Posts Tagged university
About Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies
Posted by Alessandro Pignotti in Bar discussions on November 29, 2010
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.
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