Student Glossary

A 'practical' guide to the main terminology relating to Bachelor’s degree and Master's degree programmes.

Note: where definitions conflict with the official definitions given in the regulations, the official definitions always prevail.

Consiglio del Corso di Studio (CCS) - Degree Programme Board

It is the decision-making body of each degree programme consisting of the entire teaching staff engaged in that degree programme, student representatives from that degree programme and representatives of the technical and administrative staff involved in the degree programme's activities. The Board, convened by the CCS Presidents, deliberates during official meetings. The CCS may delegate some activities to Commissions for the preliminary analysis of dossiers, on which the CCS itself will be ultimately called upon to formally deliberate.

Cohort

Set of students enrolled in the first year of a specific degree programme in a specific academic year (e.g. 2020-2021 cohort).

Throughout their careers individual students remain subject to the rules in force at the time of enrolment. For example, 1st year students in the 2020-2021 year refer to the Student Information Booklet for the 2020-2021 cohort; as a result, when these students enrol for the second or third year, in the 2021-2022 year or in the 2022-2023 year, they will always need to refer to the Student Information Booklet for the 2020-2021 academic year, i.e. the year in which they first enrolled.

Corso di Studio (CdS) – Degree Programme

It is the set of educational activities that characterise the educational programme for a specific professional figure. By way of example, the Master’s degree in Chemical and Materials Engineering is a Degree programme.

Credito Formativo Universitario (CFU) - ECTS credits

It is the unit measuring the teaching load a student must carry for each of the educational activities included in his or her Study Plan. 1 CFU/ECTS corresponds to 25 hours of total individual learning commitment, with a specific number of lecture hours scheduled for the course unit, while the remaining hours are reserved for individual study. Usually if the educational activity includes classroom ("frontal") lessons, the University of Padua considers that 1 CFU corresponds to 8 hours of lessons, which are part of the 25 hours of study corresponding to that CFU.

Enrolment

Administrative act by which an Italian or foreign citizen is admitted to a degree programme.

Course Unit (=insegnamento)

It is a teaching activity characterised by an appropriate number of hours of classroom lectures or (instrumental or computing) laboratory activities. A certain number of ECTS credits is associated with the activity, which are deemed to have been acquired by the student only after passing an examination. The course unit is commonly defined as a “course”, which is not to be confused with “degree course” (i.e. degree programme)

Learning Agreement

It is the proposal of teaching activities (generally made up of course units and/or a final examination) that an exchange student (e.g. a student participating in an Erasmus programme) plans to follow during the mobility period. The learning agreement proposal must be submitted to the student’s Degree programme Board, which is required to assess the proposal and may approve it, reject it or request changes. It is also often accompanied by a request for a special Study Plan.

Student Information Booklet (= Manifesto degli studi)

It represents the set of course units offered by a Degree programme in a certain academic year. For example, the 2022/23 Booklet for the Degree programme in Chemical and Materials Engineering represents the set of course units (compulsory and elective) that will be offered for that degree programme in the 2022/23 academic year.

Elective course units indicated in the 2022/23 Booklet remain as such (that is, electives) regardless of the cohort to which a student belongs.

Compulsory course units, on the other hand, are compulsory:

●       if relative to the first year, for the 2022/23 cohort only;

●       if relative to the second year, for the 2021/22 cohort only;

●       if relating to the third year, for the 2020/21 cohort only.

The Student Information Booklet is therefore not to be confused with the Educational Offer.

Teaching Offer

This is the set of teaching activities offered for a certain cohort of students in a given Degree Programme. For instance, the 2022/23 teaching offer of a given degree programme includes all the course units (and any other teaching activities) compulsory for students enrolling in that degree programme in 2022/23. The same Offer also contains the total number of ECTS credits that a student in the 2022/23 cohort may indicate as “optional” (i.e. electives), and the amount of ECTS credits reserved for the final examination (“thesis”) and any other activities (e.g. foreign language proficiency tests). The teaching offer should not be confused with the Student Information Booklet: the former represents the entire educational programme for a certain cohort of students, while the latter provides an overview of the educational activity delivered in a certain academic year within a given degree programme, and is therefore relevant to all cohorts.

Degree programme regulation (=Ordinamento didattico)

Represents all the information contained in the RAD card of a degree programme. Each cohort of students is linked to its own regulation. The regulation relevant to a certain cohort is the one issued in the academic year to which the cohort refers or (in the absence of a regulation for that specific academic year) the one issued in the previous academic year.

Study Plan

This is a document consisting of all the course units available within a given degree programme, on which each individual student expresses his/her educational choices. “Study Plan” means the specific path, broken down into educational activities, that a student must follow in order to obtain graduation. Teaching activities may include lectures, internships, foreign language proficiency tests, final/project tests, and others. Each Study Plan provides for compulsory activities and elective units. Compulsory units are decided by the CCS (degree programme board) separately for each cohort of students; elective units are proposed by the student, and may be approved or rejected by the CCS.

The Study Plan is submitted annually by the student to the relevant CCS according to deadlines set by the University.

Study Plan Automatically Accepted (or statutory)

It is a Study Plan that:

−       includes all the compulsory units envisaged by the Education Offer relating to one's own cohort;

−       includes, among the elective units, only those subjects envisaged by the Student Information Booklet of one's own Degree programme.

The Study Plan as such does not require any approval procedure by the Degree Programme Board (CCS).

Study Plan Requiring Approval (or special) = subject to approval

It is a Study Plan in which a student requests one or more compulsory units to be replaced with other subjects. A special plan is subject to very stringent evaluation by the Degree Programme Board (CCS).

The students may request a special Study Plan for the following reasons:

−       the student enrols in the degree programme coming from another university or from another degree programme, where he/she has already received training (even if only partial) in content similar to that taught in the compulsory units for which the student requests the replacement

−       outgoing mobility students (e.g. as part of Erasmus agreements) who intend to attend units abroad with content equivalent to the compulsory units he/she is requesting to replace.

To be evaluated by the relevant Degree Programme Board, a special Study Plan must necessarily satisfy the constraints imposed by the Teaching Regulations of the Degree programme to which it refers.

Regolamento Didattico di Ateneo (RAD) - Teaching Regulations for the University

It is the document that sets out the teaching regulation of a certain degree programme, providing general information on the Study Plan proposed by the programme itself.

The document is rather complex and relatively interesting to a student. Nevertheless still remains important as it establishes within what limits a Degree Programme Board (CCS) may modify the Teaching Offer for different cohorts of its Degree programme, and (as a consequence) also establishes within what limits a special Study Plan may be acceptable.

The Regulation of the degree programme identify the minimum and maximum amount of total credits (ECTS/CFU) for each subject area (SSD) that the Teaching Offer of the degree programme must include, regardless of the actual course units included in the Teaching Offer for a certain cohort of students.

Settore scientifico-disciplinare (SSD) - Subject Area

It is an alphanumeric code representing the scientific area of relevance of a certain teaching. To a certain SSD can pertain more than one teaching, but each teaching is referable to only one SSD (except in exceptional cases, in which the same teaching is simultaneously referable to two SSDs). The SSD of each course unit is specified in the Student Information Booklet and in the Educational Offer Plan.