as much as possible, and developed in collaboration with teachers and university institutions, in order to allow each student consciously to build his own curriculum. This allows the students to enjoy n interdisciplinary culture, which allows them to reach their full potential and a full social life. 
In addition to the quality of the colleges and the services they offer, the strengths of the legally recognised colleges derive from a rich culture stemming from a lively intellectual community, the sharing of ethical motivations and the criteria for evaluations needed in a professional activity, including learning the rules of living in a community and the guidelines of social relations.
Thanks to this programme, students are guaranteed favourable conditions, thereby avoiding dropouts and fulfilling the full university course in the given time achieving excellent results.
The students stay in contact with the colleges even after they have graduated, thanks to the presence of Alumni Associations which support the cultural activities of the Colleges and provide help upon entering the world of work. 

1.3 The institutional role of the Colleges and their legal and administrative profile

The “Regio Decreto” of 31st August, 1933, number 1592 (Testo unico dell’istruzione superiore) stipulated in article 191 that ‘The work and the foundations whose aim is to develop further learning and which provide assistance in various forms for university studies and in institutes of further learning, are regulated by the supervision of the Minister of Public Education’.  This regulation constitutes the legal foundation for the recognition of the existence of some institutions.   Some colleges are private, but governed by the Statute.  This allows greater access to further learning, to assist students throughout their university studies.  Because of the aims of these institutions, they come under the supervision of the Ministry.  The university colleges will continue to remain within state jurisdiction after a further and more precise analysis of their functions.  The educational and formative functions of these institutions were in fact for a long while, seen to be more important than the assistance factor, decentralising it from the regions.  The tasks of the provision of material assistance, typical of the right to study, has always remained of great importance, with respect to both the formative function of the colleges, and more importantly, to the realisation of a targeted personal educational project.  The State became more aware of the content and true functions of the legally recognised colleges, the State also made itself a guarantee, as demonstrated by the successive legal and administrative interventions, all crystallized in the text of article 25, III comma, of the Legge 2 of December 1991, number 390, concerning the “norms on the right to university studies”, which within the text, clearly states that “the dispositions concerning the legally recognised university colleges remain in force and subject to the vigilance of the Ministry of University, Scientific research and Technology” (which in the meantime came under the Ministry of Public Education).  In 1997 the legally recognised university colleges decided to form a body which would represent them externally and which would fulfil the role of co-ordinating and promoting their common actions.  This gave birth to the permanent Conference of the legally recognised university colleges (C.C.U; www.collegiuniversitari.it), whose institutional aims are : 

1. To represent in Italy and abroad, to governments and the public, the particular nature of the legally recognised university colleges, which university institutions are committed to the development of further learning, having a private judicial nature and aiming to meet public interests with regard to formation.
2. To promote studying and other cultural initiatives aimed at diffusing the knowledge of the existence of these institutes in Italy and aboard.
3. To formulate proposals to the legislative and administrative powers, in order to obtain further recognition and valorisation of the roles of the colleges, within the university system.
4. To promote collaboration between the colleges, and other Italian and foreign institutions.
5. To favour research and collaborative initiatives by the colleges regarding university and professional guidance and didactic, tutoring and formational guidance for the students. 

2. The formative programme of the legally recognised university colleges

2.1 Entrance guidance

The choice of a degree course represents a large problem for the future development of a career for every student.  It requires an attentive evaluation of all interests, capacities and aspirations.  Once chosen, the university career must allow for the deepening of more specific aspects and subjects, connected to one’s own interests.  Each year, the colleges organise, often in collaboration with the university, meetings with students from High school, in order to inform them about the characteristics of the degree courses, about the required personal abilities and the possible career paths.  Within the situation of a university interview, particular attention is given to the verification of the motivations of the choice of faculty and the essential personal abilities of each aspiring student.   

2.2 Tutoring

Much research into the conditions of student life has shown the need for students to be more guided in their choice and study of degree.  The survey by Eurostudent 2000, showed that two out of three students make their choice alone and that the solitude experienced during the first phase of university study experience is destined to prolong itself for the whole length of the academic career.  In the colleges, to make up for such solitude, a tutoring service is guaranteed, with the aim of guiding and assisting students during the whole academic course.  This service is carried out by graduates and PhD students, who use their experiences to help the younger students acquire the most suitable study methods for themselves, offering them at the same time a possibility to extend study to further specific subjects.   

2.3 Cultural activities

To their Alumni, the university colleges offer interdisciplinary cultural activities, which favour the exchange of ideas and help to mature the intellect, which then integrate themselves into the university system.  These activities are courses of introduction to the faculty and to the professional world, cycles of conferences and meetings with teachers, professionals and cultural personalities. Often these cultural opportunities remain in the history and memory of the institutions, due to the publication of books and reviews edited by the colleges.  There are many contributions from foreign personalities at these meetings, thanks to the exchange programmes that many of these colleges have activated with students and teachers from prestigious universities.  In this way also, the need of the young to socialise with each other and with real ‘maestri’ is met, in a cultural environment, which goes beyond national boundaries. 

2.4 Formative credits

The university colleges are becoming more and more of a reality and offering more and more to the university system, due to the possibility, ratified by the protocol of understanding between the C.R.U.I and the C.C.U, to activate recognised and add accredited courses. This opens the colleges to non-residential students.  There are courses and seminars organised in collaboration with the university faculties.  These include some subjects, which are not yet fully included explicitly and systematically within the university offering.  These didactic activities are recognised as being official study courses within some of the optional courses, offered to students who can gain formative credits. 

2.5 Complementary formative activities

Complementary formative activities are one of the cornerstones to the recent scholastic reform in Italy: the study of English and computing will be part of the formative course, from the first obligatory school level. For a while the colleges have been offering, within their internal structure, language and computing courses, using appropriate technologies and methodologies and guaranteeing the receipt of internationally accepted certificates.  Increasingly these qualifications are recognised by the university with the award of academic credits.  

2.6 Guidance on leaving

Post-graduate guidance is very important; the moment when one faces the world of work.
The whole university system is now targeted towards making university closer to the world of work, especially the business world.  The aim is to improve the overlap of demand and offer.  Within the colleges there are frequent opportunities to meet people from within the world of work.  Moreover, given the further knowledge of the aspirations and capacities of their own students, the colleges are more frequently contacted by businesses looking for new personnel.  An example of the usefulness and of the quality of this aspect is represented by the “stages” and work experience offered by businesses and that the colleges offer to their own ‘Alumni’.   

2.7 The international vocation of the colleges

One of the main formative aims of the colleges is, however, to contribute towards the goal of full European integration, by activating European union programmes and favouring the enlargement of cultural horizons and the personal horizons of the young, both through thorough knowledge and exposure to the exchange of different cultural realities, against the background of their own cultural background.
With this priority, the colleges favour student mobility during the university period, by giving Italian students scholarships for study abroad and by offering hospitality to foreign students within their own structures, even after the completion of the degree, stipulating agreements for international exchange with university institutions and looking for higher prestige.   

2.8 The college as a service to the person

The idea of the college as a pillar of attraction for an intellectual community is strictly linked to its ‘residency’.  The statute of the C.C.U. in its preamble states: “these are characterised by their particular nature and direct activity involving cultural and human development, through the appropriate structures, colleges and services.”    The college is understood to be a service to the person, through the realisation of the structure at a high functional level, ideal for living and studying in the best conditions.  In fact, the atmosphere into which the student is welcomed can become an educative and development tool, in that it provides the best conditions for the student to carry out their own studies without ignoring their own interests.  The colleges offer to their students, structures with functional spaces intended for study use (libraries and computer rooms), free time (TV rooms and with projectors, gyms) and for personal interests (music rooms, reading rooms supplied with newspapers, magazines etc.).  The presence of communal services, for example the refectory, and the involvement of students in the organisation of activities, nurtures, other than socialisation, the taking on of responsibilities and learning how to work within a group.  These are all important factors in today’s society and world of work. 

2.9 Evaluating the quality of the services and the formative activities

All the bodies with have officially joined the Conference have adopted formal procedures of evaluation (at least annually) of their own cultural and formative activities, of the academic results obtained by the students and the quality of the services provided, in some cases using a Committee of external examiners.  Some bodies have gained the certificate ISO 9001:2000 for cultural activities and other formative activities.  The conferences have set out the main guidelines as incentives for these activities, making them obligatory and as a method of determining the quantitative and qualitative standard of the structures and the services.