SUPSI welcomes 5,616 students

The new academic year started on Monday for 5’616 students of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), 1,778 of whom are freshmen. After a spring semester marked by the extraordinary faced activities will resume partly in presence and partly at a distance.

To protect the health of the entire academic community and external users who will attend SUPSI offices in the coming months, a regularly updated Protection Plan was adopted in accordance with the evolution of the pandemic and the directives of the federal and cantonal authorities. The teaching activities will be provided according to a hybrid model that integrates distance and face-to-face training, assessed according to each skill to be transmitted and aimed at reducing the number of people present at the same time in SUPSI offices.

The situation of uncertainty dictated by the pandemic has not had negative consequences on the number of enrollments: applications for admission to the academic year 2020/21 received were approximately 3,240 - substantially in line with the number registered last year. There has been a slight decrease in foreign students and an increase in resident students, an indicator of how some have preferred, in consideration of the health situation, not to go outside the Canton to start university studies.

Current students will attend one of the 27 Bachelor courses and 14 Master courses offered by the four Departments (Environment, Construction and Design Department, Business Administration, Health and Social Department, Training and Learning Department, Innovative Technologies Department) and by the three affiliated schools (University School of Music of the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland, Dimitri Theater Academy, Fernfachhochschule Schweiz).

Among the novelties of this year, the launch of the new Bachelor in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence provided by the Department of innovative technologies: a course of study aimed at training professionals able to use techniques and methods of artificial intelligence, and to work at companies active in various sectors in the field of data management and enhancement.

To the students of the degree courses are added the more than 9’000 professionals who, in the context of university continuing education, attend the 700 short-term courses and the 130 Advanced Studies courses offered by SUPSI during the academic year, aiming at obtaining a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS), a Diploma of Advanced Studies (DAS), a Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) or an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA).