The University of Pavia is one of the world’s oldest academic institutions, with its foundations existing as early as the 9th Century. An edict by King Lotharius recognizes that a higher education institution was already established in Pavia in 825, which was mainly devoted to the study of law. He then appointed it as the main education site for Northern Italy.Enlarged and renovated by the Duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, it became the University of the Duchy, officially established as a Studium Generale by Emperor Charles IV in 1361.After a period of social unrest and hardship in the 16th and 17th centuries, the rebirth of the university occurred in the second half of the 1700s with the radical reforms of Maria Theresa and Joseph II of Habsburg. Until the 20th Century, it remained the only university in Lombardy.
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The University of Pavia offers 1 English-taught bachelor's degree program in Artificial Intelligence (3 years) and 1 English-taught combined bachelor's and master's degree program in Medicine and Surgery (6 years). Besides these two courses, the University of Pavia also offers a wide range of Italian-taught bachelor degree programs which cover most of the disciplines, for example economics, science, engineering, pharmacy, law, humanities, psychology etc.
The University of Pavia has 17 English-taught master's degree programs (2 years) in the fields of engineering, business & management, finance, biology, psychology, agriculture and food industry, political and social science, history and arts.
The Foundation Year is a preparatory course taught in Italian designed for: - students who do not meet the minimum 12 years of schooling required for enrollment in an Italian University Degree course. - students who want to access undergraduate degrees at the University of Pavia. - students interested in learning Italian or improving their Italian language skills. The course includes both Italian language classes and preparatory courses from one of the following study areas: (1) Humanities; (2) Science and Medicine; (3) Economics, Law and Politics.
The vocational programmes are scientific specialization and higher education one-year courses to be taken after graduation from a Bachelor’s or Master’s. The vocational programmes are the academic response to the market demand of new specialized professional figures. Held by university professors and high-profile external experts, these programmes offer networking and job opportunities such as internships in companies, institutions, national and international organizations. Attendance to the vocational programmes is incompatible with simultaneous enrollment in BA’s, Ma’s, PhD’s and teaching qualification courses.
The University of Pavia provides graduate students with a unique experience. The PhD programs offered by the University of Pavia are supervised by SAFD (Scuola di Alta Formazione Dottorale), the PhD Higher Education School. Our programs cover a wide range of topics and are organized into three disciplinary groups (macro-area): Science and Technology, Life Science, Human and Social Science. The University of Pavia is very much involved in developing new pathways that allow graduate students not only to develop their skills useful for future careers in academia, but also the abilities necessary to be active outside the University. The Board of our PhD Higher Education School is constantly engaged in improving the quality of the PhD programs and consequently the preparation of doctoral students. In particular, the School is promoting interactions between University and Industry, as well as international programs allowing our graduate students to obtain a joint degree with other European institutions. Our mission is to make sure that highly motivated students from all over the world will be admitted to our PhD programs and be able to successfully interact with our best faculty members.
