GUIDES TO THE UNIVERSITY

The information in this Guide refers only to activities and regulations in place at Bocconi University.
For activities and regulations in place at Politecnico, please check the PoliMi widget available in the yoU@B Diary.

The program structures for the MSc in Cyber Risk Strategy and Governance (Cyber) and the MSc in Transformative Sustainability (TS), are made up of educational activities worth credit points, which are divided in:

• compulsory courses (including seminars) also interchangeable;
• activities chosen by students: electives or other educational activities (e.g. workshops or assignments);
• a EU foreign language other than English;
• Internship or similar activities;
• thesis.

For general information on MSc programs, see Chapter 2 of the Guide dedicated to Master of Science programs.

Program Director:
Greta Nasi (Bocconi)- Stefano Zanero (PoliMi)

Assistant to the Program Director
Alexander Hiedemann

Field of study:
Tecniche e metodi per la società dell’informazione (Field of Study LM-91 of the Ministerial Decree March 2007)

The program is aimed at shaping professionals with the integrated expertise needed to respond to the increase in connectivity, availability of large quantities of data and the digitalization of organizations: these entail both opportunities in terms of ways of generating value, as well as the responsibility to protect the wealth of information available to companies.
It is designed for students having multi-disciplinary backgrounds in computer science, engineering, management and economics with a genuine interest in prevention and response of cyber-risks.

The interdisciplinary focus of the program - that combines elements of computer science with social sciences (including management, economics, finance) as well as analytical methods, law, social engineering, ethics and behavioral skills - allows graduates to interpret the potential challenges related to cyber issues and influence the strategic decisions of businesses and organizations where they will work.

Specifically, the Master of Science in Cyber Risk Strategy and Governance qualifying goals are:

• to offer a polyhedral preparation with advanced skills that balances technological (computer engineering), managerial and legal knowledge and skills to govern the decision-making process in companies and public or private institutions. Multiple and non-conventional perspectives are used that allow operation in a highly “connected” socio-economic system characterized by the presence of large volumes of data. This means developing a profile that can manage current and future challenges, with a clear vision of the contexts in which we operate, while relating to all levels of an organization's hierarchy in order to influence strategic decisions and implement measures to limit cyber risk and take advantage of the opportunities connected to the wealth of information
• to develop a profile able to combine solid in-depth multi-disciplinary knowledge of technical cyber issues (computer science and quantitative methods) with competences in social sciences that enable relations with all levels of the hierarchy of any organization to influence strategic decisions and implementation of actions to mitigate the cyber risks;
• to develop behavioral skills via ad hoc seminars and via in / out of class activities related to courses, namely skills in communication, in interaction, in addressing complex issues;
• to promote, besides English (language of the program), proficiency in another EU language.

Cyber Risk Manager

Role in a work setting
Graduates’ role consists in supporting tasks related to cyber risk management at organizational level in order to govern the enterprise risk by designing and implementing ad hoc strategies.

In particular, they will:

• identify cyber risks in complex organizations;
• provide advisory services to increase awareness within organizations to both IT and non IT professionals;
• support the design and maintenance of the organization’s processes and information systems;
• contribute to setting the cyber policies of an organization to reduce the risk of vulnerability;
• perform forensic analysis of information systems and data to identify cyber crimes or frauds and their origin;
• lead data incident responses and data breach notification procedures at enterprise level.

Skills associated with the role
Graduates possess qualified knowledge of strategy, management (social sciences) and law to effectively work in organizations as well as technical skills (computer science and quantitative methods) to face cyber risk situations at enterprise level and help the organization maintain awareness of organization specific security and information technology policies. They are able to measure and assess the degree of cyber vulnerability of organizational processes and enact the proper tools to prevent and manage the risks.

Job opportunities 
Firms, financial institutions, other institutions in public/private sectors as well as consulting companies.

Data Protection and Security Manager

Role in a work setting
Graduates’ role consists in supporting tasks related to data protection, privacy management and compliance in order to govern risks on data. They deal with any data protection matters, issues and incidents and play a key role in fostering a data protection culture within the organization, designing and implementing essential elements of data protection regulations.

Such job profile is explicitly required by data protection regulations in Europe as well as around the world.

In particular graduates will

• design, advice, manage and maintain procedures’ compliance with data protection laws and policies;
• conduct data protection and security assessments and develop and execute relevant project plans;
• manage an awareness-raising program to promote a data privacy and security culture;
• lead data incident responses and data breach notification procedures relative to data and privacy issues;
• be the contact point for and cooperate with the relevant Data Protection Authorities when subjects exercise their individual data rights as well as supervise and advise on the response to such requests.

Skills associated with the role
Graduates possess qualified knowledge of computer science, law and management issues, to manage the compliance with data protection and privacy regulations and to help the organization maintain awareness of organization specific data, privacy and security policies.

Job opportunities
Firms, financial institutions, other institutions in public/private sectors as well as consulting companies.

The MSc in Cyber Risk Strategy and Governance is held entirely in English and is run in partnership (corso interateneo) by Università Bocconi and Politecnico Milano.
The first part of the program structure (year 1) includes compulsory courses and seminars that are common to all students in the degree program to:

• strengthen competences in the fields of computer science to set the base for a solid professional development in cyber risks (first semester at Politecnico);
• enhance the tool kit needed to frame cyber risks, set the appropriate strategies and govern their complexity in organisational environments (second semester at Bocconi).

These semesters are characterized by a multi-disciplinary approach to tackle the key topics of the program.

The second part of the program structure (year 2) includes seminars on ethics and for the development of behavioral skills and elective courses chosen by students to sharpen their professional profile in accordance with the main job profiles. Both Bocconi courses and Politecnico courses can be taken.

Moreover, the program structure includes the following compulsory educational activities:

• a work experience lasting approximately 3 months (internship or similar activity);
• one EU language; for non-Italian native speakers: Italian is compulsory; for Italian native speakers: another EU language among those listed in the Foreign language chapter;
• a thesis, which significantly characterizes the professional portfolio of the student.

The program structure of the Master of Science in Cyber Risk Strategy and Governance comprises educational activities for a total of 120 credit points.

 
First year of studies

(*Attendance is compulsory)

NOTE:

• code 20648 ‘Software methodologies and architectures for security - Module 1: Enterprise ICT architectures’ and code 20649 ‘Software methodologies and architectures for security - Module 2: Software engineering methodologies for security’ are respectively the first and second module of the course code 20647 ‘Software methodologies and architectures for security’.

Second year of studies

The courses subdivided in modules are considered passed, and may be recorded in the student academic career and certified, only after passing both exams of which it is made up. The final grade is obtained by the grade point average of the two marks compared to the credits and rounded up if decimals are equal or higher than 5, rounded down if they are lower than 5.

It is furthermore specified that the credit points and the grades earned for the individual modules passed will be taken into account for rankings within the University (e.g. ISU Scholarship, selection for International Programs,etc.) and they can be viewed by printing the unofficial academic transcript at Punto Blu.

In compliance with the educational objectives of the program and the ministerial tables, "Tecniche e metodi per la società dell’informazione", field of study LM-91 of the Ministerial Decree March 2007, the program structure may be subject to slight variations decided by the Academic Bodies.

For detailed information on foreign languages see "Foreign Languages".

During the second year, students choose 4 elective courses which correspond to the 24 credit points regarding the activities chosen by the student.

The MSc Program Director is available during office hours to provide more information concerning the program structure. Office hours are published on the website at www.unibocconi.eu/officehours.

The program structure for the second year includes:

a) 1 course chosen from among the following (offered at Bocconi):

b) 1 course chosen from among the following (offered at PoliMi):
 

c) at least  2 courses chosen from among the following, not including those chosen in points a) and b):
 

*offered at Bocconi
**offered at PoliMi

Program Director
Francesco Perrini (Bocconi) - Raffaella Cagliano (PoliMi)

Assistant to the Program Director
Fabio Quarato (Bocconi)

Field of study
Scienze economiche per l’ambiente e la cultura (Field of Study LM-76 of the Ministerial Decree March 2007)

The MSc in Transformative Sustainability (Joint Bocconi – PoliMi Program; in English) is an internationally-oriented MSc aiming at providing students with the knowledge and the tools needed for transitioning companies toward a sustainable business and management approach, through the innovation of products, processes, systems and business models supported by technological advancements, and for understanding the influence of ESG criteria on governance, management and financial and investment decisions.
Actually, the transition to more sustainable paradigms must take into account both environmental challenges and social challenges, within the frame of a “just transition”.
In this transformation, technologies are a fundamental enabling factor: technology must be guided by an innovation process that starts from the vision and objectives and takes into account all the variables that characterize the business model and processes of companies.
In this respect, the program aims at combining the capability of strategic vision on sustainability (the why) with expertise in enabling science and technologies and processes (the what) through mediation of innovation and design methodologies (the how); the whole innovation path within sustainability is addressed from strategic planning to execution.

More in details, the qualifying goals of the MSc in Transformative Sustainability are:

• Provide fundamental interdisciplinary and advanced knowledge in the fields of Sustainability management and economics and in key enabling science and technologies for sustainability transition
• Develop competences on key methods and tools for sustainability
• Widen / deepen the knowledge into key enabling technologies for sustainability transition or theoretical methods and practical tools for sustainability management and entrepreneurship
• Foster the ability to apply knowledge adopting an interdisciplinary perspective and an entrepreneurial approach thanks to workshop activities;
• Develop a critical thinking approach and behavioral skills via ad hoc seminars and via in / out of class activities related to courses as well as via the internship (namely skills in communication, in interaction and teamwork, in addressing complex issues);
• Promote, besides English (language of the program), proficiency in another EU language (Italian for non-Italian native speakers).

In a nutshell…
The program aims at preparing professional figures who know how:

• To recognize and understand the transformations required by sustainability in the main business processes
• To outline and guide systemic innovation processes:
  • not only focused on scientific and technological innovation but also on the organization, management and business model of the company itself ("meso" level, of mediation between strategy and technology)
  • not only focused on the company or a part of it, but on a broader system, which sees collaboration with other external parties, or the main stakeholders and actors who can bring the different skills necessary to face complex challenge
  • not only focused on environmental variables but also taking into account the social and economic impacts of the transition.

Sustainability specialist

Role in a work setting
The role consists in supporting the sustainable growth and transformation process of the corporate business by integrating sustainability into the value chain: sustainability specialists contribute to the definition of the corporate sustainability strategy and support the institutional commitment towards a more sustainable, eco-friendly and socially responsible company.

Typical tasks are:

• Support the design and documentation of the sustainability transformative strategy and roadmap at corporate or divisional level and/or cross-functional work with different company’s functions to actualize the strategy, by encouraging the adoption of innovative solutions, technologies, materials, processes;
• Management of various internal and cross-departmental sustainability projects;
• ESG reporting: design and implement reporting systems to monitor non financial KPIs and sustainability metrics;
• Acting as internal pivot/ambassador to collect and disseminate sustainability-related best practices and innovative approaches, also for internal/external communication purposes, and management of internal co-ownership of the change agenda;
• Monitoring and research of trend reports, policy changes and new regulations to identify potential impact on strategy and to support the roll-out of the relevant international directives;
• Management of key sustainability stakeholders’ relations (including international organizations, government, agencies, NGOs, associations, academia) and lobbying activities towards National and International institutions on sustainability legislative/public policy issues impacting the corporate business.

Skills associated with the role
Knowledge of methodologies and tools to:

• Develop strategies, programs and practices aimed at sustaining the transition of organizations toward sustainability;
• Design and develop new products, processes, systems and business models, exploiting the appropriate technologies, to tackle challenges and opportunities of the sustainable transition;
• Measure the sustainability and impact outcome of projects, processes and activities for management, financial and investment decisions.

Job opportunities 
ESG/CSR/Sustainability Offices or positions in corporates, NGOs and non-profit organizations, innovative start-ups.
 

Sustainability analyst

Role in a work setting
The role consists in:

• Supporting clients in their transition towards sustainable business models, by developing methodologies and tools in order to incorporate sustainability policies into business strategy and investment decisions;
• Performing research, working on reports, drafting position/policy papers to address the most relevant issues related to sustainability.

Typical tasks are:

• Analysis of scenarios and benchmarks; scouting of policies, best practices and new technologies; support for policy development;
• Support in the definition and implementation of sustainable strategic plans, to address the main sustainability issues and topics (e.g. climate change, circular economy, decarbonization);
• Close collaboration with investment professionals to perform analysis, produce an informed opinion and support fundamental integration of relevant insights related to sustainability into investment decisions; development of Social Responsible Investment Plan and support of ESG ratings projects;
• Analysis of sustainability risks, economic, social and environmental impact; definition of ESG KPIs; design of monitoring and reporting systems;
• Draft and review of Sustainability/DNF Reports; ESG due diligence and compliance checks on international principles and guidelines related to sustainability; preparation of draft background papers, policy papers, reports and studies.

Skills associated with the role
Knowledge of methodologies and tools to:

• Analyze strategies, programs and practices aimed at sustaining the transition of organizations toward sustainability;
• Measure the sustainability and impact performance of new products, processes, systems and business models for management, financial and investment decisions;
• Evaluate sustainability programs and activities according to ESG criteria and compliance with relevant principles and standards.

Job opportunities
Consulting companies, financial institutions, international organizations, think tanks, research institutes and academia.

The MSc in Transformative Sustainability (in English) is run in partnership (corso interateneo) by Università Bocconi and Politecnico di Milano; it involves mobility of students; moreover, in some specific cases, instructors move and teach at partner university.

The study plan includes:

• courses (compulsory and electives, with limited or open choice), seminars and workshops,
• a work experience lasting approximately 3 months (internship or similar activity);
• one EU language (for non-Italian native speakers: Italian is compulsory; for Italian native speakers: another EU language among those listed in “Guide to the University”);
• the thesis, which significantly characterizes the student’s academic curriculum.

Courses, seminars and workshops are organized in educational blocks, namely:

• Fundamentals of sustainability management and economics
• Fundamentals of key enabling technologies for sustainability transition
• Key tools and methods for innovation for sustainability
• Deeper /wider competences on key enabling technologies for sustainability transition as well as on theoretical methods and practical tools for sustainability management and entrepreneurship.

As far as courses (compulsory and limited choice electives), seminars and workshop (first and/or second year) are concerned, students attend at Bocconi in the first semester and at Politecnico di Milano in the second semester.

As far as the open choice elective (second year, semester to be chosen by the student) is concerned, students attend at Bocconi or at Politecnico depending on the elective they chose. Actually, both Universities offer open choice electives in both semesters and there will be an overall balance between electives offered in the two semesters to give students equal opportunities in the choice and to allow them to balance their workload in relation to the period of their internship.

Some academic activities are taught by Bocconi instructors only, some others by Politecnico instructors only and some others on a shared basis in order to foster a truly hybrid education. Credits of all courses, seminars and workshop are equally distributed between Bocconi and Politecnico di Milano.

The program structure of the Master of Science in Transformative Sustainability comprises educational activities for a total of 120 credit points.

First year of studies

(*Attendance is compulsory)

NOTE:

• code 20818 ‘Management and economics for sustainability - Module 1 (Corporate sustainability strategies and governance)’ and code 20819 ‘Management and economics for sustainability - Module 2 (Environmental economics and climate change)’ are respectively the first and second module of the course code 20817 ‘Management and economics for sustainability’
• code 20826 ‘Technologies for energy and sustainable transition - Module 1 (Ecological processes, environmental impacts and transition towards sustainability)’ and code 20827 ‘Technologies for energy and sustainable transition - Module 2 (Technologies for the energy transition towards sustainability)’ are respectively the first and second module of the course code 20825 ‘Technologies for energy and sustainable transition’

Second year of studies a.y. 2023/2024 

Moreover, in addition:
 

The courses subdivided in modules are considered passed, and may be recorded in the student academic career and certified, only after passing both exams of which it is made up. The final grade is obtained by the grade point average of the two marks compared to the credits and rounded up if decimals are equal or higher than 5, rounded down if they are lower than 5.

It is furthermore specified that the credit points and the grades earned for the individual modules passed will be taken into account for rankings within the University (e.g. ISU Scholarship, selection for International Programs,etc.) and they can be viewed by printing the unofficial academic transcript at Punto Blu.

In compliance with the educational objectives of the program and the ministerial tables, "Scienze economiche per l’ambiente e la cultura", field of study LM-76 of the Ministerial Decree March 2007, the program structure may be subject to slight variations decided by the Academic Bodies.
For detailed information on foreign languages see "Foreign Languages".

At beginning of their 2nd year, students will be required to choose 1 elective (6 cpu in total) from a pre-defined list of courses offered by Bocconi and PoliMito widen / deepen the knowledge into key enabling technologies for sustainability transition or theoretical methods and practical tools for sustainability management and entrepreneurship.

Students attend at Bocconi or at Politecnico depending on the elective they chose. Actually, both Universities offer electives in both semesters and there will be an overall balance between electives offered in the two semesters to give students equal opportunities in the choice and to allow them to balance their workload in relation to the period of their internship.

The list (together with courses’ profile) will be published in good time before the end of the first year.

The MSc Program Director will schedule specific office hours to provide students with information about the second year program structure and to discuss their electives. In addition the MSc Program Director is available regularly during office hours to provide more information concerning the program structure.

Office hours are published on the website at www.unibocconi.eu/officehours.