The graduation grade is awarded by the Examining Board. Students are not required to make an oral dissertation of their final paper.
The Examining Boards are appointed by the Rector or by his delegates, and are presided over by a tenured professor. The Boards are comprised of professors, researchers and experts in the subject of the final paper.
The Boards are made up of at least 4 members, shared out as follows: 3 teachers from the Institute which has handled with the final papers, one of them takes the President role, and a teacher extraneous to the Institute.
Calculation of the graduation grade:
- Grade Point Average, weighted on the credit point values and converted into a mark out of 110, of all the "educational activities with marks expressed out of 30" which are foreseen in the study plan,
to which is added:
- from 0 to 4 points (out of 110) for the assessment of the "quality of the final paper";
- from 0 to 2 points (out of 110) for the "time required to graduate";
- from 0 to 2 points (out of 110) for assessment of the "educational activities not expressed in a mark out of 30 and for all the other relevant elements in the student's academic career".
With reference to the "GPA"it should be noted that:
- a mark of 30 "cum laude"is expressed as 31;
- a maximum of 2 additional exams are taken into consideration (in cases where students have passed more than 2 additional exams, their 2 best results will be used);
- if students have passed exams at other Italian or foreign universities with a mark that is not expressed out of 30, the mark is converted to a mark out of 30 on the basis of a specific conversion table.
With reference to the "quality of the final paper":
- 4 points (out of 110) are awarded for excellent work;
- 3-2 points (out of 110) for good work;
- 1-0 points (out of 110) for sufficient work (final papers that are judged to be insufficient cannot be presented).
Based on the points proposed by the tutor, the Board assesses the quality of the final paper.
With reference to the "time taken to graduate".
- 2 points (out of 110) are awarded for degrees obtained within the standard program duration; more specifically by the last graduation session of the third year of the program;
- 1 point (out of 110) is awarded for degrees obtained not more than 1 year after the standard program duration;
- 0 points (out of 110) are awarded for degrees obtained more than 1 year after the normal standard program duration.
With reference to "educational activities not expressed in a mark out of 30 and for all the other elements in the student's academic career", a maximum of 2 points can be awarded in the following way:
- 1 point (out of 110) for:
- participation in the International Exchange Program (if student received credit for one exam passed abroad);
- participation in an internship or a similar program, in Italy or abroad, that lasted at least 3 months.
- 0.5 points (out of 110) for:
- participation in the Free-Mover Semester Program (if student received credit for at least one exam passed abroad);
- Computer skills certificate of a higher level than the level foreseen by the program requirements, namely the complete ECDL;
- an international foreign language certification of a higher level than the exit level foreseen by the program requirements, which is recognized by the University (see 3.3.4: "International certifications") and which must be approved by the Language Centre;
- positive participation, attested to by the teacher, for foreign language and cultural courses (e.g. Arab, Chinese, etc; see paragraph 3.8.1);
- internships or similar activities in Italy or abroad that lasted between 2 to 3 months.
- 0.25 points (out of 110) for:
- participation in the Campus Abroad Program (if student received credit for one exam passed abroad see paragraph 3.5.2);
- positive participation in a library research course (organized by the University Library; see paragraph 3.8.1);
- active participation in a course organized by CESDIA, from among those declared valid at the start of the academic year (see paragraph 3.8.1);
- active participation in a Sapere a tutto campo interdisciplinary course, from among those declared valid at the start of the academic year (see paragraph 3.8.1);
- active participation in the In-Company Training Program organized by the Career Service (see paragraph 3.7).
With reference to "educational activities not expressed in a mark out of 30 and for all the other elements in the student's academic career":
- 2 points may be cumulated by adding together the activities of different subsections.
It is not possible to add together points for activities which form part of the same subsection 2 or more times. For example:
- it is possible to obtain 0.5 points (out of 110) for a foreign language course and another 0.5 points (out of 110) for an internship that lasted less than 3 months;
- it is possible to attend different foreign language and cultural courses, however only 0.5 points (out of 110) will be awarded;
- internships can only be considered once, even if they are undertaken in different subsections.
The minimum graduation grade is 66 and the maximum grade is 110. The Board calculates the rounding of the graduation grade; if the decimal point is equal to or higher than 5, then the graduation grade is rounded up, whereas if the decimal point is lower than 5 it is rounded down.
The Examining Board
may unanimously award "lode" (cum laude)
only if the total of the 4 elements used to calculate the graduation grade is greater than or equal to 111.
Updated information starting from the July 2010 Graduation Session
Starting from the July 2010 Graduation Session the lode (cum laude) will be awarded when the total of the elements used to calculate graduation grade is greater than or equal to 111
on condition that the points awarded for the quality of the final paper are at least 3 points.
