History
On January 12th, 1806, Ferdinand III of Bourbon founded the University - stemming from the Panormic Academy - by granting it the power to issue degrees in theology, medicine, law and philosophy: a conquest that the city had been waiting for centuries. With Sicily annexed to the Savoy kingdom, the University became entirely secular, while the School for Engineering and Architecture was established.
Education
The University boasts a varied educational offer in a number of disciplines spanning from Humanities to STE(A)M and Medicine. Internationalization plays a key role in the institution’s strategic plan and impacts on research and education at the same time. Implementing measures in the field of education regard the increase in the number of courses delivered in EU languages other than Italian; the commitment to an enlarged number of Joint Master available; a varied range of mobility options (individual, collective, intra-EU, extra-EU, targeted at students and staff at the same time); the alignment with Lisbon acquis as regards recognition procedures. The course catalogue is online in Italian and English.
Research
Research is thriving across disciplines, raising more than EUR 20 million each year from the European Commission, the National and Regional Governments. During the 2014-2020 period, the University was granted funds for the following number of projects: 48 Horizon2020; 7 joint EU-national initiatives; 9 DG Just and Home; 1 Health; 126 among research-targeted domestic funds (e.g., PRIN and SIR); 22 Territorial Cooperation; 12 Life+; 42 ERDF. The Italian Ministry of University and Research awarded the Department of Law with the label “Excellent Department” and with more than EUR 8 million funding aimed at the development of five-year research and education projects (2018-2022).
Career
To fulfill its third mission, the University has set up an Industrial Liaison Office, launched a network of University labs (ATEN Center) for testing and transferring new technologies to SMEs, founded a university business incubator and started up a Contaminaton Lab. The business incubator located within the University Campus of Palermo, managed by Consorzio ARCA (a public-private partnership) boosts the growth and success of innovative business ideas by providing interdisciplinary entrepreneurship education training packages, helping generate profitable start-ups, supporting academic spin-off companies and assisting students in their participation in business plan competitions joined by the University.
University Ranking
Student services
The Guidance and Tutoring Center (acronym from the Italian, COT) provides information and welcome to foreign students, as well as support for enrolment procedures. It also provides information and updates on migration domestic rules and on all the bureaucratic and administrative procedures regarding foreign citizens. The service addresses foreign undergraduate and graduate students (including PhD) and family members, asylum seekers and refugees, and Italian students with foreign qualifications. Additional support is provided to incoming and outgoing students and staff by the International Relations Office (Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, speaking).
Housing services
There are several accommodation options in Palermo: university residence (single, double or triple rooms), rooms in private flats, and apartments. STSURENT is a service offered in agreement with the University to search and select the offers by private individuals of rooms or apartment rentals within an open access database on the website Sturent.it. Dedicated people are responsible for tutoring users, assisting them in the choice of housing solutions that best fit their needs, supporting them in the definition and signature of rent agreements. A front office is available in the University Campus with English-speaking professionals.
Library services
The Library Services and Historical Archive (Italian acronym, SBA) includes libraries, an historical archive, and coordinating offices. The System develops initiatives supporting the University’s three missions by, among others: updating and managing the bibliographic collections, available in increasingly hybrid, rich and diversified forms; supporting research and maximizing research products‘ impact; dissemination at local, national and international levels.
ICT services
UniPa libraries offer PC workstations, reading stations, wireless access through their own devices to all users. Wireless connectivity service (Eduroam Circuit) was activated already in in 2006, while more recently the University has launched MyUniPa, a useful App to access information and services that improve university life.
Medical services
In partnership with the University Hospital "Paolo Giaccone", UNIPA offers a free service of multidisciplinary outpatient medical assistance with the University Medical Clinic AMU. It is in the heart of the University Campus, in a fully equipped room of the ground floor porch of the Faculty of Architecture.The clinic is a service dedicated to young people who attend the University and its spaces.
Campus life
Located right in the middle of Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and its beautiful capital, the City of Palermo, has always represented a unique blend of different peoples, lifestyles and cultures.
Most Departments and services are located at the University Campus, located in the southern area of the city, in walking distance from the city center. The main entrance is right in front of the train station and the campus is also easy to reach by urban buses. Such services as AMU, COT, CLA, and offices such as the International Relations Office are located within the Campus, where the canteen is also available and open no to all University students. Departments and canteens are also located and accessible in other areas of the city.
Sports facilities
The University Sport Center (Italian acronym, CUS) provides students with several services designed to combine teaching and leisure, training and wellbeing, including:
- a large heated outdoor pool;
- courses in different disciplines: fitness, indoor cycling, tennis, Caribbean dance,
Argentine tango, yoga;
- services offered to students with discounted rates.
CUS Palermo was founded in 1947 on the initiative of students of the faculties of Engineering and Law and is affiliated with the Italian University Sports Center.
Student clubs
Students are wholly part of the large community of the University of Palermo. A dedicated webpage on the website lists all student associations available to join - either focused on specific topic, or Department-related, even cultural ones, up to those linked to European mobility programs such as ESN Italy (Erasmus Student Network). Moreover, students can count on advice and support by a dedicated office. Moreover, the International Relations Office organizes specific "welcome days" where participants meet the administrative and academic staff who become their contact persons, get to know the main procedures and first-hand experience by their peer. Association members too take part in such events, to promote participation and students’ engagement.
The University holds offices and staff specifically dedicated to monitoring the quality of education and research, which in turn ensures the institution’s alignment with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (the “ESG”). Moreover, as regards internationalization and mobility, Palermo University has been granted the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education’s renewal for years 2021-2027 by the European Commission.