Petrocelli, head of the University of San Marino, spoke yesterday in the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the Council
Enrollments in master's degree courses at the University of the Republic of San Marino have doubled in just a few years. This was announced by Rector Corrado Petrocelli, who spoke yesterday afternoon at Palazzo Pubblico during a hearing of the Council Committee on Constitutional and Institutional Affairs, in which he also informed the room about some international partnerships and relations with Italian ministries, as well as reiterating the need for a student residence capable of aligning the University with the expectations of the international academic community.
Just this week, as illustrated, the University will receive a visit from representatives of the external evaluation agency “Institutional Evaluation Program”, on Titan to verify the presence of the standards required of the University in the progressive path that is affirming it in the European and global scenario.
On the international collaboration front, Petrocelli revealed that "the University of Colorado, in the United States, recently asked us to bring some students here who will spend three weeks with us. It had never happened before - he underlined - I think it shows that our reality, outside the borders, is valued".
The University of Titano has also had the opportunity to make itself noticed in the panorama of the peninsula, with "the Italian Minister of University and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, who had a description of our psychological counseling desk sent to her and especially of assistance to students with learning difficulties", to represent the quality of the services offered to members.
A few passages also on the need for a student residence, to satisfy first of all the needs that have emerged in the relationships with other universities in the context of regular and frequent exchanges of teachers and students. "We have agreements with over 70 academic institutions from all over the world, who first ask us if we have a student residence. It happened to us that a Chinese institution, after having thought of coming here for our courses in Engineering, then chose to give up. In the summer - he added - we organize summer schools that have about fifty participants: it is not easy to find a place for them in the absence of a student residence".
In this sense, the willingness expressed by the Secretary of State for Education and Culture, Teodoro Lonfernini, is ready: "As a government we are evaluating various proposals, both from outside, therefore from potential investors, and from Sammarinese subjects who would like to make ready and suitable places available".
Among the topics addressed by the Rector, accompanied in the Commission by the Director General Laura Gobbi, were also the characteristics and timing of the San Marino regulations on the University, the competitions for teachers and the inevitable increase in economic commitments, especially to support research, and personnel related to the European path.
Finally, there was room for discussion on the possibility of creating in San Marino “a center of excellence” in the social health sector to address one of the main “problems of the coming years, that of the elderly population”. The ideas and projects, already on the table, have attracted the interest of “the Universities of Ferrara and Modena – Reggio Emilia, as well as a pharmaceutical company. Our University – the Rector recalled – is already involved in studies on Alzheimer’s and neurodegenerative diseases coordinated by Francesco Tamagnini from San Marino in collaboration, among others, with the Institute for Social Security of San Marino. He has a master’s degree in Geriatrics and two researchers in Management Engineering who are working on data to understand how to optimize costs and other aspects”.
To realize such a project, Petrocelli concluded, a system is needed that guarantees an adequate basis: “The country must have an item for research and innovation in the budget”, which is currently absent.