In the last Academic Senate, the regulation on the Guidelines for the management of international student mobility and the International Mobility Call A were approved.A. 2014/15, following a very long discussion in the various university bodies. For a greater understanding of the troubled path we recall the amendment presented in the Academic Senate of November,in opposition to the will of the university to limit the experience of international mobility, obliging students to acquire credits equal to 60, with the exclusion of the credits obtained with the final exam; and the mediation proposal discussed in the last Didactic Council that transposed the problem from a didactic plan to a purely bureaucratic-legal plan.
In the session of the Academic Senate in December,in fact, the following point of the regulation was approved:
Students who at the time of application are enrolled in the third year of bachelor's degree or in single courses and who enroll in a master's degree course in the following academic year will be able to carry out international mobility only in the second semester of the same year. This rule also applies to students who enroll in a master's degree program in the second semester of the year in which the application is made.
As students we certainly perceive the failure of the opportunities that would be expected by participating in an international experience outside the Politecnico di Milano already from the first semester of the first year of the Master's Degree.
In particular, we are aware that many students, about a third, today choose to leave the first semester for different practical and academic reasons: in many foreign universities the exams we collect in a single module, are there deferred in courses related to more than one semester; the management of the academic calendar is different and certainly reducing the possibilities of choice would also reduce the curricular flexibilities.
As student representatives, however, we are aware that at the origin of the issue there is a technical legal constraint to which we must adhere, calling ourselves to responsibility and respect for laws and rules.
As SvoltaStudenti we have therefore voted in favor of the inclusion of this article among the guidelines for the management of mobility in consultation with the representatives of La Terna Sinistrorsa,not before having mediated with the University bodies the same formulation.
In fact, we remind the representatives of Lista Aperta and communicate to the students that the original proposal of the organs was the one that formulated:
Students who at the time of application are enrolled in the third year of the three-year degree or in single courses and who enroll in a master's degree course in the following academic year will be able to carry out international mobility only in the second year. This rule also applies to students who enroll in a master's degree program in the second semester of the year in which the application is made.
Only after a wide discussion in the Permanent Students' Commission and in the Didactic Council with the university bodies and with the Rector himself, we managed to reach an intermediate stepthat would give students theopportunity to leave even in the first year and that would guarantee greater security for the Politecnico di Milano (students not yet enrolled in the Master's Degree about to undertake a mobility experience would have more time to im im matriculate, thus avoiding to affect the legal constraints imposed by the regulations).
We always remind our friends representatives of Lista Aperta and we inform the students that if we had not discussed and approved the majority mediation between the student representatives (SvoltaStudenti + La Terna Sinistrorsa) to date the inconveniences would be even greater because the students would have been able to leave only the second year of the Master's Degree, as the original proposal had been formulated.
We regret that voting choices are exploited, although understandable but at this point obviously opportunistic, in order to burn the intense work that every day leads us to solve and improve the student condition and the rights of university students.
Finally, we report the opinion formulated by us, SvoltaStudenti,and La Terna Sinistrorsa and exposed by our representative inthe Academic Senate, Vincenzo Giannico in the session under discussion.
To the attention of the Accdemico Senate.
As student representatives we express an overall opinion in favor of the new"Guidelines of International Mobility"
However, we would like to express strong concern about the hypothesis of precluding the possibility of carrying out a study experience abroad during the first semester of the first year of the Master's Degree:we are aware and understand that at the origin of this decision there are technical-legal constraints that must be followed; we are also aware that, to date, about a third of students choose to leave the first semester for various practical and / or academic reasons.
To avoid that these provisions, effectively reducing the opportunities, act as an effective brake on the international mobility of the students of the Politecnico di Milano,contravening the strategic line of internationalization undertaken and strongly supported by the University itself, we ask that the Academic Senate formally commit itself, in the most appropriate ways, to remove or loosen further constraints that currently relegate mobility to a measly 2.6% of the the total student population.
In particular, we believe there are some issues on which it is necessary to reflect and give a signal of discontinuity and innovation:
- Exit from the logic of punctual correspondence between the exams of the Polytechnic and the exams of foreign universities, in favor of a logic of correspondence of skills and abilities consistent with the educational objectives of each degree course.
- Review the teaching regulations so that they are structured and organized in such a way as not to limit student mobility in any way. In fact, we are convinced that internationalization and flexibility go hand in hand and that it is therefore in the interest of the Academic Senate and, consequently, of the entire University, to move along these guidelines.
Editorial staff TurningStudents
For more information and if you want to contact our representative to the Academic Senate Vincenzo Giannico directly: vincenzo.giannico@svoltastudenti.it
