Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Italian: Libera Università di Bolzano, German: Freie Universität Bozen, Ladin: Università Liedia de Bulsan) is a university primarily located in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy. It was founded on 31 October 1997 and is organized into five Faculties.

Free University of Bozen - Bolzano
Libera Università di Bolzano
Freie Universität Bozen
Università Liedia de Bulsan
Latin: Universitas Studiorum Bauzanensis
MottoTrilingual and intercultural
TypePrivate promoted by public entity
Established1997
PresidentUlrike Tappeiner
RectorPaolo Lugli
DirectorGünther Mathá
Administrative staff
608 professors and researchers; 252 technical and administrative
Students4050[1]
Location
Bozen-Bolzano
Brixen
Bruneck
,
Italy
CampusUrban
Website

The main building of the Bolzano campus
The Library of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
The campus at Brixen

The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (unibz) aims to offer students a multilingual, practice-oriented education that meets the demands of the local and the European labor market. Lectures and seminars are held in Italian, German and English.[2] The only exception is the Faculty of Education, which offers Italian, German and Ladin speaking students separate training sections. The university offers study programmes ranging from bachelor's degrees to doctorates.

The emphasis of teaching is to provide theoretically sound and practice-orientated training. A large proportion of educational activities take place as seminars, lectures given by guest speakers, practical training and workshops. Within the framework of the academic exchange program students are encouraged to spend one or more semesters at universities abroad.


Campus

The university has three campuses: at Bolzano, Brixen and Bruneck. The buildings in Bolzano were designed by the architects Matthias Bischoff and Roberto Azzola[3] of Zürich[4] and those at Brixen by Regina Kohlmeyer and Jens Oberst from Stuttgart. The latter won in 2005 the 9th architecture prize of the city of Oderzo.[5]

Rectors

The rectors of the university have been Alfred Steinherr, an economist from Luxembourg, from 1998 to 2003, the Swiss linguist Rita Franceschini, from 2004 to 2008, and the German sociologist Walter Lorenz, from 2008 to 2016.[6] The Italian engineer Paolo Lugli is the actual rector since 2017.

Faculty of Economics and Management

The Faculty of Economics and Management is based at Bolzano and Bruneck. It offers three bachelor's and three master's degree programs.

The research clusters of the faculty are:[7]

Faculty of Education

The Faculty of Education is in Brixen and the following courses are active:

Main research areas at the faculty are:[8]

  • Educational and development projects and processes for different age groups and contexts
  • Social dynamics, social cohesion, citizenship and solidarity systems
  • Languages and communication for a multicultural and multilingual society

Faculty of Computer Science

The Faculty of Computer Science is based in Bolzano and has the following courses:

The faculty's research centres are:[9]

Faculty of Science and Technology

The Faculty of Science and Technology has the following active courses:

The main research areas of the faculty are:[10]

Faculty of Design and Art

The Faculty of Design and Art offers the following courses:

The main research areas of the faculty are:[11]

  • Visual culture and its impact on society
  • Phenomena, processes and results of three-dimensional projects
  • Theories, forms and languages of design, art and visual culture

The faculty also operates a fab lab named Bitz, which is also open to users not affiliated with unibz.

European Master Programmes

The Faculty of Computer Science at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano is very active in this way and is amongst the research centers recognized by the European Union as a leader in this program. There are two European Master Programmes in the area of computer science running in this university, under Erasmus Mundus Programme:

Studium Generale

Since 2011, there has been a multidisciplinary Studium Generale course, which offers a wide range of lectures in fields of general interest.[12]

Research

A total of 917 projects of basic and applied research have been conducted within the university since 1998.[1]

The university has scientific and technological laboratories at each of its sites, at the NOI Techpark, a local technological and innovation hub, and at the Versuchszentrum Laimburg, an agronomy research institute.

Library

According to library ranking system issued by German library networks (BIX project) in 2009, this university has the second best library amongst German-speaking states (Germany, Switzerland, Austria and South Tyrol in Italy).[13]

Students activities
  • The members of the student advisory board are elected every two years, however, between two elections a petition for the representative could be announced. Student representative are members of the University Council, the Academic Senate, the Faculty Council, the Course Council, the Equal Opportunities Committee and the Didactic Joint Committee.
  • The South Tyrolean Student association is the most important South Tyrolean association for students. Beside the head office in Bolzano there are seven branch offices in Austria and Italy. The sh.asus[14] was founded in 1955 as a non-profit association. It represents South Tyrolean students studying abroad and students in South Tyrol.
  • The M.U.A., Movimento Universitario Altoatesino, is an association which has been recognize by the Autonomous Province of Bozen-Bolzano and has been founded in the 1993. Its principal purposes are "to defend and ease the right to study of the students and the working students of the university" and "to organize conferences, debatings, conventions, cultural, social and university seminar". The association operates in Bolzano and promotes the project WEBZ, "the first web-tv of South-Tyrol made by youngs for youngs."
  • Kikero is a cultural association, which has been founded in 2000 and organizes activities such as the debating club and the movie nights. Furthermore, Kikero is also responsible for the university magazine "Kflyer".
  • SCUB, Sports Club University Bozen-Bolzano, is the students' association that mainly deals with sports activities and that organizes every year the SNOWDAYS, Europe's biggest wintersport event for students from all over Italy and the EU. SCUB comprises also the UniParty team, which is in charge of throwing university parties for unibz students.
  • A further student association is the Bozen – Bolzano local committee AIESEC, which organizes international exchange programmes to permit university students to get in touch with the working world.
  • PRO – Students for Business also encourages students to connect with the working environment through the enhancement of economic and business activities.
  • The university also has a choir called UnibzVoices, conducted by Prof. Johann Van der Sandt who teaches "Music and Communication" at the Brixen College of Education.
  • The most recent student association is the Alumni Club that comprises graduates of the Free University of Bozen–Bolzano.

Bibliography
  • Hans Karl Peterlini & Hannes Obermair (eds), Universitas Est. Essays and documents on the history of education in Tyrol/South-Tyrol, 2 Vol.[15] (Bozen-Bolzano University Press, Raetia Verlag, Bozen/Bolzano 2008), ISBN 978-88-7283-316-2
  • Klaus Kempf, Franz Berger, The Library as a Service Point. The Case of the Bozen University Library: Planning, Building, Financing, in "Liber Quarterly", 10, 2000, pp. 108–116.[16] (Download PDF 52 KB)
  • Universitätsreden an der Freien Universität Bozen / Discorsi d'ateneo alla Libera Università di Bolzano / Public Talks at the Free University of Bozen, 6 voll., Bolzano, Bozen-Bolzano University Press, 2005-ss. ISBN (ISSN) 2494716-7
  • List of universities in Italy

See also

References
  1. Facts & Figures
  2. Nickenig, Christoph. "Perspektiven der Sprachausbildung an einer mehrsprachigen Universität." Bi- and Multilingual Universities: European Perspectives and Beyond. Conference Proceedings Bolzano-Bozen, 20–22 September 2007
  3. Progetti delle tre sedi Archived 13 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Christine Plieger-De Biasi, Thomas Simma, Freie Universität Bozen – Libera Universita di Bolzano – Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. The Architecture Competition for the Main Site, Vienna-Bolzano, Folio, 1998. ISBN 978-3-85256-105-9
  5. IX Premio architettura Oderzo Archived 10 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  6. "Lub, Lorenz è il rettore. Con 6 voti batte Fedrizzi". 19 July 2008. Retrieved 21 July 2008.
  7. "Faculty of Economics and Management". www.unibz.it. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  8. "Faculty of Education". www.unibz.it. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  9. "Research at the Faculty of Computer Science". www.unibz.it. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  10. "Research at the Faculty of Science and Technology". www.unibz.it. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  11. "Faculty of Design and Art". www.unibz.it. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  12. "Studium Generale: Einschreibungen starten / Lokal / Chronik im Überbl…". archive.is. 11 September 2012. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  13. "The library ranking according to BIX Project" Archived 1 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  14. sh.asus | Südtiroler Hochschülerschaft | associazione studenti universitari sudtirolesi Archived 18 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Asus.sh (21 June 2013). Retrieved on 2013-10-05.
  16. Open Access Digizeitschriften

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