Tor Vergata University of Rome, also known as the University of Tor Vergata (Italian: Università degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata"), is a publicresearch university located in Rome, Italy.[4] Located in the southeastern suburb of Rome, the university combines a liberal arts tradition with emphasis on career orientation in the field of Economics, Engineering, Mathematics and Physics, Natural Sciences, and Medicine.[5]
It was established in 1982 with the goal of providing high-quality education for students preparing to meet the changing needs and opportunities of the workforce.[6] Furthermore, the university campus was designed to reflect the same atmosphere that students would feel on Anglophone campuses.[6] Many professors of the university are important members of the Italian cultural and political environment. Its current rector is Nathan Levialdi Ghiron,[7] a professor at the School of Engineering and former vice-Rector.[8][9]
Origin of the name
The university takes its name from the 14th-century farmhouse "Turris Virgatae" that was owned by the Roman noble Annibaldi family, whose remains lie beneath Villa Gentile on campus.
Campus
Faculty of Humanities at Tor Vergata University of Rome
The university occupies a 6-square-kilometre (1,483-acre) area outside the Grande Raccordo Anulare highway connection, in the eastern sector of the city.[2] A university Hospital (Tor Vergata Polyclinic), with state-of-the-art medical equipment, is located on campus. Near the university, there are accommodation facilities owned by the regional organization Lazio DiSCo[10] as well as Campus X, a private company. Campus X accommodations, rolled out in October 2010,[11] now consist of over 1300 bed spaces[12] for students and researchers, as well as study rooms, a market, a restaurant, a gym, a music recording studio and many other facilities.[13] Campus X in Tor Vergata, designed and built on the basis of the campus in Berkeley,[11] is at the present time the biggest accommodation facility for students in Italy,[12] with its 15,000-square-metre (4-acre) area.[14] In an effort to reduce environmental pollution as well as emission of greenhouse gases, Campus X facilities rely on both thermal and photovoltaic solar panels that provide up to 70% of hot water and street lighting needed on campus.[15]
The City of Sport
The innovative City of Sport project, designed by the internationally renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, was an integral part of the city of Rome's bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics and would have hosted the volleyball, gymnastics, trampoline, and basketball finals. On February 14, 2012, the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti called an end to the bid, citing uncertain costs and unknown financial benefit. The announcement came a day before the deadline for applicant cities to submit the application files. The project would have transformed the area of south-east of Rome. The two main buildings of the project the Sport Forum and Swimming Forum are symmetrical, each of them being about 21,600-square-metre (5-acre) in area and around 75 m in height.[16] The complex, whose construction had begun in April 2007, was to be completed in 2009 in time for the 2009 World Aquatics Championships but is still under construction. The new university tower, located on the opposite side of the road with respect to the City of Sport project, will rise to about 90 meters, whose penultimate floor would host the new administrative office of Tor Vergata, while the top floor would host a wide lobby that would offer panoramic views. The lower floors would welcome other offices. The layer below the tower would accommodate underground parking.
Academics
On-campus auditorium
The university is divided into six schools: Economics, Engineering, Humanities, Law, Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences, and Medicine and Surgery. There are 18 departments that, combined, offer 31 PhD programmes[17] and 51 Master's degree programmes. The university also offers 55 undergraduate three-year Bachelor's degree programmes and 7 single-cycle degree programmes. Moreover, Tor Vergata University of Rome offers 20 international degree courses taught in English: 3 Bachelor's, 15 Master's and 2 Single-cycle degree courses.[2] The university has taken significant steps in the past years to participate in international projects and to link industries to its research. It also participates in interdisciplinary dialogue with local businesses to provide support to entrepreneurial activities and small businesses.[18]
Academic years (usually referred to as a.y. or a.a.) are typically divided into two semesters, the first starting in mid September and ending in mid January and the second starting in March and ending in mid June, with exam sessions being held between mid January and the end of February for first semester courses and between mid June and the end of July for second semester classes. Nonetheless, sometimes additional exam sessions may be held in September depending on the course and faculty.[19] Students are asked to achieve a minimum of 60 ECTS (i.e. credits) to be considered on schedule with the course programme, which means and implies that a three-year Bachelor's degree course typically consists of 180 ECTS for the corresponding degree to be attained, while 120 ECTS are necessary for a Master's degree. Nevertheless, additional ECTS may be achieved as well in case students wished to attend additional classes or courses. A single course usually provides either 6, 9 or 12 ECTS, depending on its duration. More specifically, 6, 9 and 12 ECTS classes consist respectively of 60, 90 and 120 hours of lecture attendance.[19]
Faculties and Departments of the University of Rome Tor Vergata[20]
School of Economics
Department of Economics and Finance
Department of Management and Law
School of Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering and Computer Science Engineering
Department of Electronic Engineering
Department of Enterprise Engineering "Mario Lucertini"
Department of Industrial Engineering
School of Humanities
Department of History, Culture and Society
Department of History, Philosophical and Art History Studies
School of Law
Department of Law
School of Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences
Department of Chemical Sciences and Technologies
Department of Biology
Department of Mathematics
Department of Physics
School of Medicine and Surgery
Department of Systems Medicine
Department of Biomedicine and Prevention
Department of Clinical Science and Translational Medicine
Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery
Faculty of Economics
Centre of Economic and International Studies (CEIS)
Founded in 1987, The Centre of Economic and International Studies (CEIS) is an internationally recognized research centre within the Faculty of Economics at the University of Rome, Tor Vergata. CEIS is engaged in creating and supporting international research and higher-learning networking in the major fields of economics.[21] CEIS hosts numerous seminars and conferences bringing together leading economists and experts in academia and government.[22]
Furthermore, the Faculty of Economics in Tor Vergata has been consistently ranked among the top 3 economics departments by La Repubblica newspaper's annual ranking of economic faculties in Italy and currently holds the top spot nationally and 96th worldwide.[34][35] The school is particularly strong in the field of business, financial economics.[36]
In addition, Tor Vergata University of Rome was ranked, in 2020, 101-150th for Automation and Control Engineering[37] as well as for Energy Science and Engineering,[38] and 201-300th for Telecommunication Engineering[39] in the world by ARWU (Shanghai Ranking's Academic Ranking of World Universities). Moreover, it was ranked, by the same ranking organisation still in 2020, 76-100th for Mathematical Sciences[40] and 51-75th for Physical Sciences in the world.[41] The university was ranked 50th in the world in Physics also by Best Global Universities Rankingby U.S. News & World Report L.P. .[30] Tor Vergata University of Rome was also ranked, by QS World University Rankings, 314th in the world for Engineering and Technology[42] and, more specifically, 201-250th in the world for Electrical and Electronic Engineering[43] and 251-300th for Chemical Engineering.[44]
In 2020, the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities ranked the university 281st in the world.[46] Moreover, the University of Rome Tor Vergata was ranked, in 2019, 59th among the best 175 young universities in the world which are under 50 years old, for its research outputs, according to 2019 Nature index ranking.[47] In addition, according to the same index rankings, it was also ranked 43rd among the best 50 young universities in the world in physical sciences.[48]
Apart from being ranked on the basis of its academic and research outcomes, Tor Vergata University of Rome has been also assessed for employability of students who graduated from the university, and for their average wage. In 2018, Tor Vergata University of Rome was ranked 8th in Italy for average wages of its graduates between 25 and 34 years of age, i.e. 5th in Italy if only public universities are taken into account.[49] Furthermore, it was also determined to be, in 2017, the 2nd university in Central Italy for its graduate employability (i.e. 88.5%), making it comparable, when it comes to employability, to Northern Italy universities.[50]
When it comes to its research outcomes, Tor Vergata University of Rome was ranked, in 2019, 18th in Italy[53] and 200-300th in Europe[54] (more specifically 300-400th for total project funding per partner and 100-200th for its total number of projects) among European academic and non-academic research institutions, according to the European Research Ranking. It was also ranked in 2014, by the same ranking institution, 31st in Europe with regard to its research diversity index.[54]
Affiliations
The President of the Republic of Italy Sergio Mattarella visiting the University of Rome Tor Vergata for 2016-17 academic year opening ceremony
In March 2019, the University of Rome Tor Vergata joined other seven European universities to form the Young Universities for the Future of Europe (YUFE) Alliance. In June 2019, the European Commission announced that YUFE was among the 17 projects that would receive funding for a three-year pilot under the European Universities Initiative, funded through the Erasmus+ programme. The main aim of this programme is to create 'European Universities' based on cross-border alliances of higher education institutions in order to share a long-term strategy and promote European values and identity, by creating a European university campus for the purpose of promoting students' physical and virtual mobility.[55][56] Hand in hand with this aim goes the YUFE Diploma Supplement Track, rolled out in November 2020, a diploma supplement that acknowledges all the activities, projects and accomplishments, such as academic courses, professional training, etc, that students are given the chance to take part in across the various YUFE universities.[57] Tor Vergata University of Rome is, at the moment, the only university in Italy that is part of the alliance.[58][55]
The University of Rome Tor Vergata currently offers 20 courses taught in English.
Bachelor's degree programmes
Business Administration and Economics (B.Sc., School of Economics)
Global Governance (B.A., School of Economics)
Engineering Sciences (B.Sc., School of Engineering)
Master's degree programmes
Business Administration (M.Sc., School of Economics)
Economics (M.Sc., School of Economics)
European Economy and Business Law (M.Sc., School of Economics)
Finance and Banking (M.Sc., School of Economics)
Mechatronics Engineering (M.Sc., School of Engineering)
ICT and Internet Engineering (M.Sc., School of Engineering)
Chemical Nano-Engineering (M.Sc., School of Engineering)
Physical Activity and Health Promotion (M.Sc., School of Medicine and Surgery)
Biotechnology (M.Sc., School of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences)
Physics - Curriculum in Astrophysics and Space Science (M.Sc., School of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences)
Physics - Curriculum in Physics of Fundamental Interactions and Experimental Techniques (M.Sc., School of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences)
Physics - Curriculum in Physics of Complex Systems and Big Data (M.Sc., School of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences)
European History (M.A., School of Humanities and Philosophy)
Art History in Rome from Late Antique to the Present (M.A., School of Humanities and Philosophy)
Tourism Strategy, Cultural Heritage and Made in Italy (M.A., School of Humanities and Philosophy)
Single-cycle degree programmes
Medicine and Surgery (School of Medicine and Surgery)
Pharmacy (School of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences)
Notable faculty members and alumni
Orazio Schillaci, the current Italian Minister of Health, was the Rector of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, full professor of nuclear medicine and head of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the same university[61]
Antonio Dal Monte, physician and medical researcher, former Scientific Director and Head of the Department of Physiology and Biomechanics Institute of Sports Science of the Italian National Olympic Committee (C.O.N.I.)[65]
