UNIVERSITA DELLA SVIZZERA ITALIANA

The University of Lugano (Universita della Svizzera italiana-USI) was founded in 1996. As a public institution independent of state control, it joined the nine cantonal universities and two federal institutes of technology that form the Swiss university system. It distinguishes itself as the only university outside Italy where the official language of tuition is Italian. Today, USI comprises four Faculties: Economics, Communication Sciences and Computer Science in Lugano, and Architecture in Mendrisio, for a total student population of approximately 1550 from 35 different countries, and a total teaching staff of 300 professors and assistants. Benefiting from a unique geographic, political, and cultural location, USI has gained distinction as a multilingual and multicultural university, with a broad international outlook. It enjoys privileged relations with several Italian universities, particularly with those located in Northern Italy, and has built special collaborative or exchange partnerships with a number of foreign universities in Europe and elsewhere. USI has an agreement with two renowned academic institutions in Milan, for the award of a `double degree` (doppia laurea), in Economics with one (Universita Bocconi) and in Architecture with the second (Politecnico). A period of practical training (internship) is an integral part of the undergraduate curriculum in general: thus by fulfilling this requirement, with a firm, institution or organisation in Switzerland or abroad, undergraduates contribute to promoting the image of a university open to the `real` world of work. Small size, direct student-teacher contact, fruitful synergies between the different disciplines (the humanistic, the socio-economic, and the technological), but also ample classroom and laboratory space as well as top-quality equipment and facilities: USI offers the ideal premises for the pursuit of learning and research.