Guides to the university

During the academic year, teaching for Master of Science Programs will be organized in 2 semesters.
For the 2024-2025 academic year, teaching will be held during the following periods:

• 1st semester: from Thursday 5 September 2024 to Friday 6 December 2024;
• 2nd semester: from Monday 3 February 2025 to Wednesday 14 May 2025.

Exceptions are the MSc in International Management and Marketing Management, which have the following schedule in their first year:

• 1st semester: from Thursday 5 September 2024 to Wednesday 11 December 2024;
• 2nd semester: from Monday 20 January 2025 to Wednesday 14 May 2025. 

Each semester is divided into 2 half-semesters.

The education model adopted by the Master of Science programs is characterized by teaching activities to encourage interaction between students and faculty.
In addition to traditional lectures, activities include case studies, practical exercises for which students are asked to prepare beforehand, and active class participation. Faculty can also assign individual and/or groups assignments, if necessary, assisted by a tutor.
For courses included in the degree program, one credit point corresponds to 8 hours of lectures.
A maximum of 2 hours of the total hours of a compulsory course (8) can be organized dividing the class group into 2 smaller groups.

Regarding progressive changes in the learning methods used, using a computer is a compulsory condition to attend the lectures of some courses. Each student should therefore be equipped with a personal laptop PC. For further info, see paragraph 1.7.1. Student's personal laptop computer.

The 2024-2025 academic year will include the following three methods of delivering lessons:

• Blended Synchronous: Lessons will take place exclusively in synchronous mode in the classroom. However, at the discretion of the faculty, a limited number of lessons (for a maximum of one hour per credit) may be dedicated to distance learning to combine traditional teaching with the use of specific teaching methods. This standard model can be applied to both compulsory and elective courses.
• Advanced: Lessons will take place both in synchronous mode in the classroom and asynchronous mode. The Advanced mode implies the use of innovative teaching methods, combining exercises and tools of various kinds. The course structure and the activities will be communicated in detail in the course syllabus. The Advanced mode can be applied to both compulsory and elective courses.
• Fully Online: Lessons will take place exclusively in synchronous remote mode. This mode can be applied to elective courses and, in exceptional cases only, to compulsory courses.

Video recordings of lectures will not be available for any of the three teaching methods – neither in person, nor online, synchronous or asynchronous.

The teaching delivery method adopted for individual courses is indicated in the course syllabus that will be published in the appropriate section of the website.

POSSIBLE EXCEPTIONS FROM IN-PERSON LESSON PARTICIPATION

One of the guiding principles of Bocconi's educational model is that of ever-increasing inclusion. For this reason, in order to welcome and facilitate students afflicted with certain conditions that prevent them from physically attending lessons at the University, only the following categories of students will be allowed to use video recordings of lectures during the 2024-2025 academic year:

• students with serious certified illnesses, including psychological illnesses, that prevent them from coming to campus for a minimum period of 20 days;
• students unable to travel to Italy from their country of residence due to failure to obtain a visa (in these cases, authorization will cover a two-week period and may be subject to renewal at the student's request);
• students participating in curricular internship programs both in Italy and abroad, provided that it is carried out in the year of the program provided for by their study plan. Please note that students participating in internships can request video recordings of lectures:
  a. of a maximum number of 3 courses during the semester in which the internship is scheduled;
  b. for lectures delivered in the period in which the internship takes place;
  c. provided that the internship has already been activated by the Internship Office at the time of the exception request.

With reference to students engaged in internship programs, it should be noted that in order to obtain access to video recordings of lectures, the three conditions listed in points a, b and c must be met.

The chance to attend online lectures will not be possible for the exception cases listed above.

Video recordings of lectures held in person will be provided and will remain available for the 48 hours after the lecture for authorized students only.

The procedures for submitting your request are included in the updated version of the 2024-2025 academic year of the FAQs that is published in the yoU@B Student Diary > Teaching.

Please note that there are no exceptions for exams which must still be taken in person.

Teaching activities are organized into class groups. For the 2024-2025 academic year, for the compulsory courses included in the Master of Science program structures, class groups have around 85 students each. There are exceptions for the Masters of Science in International Management (IM), “Politics and Policy Analysis” (PPA), "Cyber Risk Strategy and Governance" (CYBER) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) whose class groups have fewer students each.

For the first year of studies (compulsory courses) in 2024-2025 academic year, 27 class groups have been scheduled:

For educational activities, students are assigned to a class group as follows:

• for compulsory courses, class groups are assigned before lectures begin. Each class group is assigned a specific classroom for the majority of courses. All students belonging to the same class group attend the lectures in the same classroom and have the same faculty. To facilitate educational activities planning (class group numbers and classroom capacity), students cannot change their assigned class group;

• for some Master of Science programs (IM, ACME, GIO, EMIT, DSBA) students include in their study plans of first year second semester one or more courses chosen by the students on the basis of the curriculum/major/concentration/ workshop chosen; for such activities the class group is assigned before the relating lectures;

• for languages, the class group is assigned upon enrollment in the 2nd academic year (for more information, see Chapter 3 “Languages”);

• for electives, the class group is assigned when choosing the elective courses upon enrollment in the academic year (it can be viewed in the personalized class timetable after the period for choosing the electives is over).

Preparatory courses are offered before the start of first-year lectures (in the period 26 August - 4 September 2024). These courses are an important tool which helps students to face the subjects characterizing the first year of the Master of Science program.

As Master of Science programs are more specific than the Bachelor of Science programs and as the composition of class groups is heterogeneous, attendance is strongly recommended because they help all students enrolled take on the work involved in the university experience.

The course profiles of Master of Science programs have therefore been created taking the basic knowledge of the undergraduate programs acquired and known for granted. There is no exam at the completion of these courses.

Considering that the educational activities are offered across lots of MSc programs, it is not possible to exclude overlapping between lectures of preparatory courses, because they are more numerous than the time slots available.

Students do not need to sign up for these courses. The class timetable and the class group are available in the yoU@B Diary. The course profiles are published on-line at www.unibocconi.eu/courses.

For students duly enrolled in the first year of a program, preparatory courses for all curricular languages are available in the second semester of the 2024-2025 academic year.

Curricular language courses include information in the specific area of economics. Therefore, a suitable initial level is required in order for attendance in curricular courses during the semester after the preparatory courses to be beneficial and effective.

Preparatory courses are offered in the second semester of the first year of the program for French, Spanish and German at the A2 level, along with preparatory courses for Italian at the A1 level.

Course profiles for preparatory courses are available online (yoU@B and Blackboard).
There is no exam at the completion of these courses.

An e-learning class group for a very limited number of elective courses already taught in the same semester with traditional methods will be activated.
In the e-learning class group, traditional educational activities in class are replaced by participation in specific on-line activities, both asynchronous and synchronous.
On-line activities are set and scheduled by the Course Director. 

Method of choice 
For method of choice see "Administrative procedures, regulations and deadlines".

Course profiles and exam assessment methods
The course profiles of traditional class groups (in class) and of e-learning class groups are identical. However due to different teaching approaches, faculty can diversify supplementary exercises and/or other related activities by offering e-learning students alternate activities.

The exams are held at the university, following traditional methods (in person); the exam calendar is the same for the two class groups.

For information relating to credit points, language of instruction, semester and MSc programs offering these courses please check the course profiles published on the website at: www.unibocconi.eu/courses.

Class attendance at lectures is not compulsory. However, it is strongly recommended, as it meets the proposed educational model designed to favor gradual learning, the active participation of students in class, and the creation of a dialog between students and teachers.

Some courses may include attendance recording. Depending on the student's attendance, there may be different assessment methods for attending and non-attending students: when attendance is a decisive element for assigning the “attending” status to a student, the only method available for recording participation is through Attendance, the University online procedure. When courses include Attendance recording, students must record their attendance at lectures in accordance with the principles of the University Honor Code and the Students Code of Conduct.

For the 2024-2025 academic year, where attendance is a determining factor for attributing the ‘attending’ status are counted:

• for lessons held on Campus: only the attendance of students physically present in the classroom;
• for lessons scheduled remotely for the entire class: the attendance of students participating in the lesson remotely.

The first year class timetable
The class timetable has been planned so that educational activities connected to first-year compulsory courses are mainly concentrated in either the morning or the afternoon, in order to make it easier for students to dedicate the other part of the day to individual study.

The timetable is structured to provide specific time slots, different in each semester. These time slots are reserved for specific types of activities (compulsory courses, languages and in the second semester elective courses for the ESS program only). Thus, class timetable clashes between compulsory courses, electives and languages are avoided.

Lectures that require groups may be organized at times that are different from those planned for normal lectures.

The second year class timetable
In the second year, students complete their study plans by selecting elective courses following different rules in the various MSc programs (see "Program Structures of the Master of Science Degrees").

Regarding Major compulsory courses, the program structure does not allow overlapping between lectures. However, avoiding overlappings for elective courses is only possible for courses which are simultaneously present in the a) group of each Major. For DSBA, there is no overlapping between courses in DS track and courses in BA track. The Master of Science in Finance is an exception because, due to the high number of elective courses available in the a) groups for the 2024-2025 a.y., there is no guarantee that overlapping of lessons for courses in these groups will not occur.

Due to the complexity of the class timetable structure, it is not possible to exclude any course overlapping between lectures of elective courses.

Students are recommended to check the class timetable of elective courses before choosing the courses to be included in the study plan.
The second year class timetable also includes time slots for languages.

In general, for both years of MSc programs there are no teaching activities during the lunch break on Fridays, both in the first and second semester, as it is reserved for student group activities.

The class timetable, any changes and information on how teaching activities are conducted are published in the yoU@B Student Diary and on the University's website at www.unibocconi.eu/timetables
After initial enrollment and the enrollment in the academic year, students can view their personalized class timetable via the yoU@B student Diary.

On the graduation days listed below, lectures for all courses and all degree programs (Bachelor of Science, MSc and Integrated Master of Arts in Giurisprudenza [Law]) are suspended:

• Friday 25 October 2024 and Saturday 26 October 2024;
• Friday 4 April 2025 and Saturday 5 April 2025.

Teaching activities are also suspended in the periods below for all courses, due to the exam sessions for partial exams:

• 1st semester: from Thursday 24 October 2024 to Thursday 31 October 2024;
• 2nd semester: from Monday 10 March 2025 to Saturday 15 March 2025.

Teaching activities are also suspended on the following days:

• Wednesday 23 October 2024;
• Friday 1 November 2024;
• From Saturday 19 April 2025 to Saturday 3 May 2025.

The teaching materials (lectures, slides, exercises, etc.) are only distributed through the Blackboard platform. They remain available to students until one month after the exam of the related course or educational activity has been passed.

Copyright law protecting slides and other teaching materials related to courses delivered at Bocconi University; the improper use of slides and any other official teaching materials from the University (e.g. their uploading and publication, or dissemination online or through social networks) is a violation of the Code of Conduct and may result in disciplinary sanctions.

All courses have a Course Director who writes the course program, organizes assessment methods and textbooks, and is responsible for ensuring consistency of both teaching and assessment of his/her class groups. The Course Director must also organize the teaching staff of all class groups of his/her course. He/she is responsible for the individual result of course evaluation questionnaires for each class groups in the course.

Some courses offer tutor assistance. Tutoring includes support to the faculty and to student teams working on case studies, projects, in-class practical exercises, and management of the online community. It may also involve lectures that require the use of software.

For information about courses and teaching assistantship (teaching assistants), the following document can be consulted:
 

• List of teaching assistants 2024-2025 academic year (available in September)

Information regarding the 1st semester will be available by the end of September and information regarding courses offered in the 2nd semester will be available by the end of February.

During office hours, students have the opportunity to consult with teachers.

This gives students the chance to seek further explanations or clarifications of the topics that were not fully understood during lectures.

The office hours timetable can also be found in the yoU@B student Diary and/or on the website at www.unibocconi.eu/studentconsultationhours.

If decided by the professor, the office hours may be carried out only upon reservation by the student: in this case the reservation can be made exclusively through the yoU@B student Diary.

At the professor’s discretion, students are invited to check in advance the office hours methods.

For many years, Bocconi has used a detailed evaluation system designed to monitor the educational quality of each course which is based on listening and the student's direct active input.

This includes:

• feedback from "class group representatives", appointed to represent the entire class group by liaising with the faculty, acting as their spokesperson with the task of presenting their observations and suggestions and outlining any difficulties that may arise during lectures. The role of class representatives is also to create an environment which favors successful interaction between faculty and students. For this purpose, the Course Director is invited to periodically meet with class representatives, and at the end of the semester, discuss with them the general outcome of teaching. Also, upon his/her own initiative, the Program Director can meet them to check their opinions on the methods of the different courses in which the educational path is structured. Further details on the class representatives and student representatives can generally be found on the website at http://www.unibocconi.eu/ in "Student Representation";
• gathering opinions through questionnaires including the following surveys taking place in specific periods of the student’s academic career:
  1. Mid-semester evaluation of teaching (so called "mid-term evaluation"): carried out voluntarily by students at the faculty member’s request, to gather information on the teaching quality and course progress and shedding light on any problems in a timely fashion, allowing corrective action to be implemented before the end of the course;
  2. End-semester evaluation of teaching: carried out close to the end of each teaching semester, it involves all curricular courses and all students enrolled in them. This is the most important tool for students to express their opinions on how the various courses are organized and conducted. The evaluations provided, whose anonymity is protected, are essential for identifying which aspects should be corrected or improved for future editions of the courses in order to ensure increasingly higher quality standards. Questionnaires are completed through the use of an online procedure, accessible through a link sent by email that also can be found on the yoU@B Diary and Blackboard platform. Questionnaires can be completed even in the case of no attendance or attendance to only a few lectures. In such a case, students must fill out an ad hoc form reserved for “non-attending students”).
  3. Evaluation of the main university services: held annually on various occasions throughout the student’s academic career. This process is of fundamental importance in assessing the quality and effectiveness of the main services and infrastructure offered by the University. The anonymous evaluations provided by the students are essential for the continuous improvement of the services available to them. Questionnaires are completed through the use of an online procedure, accessible through a link sent by email that also can be found on the BlackBoard platform. This method guarantees convenience and ease of access for students, allowing them to anonymously express their opinions about university services.
  4. Evaluation of the overall university experience questionnaire: addressed to all the students who are about to complete their studies. It aims to gather information on students' global impressions regarding their study experience and the program attended, as well as the quality and effectiveness of the main facilities at the University and some support services (e.g. international mobility, internship, Employer Relations & Career Services). These questionnaires are also completed electronically through the use of an online procedure and are compulsory, as they are part of the requirements for completing the procedure for registering for a graduation session. The online questionnaire procedure can be accessed for a specified period of time through a special link sent by email to the student after all exams have been passed and after registering for the graduation session.