What are University orientation courses

Each of the courses of the Normale and of the Scuola di Orientamento Universitario (the School of University Orientation) involve five or six days of activities and are residential; the students selected reside for the entire duration of the course at the same structure, hence providing opportunities for socialising and sharing. Boys and girls from different places in Italy and the rest of the world and with different school careers, experiences and social conditions can share their plans, aspirations and visions.

The teaching activity includes lectures by university lecturers, seminars, laboratories on a variety of research areas and on topical themes. At the end of the meetings, the course participants  contribute to the debate, discussing among themselves and with the lecturers.

Sharing with the lecturers and course support staff is possible and desirable, also outside the teaching context: the residential formula was chosen in order to provide the space and time for students to engage in in-depth exploration of  the themes proposed, and to satisfy their quest for information about the  various university careers, their curiosity and the other stimuli evoked by the meetings in the programme. 

The orientation courses involve the presence of tutors and of undergraduate and PhD students of the Normale, who in their turn share their study experiences with the course participants through structured meetings and at moments of free time.

The Scuola di Orientamento Universitario (the School of University Orientation), (resulting from collaboration between the Normale anche the Sant’Anna), features a similar  organisation: in addition to the face-to-face teaching, a multidisciplinary activity is offered in the form of round tables dedicated to macro-themes discussed by exponents of the main fields of research of the two Scuole and open to intervention on the part of the course participants; in addition, there are workshops at which groups of students can try their hand at practical applications of the themes tackled in the morning. All this in a residential context, with the constant support of tutors from the two Scuole.