As a depar­ture from the usual tech­ni­cal arti­cles and release announce­ments I’d like to talk a bit about my uni­ver­sity: the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Stud­ies (Scuola Supe­ri­ore Sant’Anna in Ital­ian). This place is quite unique in Italy, the only sim­i­lar insti­tu­tion being the Scuola Nor­male Supe­ri­ore. I’ve never heard about sim­i­lar insti­tu­tions in other coun­tries. I’d love to hear if any­one knows about some­thing like this some­where else.

At a first glance the Sant’Anna of Advanced Stud­ies could be descibed as a very small, state owned (pub­lic) uni­ver­sity. By “very small” I mean that the grand total of the stu­dents attend­ing bach­e­lors and mas­ter classes is no more than 250. Each year around 45 stu­dents are selected in a very strict nation­wide selec­tion from around  1000 appli­cants in the fields of Engi­neer­ing, Eco­nom­ics, Med­i­cine, Agri­cul­ture, Polit­i­cal Sci­ence and Law. Selected appli­cants have access to the school ser­vices com­pletely free of charge, includ­ing lodg­ing and canteen.

The high level of selec­tiv­ity (the peak is 1 admit­ted each 20 appli­cants) makes it pos­si­ble to gather some of the most tal­ented peo­ple grad­u­ated in the nation’s high schools. As the school pro­vides all needed infra­struc­ture to the stu­dents peo­ple are able to leave their home and come to Pisa inde­pen­dently of the eco­nomic and social sta­tus of their fam­i­lies. There is no way to access the School other than the offi­cial selec­tion, not even pay­ing a fee.

As stu­dents we live in col­le­giate struc­ture.  The rooms are assigned fol­low­ing our own inter­nal reg­u­la­tion, this is an exam­ple of the large amount of man­age­ment that is del­e­gated to stu­dents. Sev­eral com­mis­sions are elected each year to man­age a vari­ety of things, from net­work infra­struc­ture to pub­lic rela­tions. Liv­ing in com­mon struc­tures and shar­ing the respon­si­bil­ity of their main­te­nance gen­er­ate a very pecu­liar and often long term bond­ing between stu­dents. Dur­ing the five years that most peo­ple spend in the school a net of rela­tions forms that con­nects peo­ple that are very dif­fer­ent for inter­ests  and expe­ri­ences. Liv­ing in a inter­dis­ci­pli­nary envi­ron­ment is an extra­or­di­nary expe­ri­ence. It’s very com­mon to see peo­ple dis­cussing about any­thing from phi­los­o­phy and pol­i­tics to trap­pist beers with the same com­mit­ment, most often while eat­ing together at the canteen.

From the aca­d­e­mic point of view the School is also pretty unique. Although it’s a full state rec­og­nized uni­ver­sity it does not offers full courses. We are at the same time Pupils of the Sant’Anna School and stu­dents of the Uni­ver­sity of Pisa. We attends reg­u­lar classes at the Uni­ver­sity of Pisa and classes on more advanced mod­ern research top­ics. Any­way most peo­ple feel that the most impor­tant part of what we learn comes from liv­ing with older stu­dents and research expe­ri­ences abroad. I’ve myself worked in Cal­i­for­nia and Switzer­land dur­ing the last cou­ple of summers.

Feel free to com­ment and share your opin­ions about such par­tic­u­lar kind of university.

As a depar­ture from the usual tech­ni­cal arti­cles and release announce­ments I’d like to talk a bit about my uni­ver­sity: the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Stud­ies (Scuola Supe­ri­ore Sant’Anna in Ital­ian). This place is quite unique in Italy, the only sim­i­lar insti­tu­tion being the Scuola Nor­male Supe­ri­ore. I’ve never heard about sim­i­lar insti­tu­tions in other coun­tries. I’d love to hear if any­one knows about some­thing like this some­where else.

At a first glance the Sant’Anna of Advanced Stud­ies could be descibed as a very small, state owned (pub­lic) uni­ver­sity. By “very small” I mean that the grand total of the stu­dents attend­ing bach­e­lors and mas­ter classes is no more than 250. Each year around 45 stu­dents are selected in a very strict nation­wide selec­tion from around  1000 appli­cants in the fields of Engi­neer­ing, Eco­nom­ics, Med­i­cine, Agri­cul­ture, Polit­i­cal Sci­ence and Law. Selected appli­cants have access to the school ser­vices com­pletely free of charge, includ­ing lodg­ing and canteen.

The high level of selec­tiv­ity (the peak is 1 admit­ted each 20 appli­cants) makes it pos­si­ble to gather some of the most tal­ented peo­ple grad­u­ated in the nation’s high schools. As the school pro­vides all needed infra­struc­ture to the stu­dents peo­ple are able to leave their home and come to Pisa inde­pen­dently of the eco­nomic and social sta­tus of their fam­i­lies. There is no way to access the School other than the offi­cial selec­tion, not even pay­ing a fee.

As stu­dents we live in col­le­giate struc­ture.  The rooms are assigned fol­low­ing our own inter­nal reg­u­la­tion, this is an exam­ple of the large amount of man­age­ment that is del­e­gated to stu­dents. Sev­eral com­mis­sions are elected each year to man­age a vari­ety of things, from net­work infra­struc­ture to pub­lic rela­tions. Liv­ing in com­mon struc­tures and shar­ing the respon­si­bil­ity of their main­te­nance gen­er­ate a very pecu­liar and often long term bond­ing between stu­dents. Dur­ing the five years that most peo­ple spend in the school a net of rela­tions forms that con­nects peo­ple that are very dif­fer­ent for inter­ests  and expe­ri­ences. Liv­ing in a inter­dis­ci­pli­nary envi­ron­ment is an extra­or­di­nary expe­ri­ence. It’s very com­mon to see peo­ple dis­cussing about any­thing from phi­los­o­phy and pol­i­tics to trap­pist beers with the same com­mit­ment, most often while eat­ing together at the canteen.

From the aca­d­e­mic point of view the School is also pretty unique. Although it’s a full state rec­og­nized uni­ver­sity it does not offers full courses. We are at the same time Pupils of the Sant’Anna School and stu­dents of the Uni­ver­sity of Pisa. We attends reg­u­lar classes at the Uni­ver­sity of Pisa and classes on more advanced mod­ern research top­ics. Any­way most peo­ple feel that the most impor­tant part of what we learn comes from liv­ing with older stu­dents and research expe­ri­ences abroad. I’ve myself worked in Cal­i­for­nia and Switzer­land dur­ing the last cou­ple of summers.

Feel free to com­ment and share your opin­ions about such par­tic­u­lar kind of university.