Thursday, 16 January 2020

Trento School of Medicine: Academic Senate gives green light to joint degree with University of Verona

The plan for the new programme of study, which will open in September for 60 students, has been approved

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In the meeting that took place on 15 January at Palazzo Sardagna, the Academic Senate approved the course regulations of the inter-university degree programme with the University of Verona, for which the University of Trento has submitted a request for accreditation at the Italian Ministry of Education, universities and research.

Other universities and research centres, including local ones, will be involved in the programme.

The Senate decision, which was approved by 9 votes in favour and 1 against, marks a turning point in the procedure for the establishment and opening of the inter-university five-year Master's degree programme in medicine and surgery (LM-41) of the universities of Trento and Verona.

For the degree proposal to be examined by the Ministry of Education and Research, it must first be approved by the Comitato provinciale di coordinamento (scheduled for 16 January).

The programme of study will make available 60 places for new students, a number that must be approved by the Ministry based on the availability of positions at hospitals and other health care facilities in Trentino, where the future doctors will do their internship and residency in the coming years. The University will recruit at least 20 faculty members in medicine-related disciplines to develop the programme to full capacity.

The interdisciplinary degree programme proposed by the University of Trento was designed bearing in mind the needs of the scientific and professional community of Trentino, which participated actively in the early stages of the definition of the proposal.

The proposal aims to respond to the need for more doctors who must be trained to use new technologies, and includes the opportunity for some courses to be taught in German and English. This innovative and multidisciplinary programme will combine a strong medical education with some certified training in technology-related disciplines.

The proposal aims to disseminate the results achieved by the University in many fields of research through the courses that will be offered: from the areas of biomedicine, physics, mathematics to neurosciences, from life sciences to bioethics, from the regulatory aspects of clinical practice to bio-law, robotics, digital technologies and data science.

The opening of the new programme of study, however, is subject to the availability of financial resources which, based on the special regulations that apply to the University of Trento, will be provided by the Autonomous Province of Trento. The latter and the University will define, within a policy measure, the costs and additional investments required to implement the programme.

In the same meeting of 15 January the Academic Senate also approved a new Master's degree in artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Systems, LM32). The new degree programme will give the University of Trento the opportunity to extend its areas of research to include a cutting edge field of study, which is fundamental for the training of future AI systems engineers.

This will provide young engineers with a multidisciplinary education. AI techniques and technologies have revolutionised production, have become part of the daily life of people and have changed industrial processes. The virtual assistants on smartphones and smart home appliances, self-driving vehicles, industrial robots and the most advanced medical diagnostic devices are all based on AI technologies.

The University of Trento will therefore submit four requests for accreditation at the Italian Ministry of Education, universities and research for courses starting in the academic year 2020/21: Medicine and Surgery, Artificial Intelligence Systems, Global and local studies (LM62) and Agri-food Innovation Management (LM69) (the latter two had already been approved by the Academic Senate).

On the occasion of the meeting of the Academic Senate, Rector Paolo Collini, in agreement with Pier Francesco Nocini, Rector of the University of Verona, confirmed that the decision approving the agreement with the University of Verona does not exclude collaboration with the University of Padova, with which talks are ongoing to ensure its cooperation, possibly from the beginning.

The Senate decision was necessary to comply with the time requirements of the ministerial procedure, and Rector Collini hopes that an extension will be granted so as to be able to take advantage of this opportunity as soon as possible.

Collaboration with the University of Padova, characterised by mutual esteem and successes in different areas, will give further strength and prestige to the degree programme designed by Trento and Verona.