Guides to the university

The choice of the foreign languages and the level of the course must be carried out in the first year of studies through the yoU@B Diary by accessing to the Punto Blu-Study Plan>Language Choice from 8 to 19 January 2018.
In the second year, when enrolling in the academic year, students will be asked to confirm the choice they made in the first year.

For information about the choice of foreign languages and possible modifications and language courses offered, see "Foreign Languages" or check the website at www.unibocconi.eu/languagecentre.

• Percorsi di Management (Majors of Management), held in Italian and in English, or
• Organizzazione e gestione delle risorse umane (Organization and Human Resourse Management), held in Italian language only.

• Healthcare;
• International organizations;
• Public management and business-government relations;
• Social enterprise and not for profit organizations.

• Big data and business analytics;
• Green Management & Sustainability;
• IT consulting;
• Technology and Innovation Management.

• 1 compulsory courses from among:
• Institutions, government and society - Module II A
• Institutions, government and society - Module II B

• 3 electives (specifying the language when they are taught in Italian and English) or
  
• 2 electives and 2 in-depth studies worth 3 credit points each. It is specified that only one in-depth course is associated to a course for a maximum worth of 3 credit points.

Students enrolled in the first year of a MSc program are admitted to the second year regardless of the number of credit points earned.
After the first year of the program, students can enrol in the second year or in the first year as repeating students ("ripetente" or "fuori corso intermedio").
After the second year, students who have not yet completed their studies generally enrol as "fuori corso"; however they may still enrol as "ripetente".
Only students who are enrolled in the academic year as "regular" or "repeating" are allocated a class group for lessons.

In addition, all students enrolled:

• are allowed to sit exams;
• are granted access to the various services offered by the University (Library, IT labs, etc);
• can request enrolment certifications for the academic year in which they are enrolled.

• select the "Enrolment in academic year" option;
• enter the enrolment data requested.

Second-year students can change the first and/or second language by using, after accessing to the yoU@B, the Punto Blu during the periods from 26 July - 20 September 2017 and 8 - 19 January 2018.
In addition, in the same periods, students can apply to have the mark that is recorded in the student's undergraduate academic career validated, in order to be exempted from the MSc language exam.
More information is available in "Foreign languages".

During the 8 - 19 January 2018 period students can change their I and II semester electives included in their study plans with other II semester electives as long as they refer to the current academic year. These modifications must meet the numerical limits specified in "Allocation of electives".

Some highly-motivated and deserving MSc students will be allowed to obtain academic credit from higher level courses. That is, courses held as part of the following Bocconi PhD Programs: PhD in Economics and Finance, PhD in Business Administration and Management, PhD in Public Policy and Administration and, PhD in Statistics.

PhD courses offered in the 2017-2018 a.y.

This is a unique opportunity to enrich your academic curriculum with higher level courses.
This opportunity is offered to a limited number of students.

Considering the high level of complexity of PhD courses and the small number of students admitted, the selection procedures need to be rigorous. The assessment is based on a series of factors (described below) but it is necessarily comprehensive and qualitative depending on the applicant’s profile and the course requested in relation to the profiles of other candidates. It is not possible to challenge the final selection decisions made by the PhD School. Submitting the application for a higher level studies course implies acceptance of the assessment, whether positive or negative, given by the PhD School at the end of the selection.

At the same time, admission to courses of the PhD School implies acceptance of its rules.

Selection requirements

• Only students who have been awarded a graduation grade of the undergraduate program of at least 105 out of 110 can be admitted in the selection procedure;
• students enrolled in the first or second year of studies (as regular students 'in corso') for the 2017-2018  academic year can apply;
• students cannot apply for PhD courses taught in the same semester in which they have been selected for an Exchange or Free-mover Semester programs. However, students selected for such programs can apply for PhD courses held while they are attending lessons at Bocconi;
• students admitted to a Double Degree program are excluded from the selection; these programs include the attendance of the second year of studies at partner universities.
  

Number of PhD courses that can be selected
Students enrolled in ESS programs can choose up to 3 PhD courses. Of these, they can request recognition of 2 courses in place of MSc electives and 1 course as an additional one.

Students enrolled in other MSc programs (Clefin/Finance and GIO) can choose up to 2 PhD courses: of these they can request recognition of 1 course in place of a MSc elective and 1 course as an additional course.

When selecting PhD courses, students cannot express an alternative choice for any course. Decisions are final. This choice is unavoidable due to the complexity and non-mechanical nature of the selection procedure.

The list of available PhD courses for MSc program students includes the name of the PhD Course Director, the teaching period, the MSc program the course is offered in and the maximum number of places available for MSc students for each course. All courses are taught in English.

Some PhD courses and MSc courses may be incompatible courses in terms of contents. Therefore, students cannot record both courses in their study plans. Students must verify any incompatible courses when choosing courses.

Selection procedure
The assessment of each student is based on his/her academic career and degree of motivation.

The list of the candidates admitted is determined by the Dean of the PhD School. The decision is final.

If a student who has been selected wishes to stop attending the PhD course(s) for whatever reason, those slots will not be reassigned to other students.

The criteria for selection are the following:

percentage of credit points earned (by the end of the February exam session) compared to the total number of credit points that can be earned

• grade point average (weighted on the credit points)
• brief letter of motivation 
• short CV 
• any GMAT or GRE certification
• graduation grade of the undergraduate degree.

Deadlines and procedures
Detailed information on timelines and procedures for the 2017-2018 will be made available during the year.

• In May students apply:
  • via yoU@B Diary, by specifying the courses they wish to attend;
  • by submitting a brief letter of motivation, CV and any GMAT or GRE certification to the Academic Affairs Division Desk.
• By the first half of July students will receive an admission/non-admission message concerning the courses via yoU@B;
• In August students will include elective courses provided in the Master of Science program list only (they do not enter the PhD courses they applied for). If students pass PhD exams they can record up to 1 exam (up to 2 exams for ESS students) in place of one (two) of the MSc elective courses previously included in the study plan. Should students, for whatever reason, not pass the PhD exams, then the study plan and elective courses selected by 31 August will be considered. Students selected for one or more PhD exams are not given other chances to modify the MSc elective courses other than those usually provided for all students.  

The class timetable may not be available when making the choice (as a general rule in the month of August), and PhD classes and other MSc course lessons might overlap.

PhD Teaching and exam
Classes consist of a limited number of students (usually 5 to 10).

At the end of the course students have only ONE chance to sit the exam.

Students can attend the PhD course for the academic year to which he/she has applied. In other words, students applying in May 2018 for the PhD courses of the 2018-2019 academic year must sit the PhD exam for that academic year.

Recording in the student’s academic career
After passing PhD exams, students are contacted by the Study Planning Office of the Academic Affairs Division in order to define the composition of their study plan, therefore to evaluate the possibility of including the course in place of an elective course or as an additional one.

The exams passed are recorded in the student’s academic career as courses without Bocconi correspondence, taken as part of the Bocconi PhD School. Only for ESS students the PhD exam can be recorded as course with Bocconi correspondence in the student’s academic career. The exams passed are recorded in the student’s academic career with a grade out of thirty and they are calculated in the GPA.

The recording is automatic and students cannot refuse the grade. Assessment of the PhD exam is made fairly without special regard for students who access the exam as a MSc program student. This should be carefully weighed by each student when applying for a PhD course.

Recording PhD courses in the academic career by students who have not been admitted to attend such courses through the procedure described above is absolutely not allowed.

Each course is worth 6 credit points.

• Graduate level educational activities:

• electives of Msc Programs;
• foreign languages; in-depth studies (only for students enrolled in ESS two in-depth studies are equal to an elective course).
• higher level courses (PhD). For detailed information on the procedures for including such courses see paragraph 9.2.8. Higher level courses.
  

• allocation of elective courses entered as additional exams is subject to the limit of places available;
• allocation of elective courses entered as additional exams, if available, is made after the allocation of the elective courses included in the student’s academic career as choice/change of study plan, i.e. after 1 September for electives of the first semester, after 20 January for second semester ones and it is depending on the places’ availability. (see paragraph "Allocation of electives courses")

Students cannot change their MSc program during the first year of studies.
After completion of the first year, students who apply to change their MSc program may be admitted to the first year of the new MSc program.

For MSc programs that are taught in both Italian and English, changing from a class group taught in English to a class group taught in Italian (and vice versa) is the same as changing Msc Program and therefore can only be done at the end of the first year.. The requests of changing class group must be considered as exceptional cases and must be accompanied by written motivation by the student. The possibility of having the request accepted depend on, in addition to the reason provided by the student, the respect of minimum language requirements specified below and by the student’s academic curriculum, to the number of applications, on the basis of the information available in the application period, of the class group of destination. In these cases, the admission decision and the year of admission will be defined by the MSc Program Director after the approval given by the Dean of the Graduate School.

In case of change from a Master of Science taught in Italian to a Master of Science taught in English, one of the language prerequisites recognized as valid for enrolling in a Master of Science in English is needed. In case of change from a program taught in English to a Program taught in Italian, one of the language prerequisites recognized as valid for enrolling to a Master of Science in Italian is needed.

The MSc Program Director of the new program evaluates all the changing MSc program requests submitted and decides on the possible admittance of the students on the basis of a global assessment of the student’s curriculum

When changing from one MSc program to another, the following applies:

• exams taken for courses in the original degree that have the same title, code and credit point value as those included in the new MSc Program are considered to be equal (some exams in common for the two MSc Programs);

• exams are to be integrated if they are for courses belonging to the same subject group in both the original and new degree program. Courses may have significantly different course profiles but are worth the same credit point value, or the original programs courses may be worth less credit points than those of the new program. In this case the exam mark is based on a weighted average of the marks obtained in both degree programs;
• any exams included in the original degree that are not included in the program structure of the new degree are considered to be in excess. Note that compulsory courses taken as part of the original MSc Program which are not included in the program structure of the new MSc Program can be recognized as additional and also as elective courses if approved by the MSc Program Director.

For the 2017-2018 academic year the following numerical limits have been set: 3 students for each class group of each MSc program.

The requests are evaluated by the MSc Program Director who carries out a global assessment of the student’s curriculum and decides upon the possible admittance/non admittance in a new MSc Program.

In cases where the number of students who could be possibly admitted is greater than the number of places, a single ranking list is made based on the student’ weighted average and the number of credit points earned will be taken into account.

Students can submit an application to change the MSc program (the application form must be collected, filled out and handed in at the Academic Affairs Division Desk) during the 27 July - 29 August 2017 period. The same deadline applies for cancelling or modifying any applications previously submitted.
In order to submit the application to change the MSc program, students must be enrolled in the 2017-2018 academic year in their original MSc Program.

On 5 September 2017, via their yoU@B student Diaries, students will receive the results of the Master of Science change, admitted students receive this message together with the new program details and the class group assigned. 

•  duty stamp of 16,00 euros;
• unofficial academic transcript and Bocconi ID card (except for the card which can be enabled for banking operations);
• receipt for payment of fees for the issue of the transfer document;
• declaration from the Università Bocconi Library that the student does not have any books still out on loan;
• authorization from ISU;
• authorization from the University Fees Office (TCA).

Students who during the academic year have military service, civil service, female students in the year of birth of each child and students who are forced to interrupt studies because of serious illness and certified prolonged medical conditions can apply  to temporarily interrupt their studies in accordance with D.P.C.M. 09/04/2001.

Temporary interruption means that those students will not be able to complete any administrative operations, participate in educational activities or make use of university services offered to students. The years for which the student did not enrol do not count towards disqualification. For each year of temporary interruption students are required to pay a fixed sum for each year as set by the University Fees Office (TCA).      

After eight academic years following the end of the standard duration of the program, starting from the first initial enrolment in the university system, the student academic career is subject to a specific evaluation.

If positive it will be defined the new maximum deadline, usually corresponding to the standard duration of the program, for completing all the educational activities.

The maximum number of enrolments as "fuori corso" and as "ripetente" does not take into account periods of temporary interruption requested according to D.P.C.M. (Ministerial Decree) 09/04/2001 which is described in "Suspension, temporary interruption and resumption of University studies".

Students who have been disqualified from their Degree Program can obtain certifications attesting to their university career and the number of credit points previously earned. If students should eventually resume their studies, the credit points previously earned will be evaluated to determine if they are still valid.

Disqualification does not apply to those students who have passed all exams and only miss the final degree exam.

• by 1 December 2017: they must go to the Admissions Office Desk (piazza Sraffa 13, which can be accessed through the One-Stop Service Center);
• later than such date: they must go to the Academic Affairs Division Desk.