University of Turin
Encyclopedia
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
Università degli Studi di Torino, or often abbreviated to UNITO) is a university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
in the city of Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
in the Piedmont region of north-western Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. It is one of the oldest universities in Europe, and continues to play an important role in research and training.
Overview
The University of Turin was founded as a studium in 1404, under the initiative of Prince Ludovico di SavoiaLouis of Piedmont
Louis was the Lord of Piedmont and titular Prince of Achaea from 1402. He was a son of James of Piedmont and Marguerite de Beaujeu ....
. From 1427 to 1436 the seat of the university was transferred to Chieri
Chieri
Chieri is a town and comune in the province of Turin, Piedmont , located about 11 km southeast of Turin...
and Savigliano
Savigliano
Savigliano is a comune of Piedmont, northern Italy, in the Province of Cuneo, c. 50 kilometers south of Turin by rail....
. It was closed in 1536, and reestablished by Duke Emmanuel Philibert thirty years later. It started to gain its modern shape following the model of the University of Bologna
University of Bologna
The Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating university in the world, the word 'universitas' being first used by this institution at its foundation. The true date of its founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088...
, although significant development did not occur until the reforms made by Victor Amadeus II, who also created the Collegio delle Province for students not natives of Turin.
With the reforms carried out by Victor Amadeus II, the University of Turin became a new reference model for many other universities. During the 18th century, the University faced an enormous growth in faculty and endowment size, becoming a point of reference of the Italian Positivism
Positivism
Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
. Notable scholars of this period include Cesare Lombroso
Cesare Lombroso
Cesare Lombroso, born Ezechia Marco Lombroso was an Italian criminologist and founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology. Lombroso rejected the established Classical School, which held that crime was a characteristic trait of human nature...
, Carlo Forlanini
Carlo Forlanini
Carlo Forlanini was an Italian physician.In 1870 he earned his medical degree from the University of Pavia, where he studied as an alumnus of Borromeo College, and afterwards joined the staff of the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan...
and Arturo Graf
Arturo Graf
Arturo Graf , Italian poet, of German ancestry, was born at Athens.He was educated at the University of Naples and became a lecturer on Italian literature in Rome, till in 1882 he was appointed professor at Turin....
.
In the 20th century, the University of Turin was one of the centers of the Italian anti-fascism
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
. After the post-war period, the increase in the number of students and the improvement of campus structure were imposing, although losing some of its importance until a new wave of investments carried out in the end of that century. The new impulse was performed in collaboration with other national and international research centers, as well as with local organizations and the Italian Minister of Public Instruction
Italian Minister of Public Instruction
This is a list of Italian Ministers of Public Instruction since the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946.-Ministry of Education:...
.
By the end of the 1990s, the local campi of Alessandria, Novara and Vercelli became autonomous units under the new University of Eastern Piedmont
University of Eastern Piedmont
The University of Eastern Piedmont Amedeo Avogadro is a university located in Alessandria, Novara and Vercelli, Italy. It was founded in 1998 and is organized in 7 faculties...
.
Early years (1404-1566)
In the beginning of the 15th century, instability in the Lombard region caused by the political and military crisis, coupled with the untimely death of Gian Galeazzo ViscontiGian Galeazzo Visconti
Gian Galeazzo Visconti , son of Galeazzo II Visconti and Bianca of Savoy, was the first Duke of Milan and ruled the late-medieval city just before the dawn of the Renaissance...
, induced the teaching staff of the Universities of Pavia
Pavia
Pavia , the ancient Ticinum, is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It is the capital of the province of Pavia. It has a population of c. 71,000...
and Piacenza
Piacenza
Piacenza is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Piacenza...
to propose to Ludovico di Savoia-Acaia
Louis of Piedmont
Louis was the Lord of Piedmont and titular Prince of Achaea from 1402. He was a son of James of Piedmont and Marguerite de Beaujeu ....
the creation a of new Studium generale.
Choice of the location fell on Turin for a number of reasons: first it was at the crossroads between the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
, Liguria
Liguria
Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and good food.-Geography:...
and Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
; it was also an episcopal seat and in addition the Savoy Prince was willing to establish a university on his own land, like those in other parts of Italy. In autumn 1404, a bull issued by Benedict XIII
Antipope Benedict XIII
Benedict XIII, born Pedro Martínez de Luna y Pérez de Gotor , known as in Spanish, was an Aragonese nobleman, who is officially considered by the Catholic Church to be an antipope....
, the Avignon Pope, marked the actual birth of a centre of higher learning, formally ratified in 1412 by the Emperor Sigmund's certification and subsequently, in 1413, by a bull issued by antipope John XXIII
Antipope John XXIII
Baldassarre Cossa was Pope John XXIII during the Western Schism. The Catholic Church regards him as an antipope.-Biography:...
, the Pisan Pope, and probably by another issued in 1419 by Martin V, Pope of Rome, and by a series of papal privileges. The new institution, which initially only held courses in civil and canon law, was authorized to confer both the academic "licentia" and "doctoratus" titles that later became a single "laurea" (degree) title. The Bishop, as Rector of Studies, proclaimed and conferred the title on the new doctors.
The early decades were marked by discontinuity, due to epidemics and crises that plagued the region between the 1420s and the 1430s following the annexation of the Piedmont territories to the Duchy of Savoy and by difficult relations between the University and the local Public Administration. After a series of interruptions in its activities, the university was moved to Chieri
Chieri
Chieri is a town and comune in the province of Turin, Piedmont , located about 11 km southeast of Turin...
(between 1427 and 1434) and later, in 1434, to Savigliano
Savigliano
Savigliano is a comune of Piedmont, northern Italy, in the Province of Cuneo, c. 50 kilometers south of Turin by rail....
.
In 1436, when the institution returned to Turin, Ludovico di Savoia, who succeeded Amedeo VIII, introduced a new order of studies whereby the Government gained greater control over the University. The ducal licenses of 6 October, 1436 set up the three faculties of Theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, Arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
and Medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, and Law
University of Turin, Faculty of Law
The University of Turin, Faculty of Law is the law school of the University of Turin . The faculty of law is elsewhere called the Law Department of the University of Turin...
, and twenty-five lectureships or chairs. The growth and development of the role of Turin as the subalpine capital led to the consolidation of the University and a stability that lasted for almost a hundred years.
From 1443 the University was housed in a modest building purchased and refurbished by the City for this purpose on the corner of via Doragrossa (now Via Garibaldi) and via dello Studio (today's via San Francesco d'Assisi) directly behind the Town Hall, until the opening of the university premises in via Po, in 1720.
The Study, closed at the beginning of 1536 with the French occupation, reopened in 1558 with lecturers at Mondovì; it was re-established in Turin in 1566.
Instability and reform by Victor Amadeus II (1566-1739)
With Emmanuel Philibert and Charles Emmanuel I, the University enjoyed a season of great prosperity due to the presence of illustrious teachers and a sizeable and culturally motivated student body. However, a lengthy period of decline set in around the second half of the 17th century because of plagues, famines and continual wars: courses were irregular or temporarily suspended, the number of chairs was reduced, and for those temporarily vacant, it was necessary to resort to private instruction.The opening of the new premises marked a major turning point in the history of the greatest Piedmontese educational institution. The inauguration building in via Po, close to Piazza Castello, and the seats of power and other educational institutions of the City, coincided with the academic year 1720-1721, the first year of the reform of university studies passed by Victor Amadeus II in the context of a radical renewal at all levels of public administration and education.
Victor Amadeus II was convinced that an efficient university controlled directly by the State was the only way to form a faithful and well-trained ruling class that could support him in the process of modernizing the Nation. While the War of Spanish Succession was still being fought, the Duke had entrusted his officials to gather information concerning the structure of the major Italian and foreign universities, and charged the Sicilian jurist Francesco D'Aguirre with the task of drawing up a reorganization project.
Among the notable innovations of the reform enacted by Victor Amadeus was the opening of the Collegio delle Province (Halls of Residence for the Provinces), which housed one hundred young people of low social extraction to aid them in completing their studies at the State's expenses, and the establishment of the Chair of Eloquenza Italiana (Italian Rhetoric) alongside that of Latin. This had a noteworthy effect on the cultural linguistic models of the Duchy. At the time, the Piedmontese Studium became a point of reference for university reforms at Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
and Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
and subsequently a model for the universities in Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
and Sassari
Sassari
Sassari is an Italian city. It is the second-largest city of Sardinia in terms of population with about 130,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the greater metropolitan area...
.
French domination (1739-1817)
Charles Emmanuel III continued the policy of innovation and consolidation commenced by Victor Amadeus II and created a University Museum in 1739. However, in the last decades of the 18th century, the course of events at the University, closely connected to international developments, led to great urban unrest and the lost of State prestige. The revolt of university students in 1791 joined by artisans who stormed the "Collegio delle Province" in 1792 causing numerous victims, was a clear instance of this conflict.The University and "Collegio" were closed in the autumn of the same year when war broke out against revolutionary France. In January 1799, the provisional Piedmontese Government reopened the University under the control of the "Comité d'instruction publique" (Committee for Public Instruction). In summer, 1800, the second provisional Government transformed the University into a National University and replaced the Faculties with eight Special Schools, which were based on the existing pattern: Chemistry and Rural Economy, Surgery, Drawing and Fine Arts, Legislation, Medicine, Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Literature and Veterinary Medicine. Two years later, Literature was abolished, Medicine and Surgery were merged and many chairs were suppressed for financial reasons.
Another milestone in the Turin university system was the introduction of the new Imperial order, since Piedmont had become a French Department; this involved the personal appointment by Napoleon of a Rector to head each University. Because of its size, number of chairs, teaching staff and students the Piedmontese University became the second largest in the Empire after Paris.
A famous student of this age was Joseph-Louis Lagrange.
Age of Victor Emmanuel I (1817-1832)
With the fall of Napoleon, Victor Emmanuel I brought back the former legislation of the Savoy regime. Innovations in the following years involved establishment of the chair of Political Economy in the Faculty of LawUniversity of Turin, Faculty of Law
The University of Turin, Faculty of Law is the law school of the University of Turin . The faculty of law is elsewhere called the Law Department of the University of Turin...
in 1817, the opening of a Veterinary School at Venaria in 1818, and a new procedure for the appointment of the Rector by the academic staff of each Faculty, who proposed to the Sovereign a list of names of retired or teaching professors.
The uprisings in 1821 were supported by students in Turin to the extent that the Collegio delle Province had to be closed and the University itself operated only to a limited degree. To prevent student assemblies in the Capital, it was ordered that all students who did not come from the provinces of Turin, Pinerolo
Pinerolo
Pinerolo is a town and comune in north-western Italy, 40 kilometres southwest of Turin on the river Chisone.-History:In the Middle Ages, the town of Pinerolo was one of the main crossroads in Italy, and was therefore one of the principal fortresses of the dukes of Savoy. Its military importance...
and Susa
Susa, Italy
Susa is a city and comune in Piedmont, Italy. It is situated on at the confluence of the Cenischia with the Dora Riparia, a tributary of the Po River, at the foot of the Cottian Alps, 51 km west of Turin.-History:...
would continue their education in their place of residence, where coaches went to supervise the progress of their studies and to conduct so-called "private" examinations. In this period too participation in the appointment of the Rector was restricted: the President of the Magistrature submitted the names of five candidates to the King, chosen among the teaching staff of Surgery, Medicine, Sciences, Law
University of Turin, Faculty of Law
The University of Turin, Faculty of Law is the law school of the University of Turin . The faculty of law is elsewhere called the Law Department of the University of Turin...
, Literature and Theology but without the involvement of the professors.
The Charles Albert years (1832-1864)
Charles Albert's opening up to moderate liberalism and his international outlook had positive effects on the University, too: like the development of institutions and the foundation of others, in addition to the appointment of illustrious scholars such as the French Augustin Cauchy to teach Sublime Physics and the Dalmatian Pier Alessandro ParaviaPier Alessandro Paravia
Pier Alessandro Paravia was an Italian writer, scholar, philanthropist and professor of Italian eloquence at the University of Turin.-Early years:...
to the chair of Italian Rhetoric.
In 1832 the Institute of Forensic Medicine was set up, in 1837 a specialization course in Obstetrics was introduced and a new Theatre and Museum of Anatomy was opened at the San Giovanni Battista Hospital to bring together the materials stored at the University and those collected since 1818 at the Museum of Pathological Anatomy. In 1842 the Collegio delle Province was reopened and students gradually resumed attending courses, which were better organized thanks to the increased number of chairs. An Upper School of Methods and the Chair of the Military History of Italy (1846)—which became the chair of Modern History—were set up. The Chair of Political Economy was revived.
The new order of 1850 redesigned the Medicine and Surgery course to give scope for clinical experience and practice in hospitals and laid the foundations for the School of Pharmacology, which later became a Faculty.
Brief decline and revival in academic research (1864-1905)
Cultural life involving intellectuals and exiles, journalists and politicians was very lively inside and outside the University until the Capital was moved to FlorenceFlorence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
: its decline commenced when members of the teaching staff were called to government duties or to State management. Thus the circles that gravitated around the Court thinned and the City itself dropped from 220,000 inhabitants to less than 190,000.
However, the University managed to find new life among the science faculties and their staff: in fact, in early 1864, Filippo de Filippi
Filippo de Filippi
Filippo de Filippi was an Italian doctor, traveler and zoologist.Filippo De Filippi was born in Pavia. He succeeded Giuseppe Gené as professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Turin...
, professor of Zoology in the Science Faculty, held the first lecture in Italy on the theories of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
. At his death, in 1867, Michele Lessona
Michele Lessona
Michele Lessona was an Italian zoologist.Michele Lessona became a specialist in amphibians.His accomplishments include the translation of certain works Darwin for example The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex.-Works:Partial list* Carlo Darwin...
succeeded to the chair and became director of the Museum of Zoology, then Dean of the Faculty of Sciences and, finally, Rector from 1877 to 1880.
Giulio Bizzozero
Giulio Bizzozero was an Italian doctor and medical researcher. He is known as the original discoverer of Helicobacter pylori, the bacteria which is responsible for peptic ulcer disease...
, who founded the Laboratory of General Pathology (1873) and contributed largely to the spread of the microscope in addition to discovering blood platelets, medicine in Turin branched out into the field of social medicine to meet the health and sanitary needs of the population, particularly as regarded infectious diseases and infant mortality.
The political activities of Luigi Pagliani, professor of Hygiene and founder in 1878 of the Hygiene Society, were at the basis of the strategies of public health in Italy, while discoveries made by Edoardo Bellarmino Perroncito, the first to hold a Chair of Parasitology in Italy (1879), saved the lives of thousands of miners all over Europe.
In 1876, Cesare Lombroso
Cesare Lombroso
Cesare Lombroso, born Ezechia Marco Lombroso was an Italian criminologist and founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology. Lombroso rejected the established Classical School, which held that crime was a characteristic trait of human nature...
set up the Institute of Forensic Medicine; in 1884 Carlo Forlanini
Carlo Forlanini
Carlo Forlanini was an Italian physician.In 1870 he earned his medical degree from the University of Pavia, where he studied as an alumnus of Borromeo College, and afterwards joined the staff of the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan...
tried out the first artificial lung in Turin.
In 1887 the Botanical Institute and Gardens started a systematic collection of all plants present in the Piedmont Region; in 1878 the University Consortium was constituted with the Municipality, the Province of Turin and some of the neighbouring Provinces "in order to preserve the prestige of the University of Turin as one of the primary centres of university studies [in Italy and Europe]."
In 1893 the foundation of the Laboratory of Political Economy connected to the University and the Industrial Museum marked a further feat beyond the scientific sphere.
In the Humanities, Arturo Graf
Arturo Graf
Arturo Graf , Italian poet, of German ancestry, was born at Athens.He was educated at the University of Naples and became a lecturer on Italian literature in Rome, till in 1882 he was appointed professor at Turin....
, a "European Turinese", deserves special mention.
20th century and beyond
At the turn of the century, a branch of the University formed the first nucleus of the Polytechnic under the guidance of Galileo Ferraris
Galileo Ferraris
Galileo Ferraris was an Italian physicist and electrical engineer, noted mostly for the studies and independent discovery of the rotating magnetic field, a basic working principle of the induction motor...
.
In the same period Giuseppe Peano
Giuseppe Peano
Giuseppe Peano was an Italian mathematician, whose work was of philosophical value. The author of over 200 books and papers, he was a founder of mathematical logic and set theory, to which he contributed much notation. The standard axiomatization of the natural numbers is named the Peano axioms in...
taught at the Faculty of Sciences.
Last century, the Letters Faculty could claim staff such as Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
, Luigi Pareyson
Luigi Pareyson
Luigi Pareysón was an Italian philosopher.-Biography:Luigi Pareyson was born on 4 February 1918, in Piasco, in the province of Cuneo...
, Nicola Abbagnano
Nicola Abbagnano
Nicola Abbagnano was an Italian existential philosopher.- Life :Nicola Abbagnano was born in Salerno on 15 July 1901. He was the first born son of a middle-class professional family, his father was a practicing lawyer in the area...
, Massimo Mila, Lionello Venturi and Franco Venturi
Franco Venturi
Franco Venturi was an Italian historian, essayist and journalist, a scholar of the Enlightenment in Italy and of the history of Russia, and an anti-fascist active in the Resistance.-Life:...
. Luigi Einaudi
Luigi Einaudi
Luigi Einaudi , Cavaliere di Gran Croce decorato di Gran Cordone OMRI was an Italian politician and economist. He served as the second President of the Italian Republic between 1948 and 1955.-Early life:...
and Norberto Bobbio
Norberto Bobbio
Norberto Bobbio was an Italian philosopher of law and political sciences and a historian of political thought. He also wrote regularly for the Turin-based daily La Stampa....
taught in the Law Faculty.
The Gentile Reform
Gentile Reform
The Gentile Reform of 1923 was a reform of the Italian educational system through a series of normative acts , by the neo-idealist philosopher Giovanni Gentile, minister of education in Benito Mussolini's first cabinet...
of 1923 officially recognized 21 universities in Italy; Turin was included among the 10 State universities directly managed and funded by the State but were independent as regards administration and teaching, as far as the law allowed, and supervised by the National Education Ministry.
More recently, Renato Dulbecco
Renato Dulbecco
Renato Dulbecco is an Italian virologist who won a 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on reverse transcriptase. In 1973 he was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University together with Theodore Puck and Harry Eagle. Dulbecco was the recipient of the Selman A...
and Rita Levi Montalcini, both Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
laureates, trained at the medical school, which has always kept abreast of the times.
Many of the protagonists of Italian political and social life in the 20th century, such as Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian writer, politician, political philosopher, and linguist. He was a founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy and was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime...
and Piero Gobetti
Piero Gobetti
Piero Gobetti was an Italian journalist, intellectual and radical liberal and anti-fascist. He was an exceptionally active campaigner and critic in the crisis years in Italy after the First World War and into the early years of Fascist rule.-Biography:...
, Palmiro Togliatti
Palmiro Togliatti
Palmiro Togliatti was an Italian politician and leader of the Italian Communist Party from 1927 until his death.-Early life:...
and Massimo Bontempelli
Massimo Bontempelli
Massimo Bontempelli was an Italian poet, playwright, and novelist. He was influential in developing and promoting the literary style known as magical realism.-Life:...
, graduated from Turin University. With its rich variety of subjects, the University of Turin has always maintained a characteristic cultural imprint made up of rigour and independence in teaching, and a spirit of service and openness to European culture.
In recent years, research workers, both in the humanities and in natural sciences, have turned their attention to nations in the southern hemisphere.
Furthermore, some departments are involved in integrated research and co-operation in line with EU universities and with universities in the developing countries.
Legal status and academic policies
The current organization of the university system is based on Law 168/89, which set up the Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (Ministry for the Universities and Scientific and Technological Research) and ordered a number of provisions aimed at granting greater autonomy in university administration, and in the structure of research, teaching and organization.
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
and of Bologna. The teaching reform was implemented at the University of Turin with the development and expansion of the provisions of law. Above all applied to vocational guidance, seen as a strategic link between high school and university education, where professional training must not be given preference over the education of citizens, and of the cultivated individual as valuable per se.
The University of Turin has chosen research as its top priority: both fundamental and business-oriented research that blends skills pertaining to:
- National and international research
- Technological transfer (spin off, patents)
- Relations with local business and with the territory
- Commissioned research
- Various projects (EU structural funds, etc.)
Cooperation and internationalization projects
At the international level, the University of Turin is oriented both to relations with major organizations and to collaboration with the developing countries. In the former field, relations with United NationsUnited Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Agencies have been stepped up, above all with those already operating in Turin: the ILO
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Its secretariat — the people who are employed by it throughout the world — is known as the...
International Training Centre, UNICRI and UNSSC.
Courses have been organized or sponsored by the University for some time now, e.g. the International Trade Law Course, the Master in Management of Development, the LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law (within the Faculty of Law
University of Turin, Faculty of Law
The University of Turin, Faculty of Law is the law school of the University of Turin . The faculty of law is elsewhere called the Law Department of the University of Turin...
, as well as the advanced course in Diplomatic and International Studies.
There are also research and teaching agreements with South American nations, using distance learning aids and short intensive exchange programmes for teaching staff and students.
France partnered with the University of Turin to set up the Italo-French University (UIF) between 1998 and 2000. This Agency is dedicated to establishing all possible forms of collaboration between France and Italy in the area of university teaching, scientific research, and culture in general. UIF is involved in the far reaching project of the construction of a "Europe of Learning." Reflecting its raised status, UNITO has been ranked as one of the top universities in Italy, as well as a leading research university in Europe.
Reorganization and undergoing projects
The University of Turin is engaged not only in redesigning its teaching structure but also in a ten-year construction project to reorganize its premises; work is already underway on refurbishing and rationalizing existing buildings, and on newly acquired property.Among the projects already completed is the new site at Grugliasco
Grugliasco
Grugliasco is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 9 km west of Turin.Grugliasco borders the following municipalities: Turin, Collegno, and Rivoli.-External links:*...
, which houses the Faculties of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture. Worth mentioning, too, are: the sites of the ex-Italgas works (now Palazzina Luigi Einaudi, already assigned to the Faculties of Law
University of Turin, Faculty of Law
The University of Turin, Faculty of Law is the law school of the University of Turin . The faculty of law is elsewhere called the Law Department of the University of Turin...
and Political Science for teaching purposes), and the ex-Manifattura Tabacchi; construction of the new Scuola di Biotecnologie; realization at the Centro Pier della Francesca of new laboratories, classrooms and student common rooms for the Computer Science Department, and finally construction of a new building for teaching purposes at the Ospedale San Luigi, Orbassano
Orbassano
Orbassano is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 15 km southwest of Turin. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 21,667 and an area of 22.1 km²....
.
Since 2001/2002 the Faculties of Political Science and Law
University of Turin, Faculty of Law
The University of Turin, Faculty of Law is the law school of the University of Turin . The faculty of law is elsewhere called the Law Department of the University of Turin...
have been running a three-year course and a master's programme in Co-operation in Development and Peace-keeping.
Main campus in Turin
- Faculty of Agriculture
- Faculty of Economics
- Faculty of Education
- Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature
- Faculty of LawUniversity of Turin, Faculty of LawThe University of Turin, Faculty of Law is the law school of the University of Turin . The faculty of law is elsewhere called the Law Department of the University of Turin...
http://www.giurisprudenza.unito.it/sito2/ - Faculty of Letters and Philosophy
- Faculty of Mathematical, Physics and Natural Sciences
- Faculty of Medicine and Surgery
- Second Faculty of Medicine and Surgery "St. Luigi Gonzaga"
- Faculty of Pharmacy
- Faculty of Political Sciences
- Faculty of Psychology
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Special units
In addition, the University has created schools specifically devoted to certain academic fields, either alone or with partnerships with other institutions. Currently those schools are:- The Interfaculty School for Biotechnologies
- The Interfaculty School of Motor Sciences (SUISM)
- The Interfaculty School of Strategic Studies
- The School of Business
- Centre of Advanced Studies on Contemporary ChinaCentre of Advanced Studies on Contemporary ChinaThe Centre of Advanced Studies on Contemporary China is a research institute headquartered in Torino, Italy. It is incorporated as a private foundation, established by the University of Torino, the University of Eastern Piedmont, the Politecnico of Torino, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs...
- The Inter-university School of Specialization for secondary school teachers (SIS)
- The School of Applied Psychology
- The International School of Advanced Studies of the University of Torino (ISASUT)
- The Interuniversity Centre for Comparative Analysis of Institutions, Economics and Law
- The Center for Cognitive Science
Decentralized faculties
The University has a number of faculties outside Turin, mostly located in the Northwestern region of Italy. There are currently units in the fields of:- Agriculture: in AstiAstiAsti is a city and comune of about 75,000 inhabitants located in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, about 55 kilometres east of Turin in the plain of the Tanaro River...
, AlbaAlbaAlba is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is cognate to Alba in Irish and Nalbin in Manx, the two other Goidelic Insular Celtic languages, as well as similar words in the Brythonic Insular Celtic languages of Cornish and Welsh also meaning Scotland.- Etymology :The term first appears in...
, PeveragnoPeveragnoPeveragno is a comune in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 80 km south of Turin and about 8 km southeast of Cuneo....
, SaluzzoSaluzzoSaluzzo is a town and former principality in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont region, Italy.The city of Saluzzo is built on a hill overlooking a vast, well-cultivated plain. Iron, lead, silver, marble, slate etc...
, FossanoFossanoFossano is a town and comune of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Cuneo. It is the fourth largest town of the Province of Cuneo, after Cuneo, Alba and Bra....
, VerzuoloVerzuoloVerzuolo is a comune in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 66 km southwest of Turin and about 25 km north of Cuneo...
, OrmeaOrmeaOrmea is a comune in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 100 km south of Turin and about 40 km southeast of Cuneo...
, SanremoSanremoSanremo or San Remo is a city with about 57,000 inhabitants on the Mediterranean coast of western Liguria in north-western Italy. Founded in Roman times, the city is best known as a tourist destination on the Italian Riviera. It hosts numerous cultural events, such as the Sanremo Music Festival... - Economics: in AstiAstiAsti is a city and comune of about 75,000 inhabitants located in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, about 55 kilometres east of Turin in the plain of the Tanaro River...
, PineroloPineroloPinerolo is a town and comune in north-western Italy, 40 kilometres southwest of Turin on the river Chisone.-History:In the Middle Ages, the town of Pinerolo was one of the main crossroads in Italy, and was therefore one of the principal fortresses of the dukes of Savoy. Its military importance...
and BiellaBiellaBiella is a town and comune in the northern Italian region of Piemonte, the capital of the province of the same name, with some 45,800 inhabitants as of 2009. It is located about 80 km northeast of Turin and about 80 km west-northwest of Milan.It lies in the foothills of the Alps,... - Pharmacology: in SaviglianoSaviglianoSavigliano is a comune of Piedmont, northern Italy, in the Province of Cuneo, c. 50 kilometers south of Turin by rail....
- Law: in CuneoCuneoCuneo is a city and comune in Piedmont, Northern Italy, the capital of the province of Cuneo, the third largest of Italy’s provinces by area...
- Arts and Philosophy: in IvreaIvreaIvrea is a town and comune of the province of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Situated on the road leading to the Aosta Valley , it straddles the Dora Baltea and is regarded as the centre of the Canavese area. Ivrea lies in a basin that, in prehistoric times, formed a great lake...
and BiellaBiellaBiella is a town and comune in the northern Italian region of Piemonte, the capital of the province of the same name, with some 45,800 inhabitants as of 2009. It is located about 80 km northeast of Turin and about 80 km west-northwest of Milan.It lies in the foothills of the Alps,... - Medicine and Surgery: in OrbassanoOrbassanoOrbassano is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 15 km southwest of Turin. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 21,667 and an area of 22.1 km²....
, CuneoCuneoCuneo is a city and comune in Piedmont, Northern Italy, the capital of the province of Cuneo, the third largest of Italy’s provinces by area...
and AostaAostaAosta is the principal city of the bilingual Aosta Valley in the Italian Alps, north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, at the confluence of the Buthier and the Dora Baltea, and at the junction of the Great and Little St. Bernard routes... - Veterinary Medicine: in MorettaMorettaMoretta is a comune in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 35 km southwest of Turin and about 40 km north of Cuneo...
and AstiAstiAsti is a city and comune of about 75,000 inhabitants located in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, about 55 kilometres east of Turin in the plain of the Tanaro River... - Education Sciences: in SaviglianoSaviglianoSavigliano is a comune of Piedmont, northern Italy, in the Province of Cuneo, c. 50 kilometers south of Turin by rail....
- Political Science: in IvreaIvreaIvrea is a town and comune of the province of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Situated on the road leading to the Aosta Valley , it straddles the Dora Baltea and is regarded as the centre of the Canavese area. Ivrea lies in a basin that, in prehistoric times, formed a great lake...
, CuneoCuneoCuneo is a city and comune in Piedmont, Northern Italy, the capital of the province of Cuneo, the third largest of Italy’s provinces by area...
, BiellaBiellaBiella is a town and comune in the northern Italian region of Piemonte, the capital of the province of the same name, with some 45,800 inhabitants as of 2009. It is located about 80 km northeast of Turin and about 80 km west-northwest of Milan.It lies in the foothills of the Alps,...
Points of interest
- Orto Botanico dell'Università di TorinoOrto Botanico dell'Università di TorinoThe Orto Botanico dell'Università di Torino is a botanical garden and arboretum operated by the Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale of the University of Turin...
, the university's botanical gardenBotanical gardenA botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...
See also
- List of Italian universities
- List of medieval universities
- ICoN Interuniversity Consortium for Italian Studies
- Collegio Carlo AlbertoCollegio Carlo AlbertoCollegio Carlo Alberto is one of the "colleges" of the University of Turin, located in the town of Moncalieri, northern Italy, in the province of Turin. The Collegio can refer to the physical structure, a masterpiece of neoclassical architecture in the town of Moncalieri, Italy or to the schools...
, MoncalieriMoncalieriMoncalieri is a town and comune of approximately 58,000 inhabitants about eight kilometers directly south of downtown Turin , in Piedmont, Italy. It is notable for its castle, built in the 12th century and enlarged in the 15th century, which later became the favorite residence of Maria Clotilde... - TurinTurinTurin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
- Primo LeviPrimo LeviPrimo Michele Levi was an Italian Jewish chemist and writer. He was the author of two novels and several collections of short stories, essays, and poems, but is best known for If This Is a Man, his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland...
- Emilio Komar
- Luisa AccatiLuisa AccatiLuisa Accati Levi is an Italian historian, anthropologist and feminist public intellectual. She currently teaches ethnology and modern history at the University of Trieste....
- Umberto EcoUmberto EcoUmberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
- Ugo MatteiUgo MatteiUgo Mattei is the Alfred and Hanna Fromm Professor of International and Comparative Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, in San Francisco, California and a full Professor of Civil Law in the University of Turin, Italy...
- Lorenzo FerreroLorenzo FerreroLorenzo Ferrero is a contemporary Italian composer with a predilection for opera, a librettist, author, and book editor. He started composing at an early age and wrote over a hundred compositions thus far, including twelve operas, three ballets, and numerous orchestral, chamber music, solo...
- Gianni VattimoGianni VattimoGianteresio Vattimo, also known as Gianni Vattimo is an internationally recognized Italian author, philosopher, and politician. Many of his works have been translated into English.-Biography:...
- Turin Museum of Natural HistoryTurin Museum of Natural HistoryThe Turin Museum of Natural History was established in 1978 to house the natural history collections of the University of Turin and other collections of naturali history, originated from specific research campaigns and donations...
- Rendiconti del Seminario Matematico Università e Politecnico di TorinoRendiconti del Seminario Matematico Università e Politecnico di TorinoThe Rendiconti del Seminario Matematico Università e Politecnico di Torino is a quarterly peer-reviewed mathematical journal published by the University of Turin and the Polytechnic University of Turin. It is the official journal of the Seminario Matematico dell'Università e Politecnico di Torino...
- Piemonte Agency for Investments, Export and TourismPiemonte Agency for Investments, Export and TourismPiemonte Agency for Investments, Export and Tourism is the public body in charge of the internazionalition of Piemonte territory. Piemonte Agency main activities and institutional goals are:* supporting and aiding companies that want to locate in Piemonte...
External links
- Official website
- Annals of the History of Italian Universities - Volume 5 (2001), dedicated to the Univ. of Torino.