Tutoring and guidance
The service is intended to support the proper integration of students in the degree course through, in particular, specific tutoring activities aimed at students enrolled in the first year of the course, as well as to promote effective career advancement by students through, in particular, assistance in the compilation of individual programmes of study, ongoing guidance activities, designed to encourage students to choose the course of study that best suits their characteristics, as well as remedial activities for students in difficulty.
At the same time as enhancing the tools for assessing students' incoming skills, especially for those with a high drop-out rate, the University provides remedial teaching activities and ensures adequate tutoring services throughout the university course, calibrated to take into account the evaluation mechanisms of the courses of study, in order to pursue the result of improving the quality of the same, providing tutors for each individual course of study.
Ongoing guidance and tutoring activities, therefore, take on particular importance in view of the growing importance of the improvement and success, from an educational point of view, of regularly enrolled students, an aspect that cannot, however, disregard the initial level of basic skills of incoming students, which contributes significantly to the inadequate performance of enrolled students. In order to improve performance in specific areas, the University of Parma has developed a series of actions aimed at integrating and strengthening the core subject areas, as well as implementing integrative preparatory and introductory courses for examinations. In this sense, didactic tutoring can facilitate the completion of studies on time and, in particular, reduce first-year drop-outs. The aim is to guide and assist students throughout their studies, to make them active participants in the educational process, to remove obstacles to successful attendance of course units, including through initiatives tailored to the needs, aptitudes and requirements of individuals. The ongoing guidance and tutoring service, therefore, takes the form of support and assistance to students enrolled in courses of study, diversified according to the needs of the users and adaptable to the changing needs presented. In particular, the activities implemented, carried out by professors/instructors delivering the degree courses, concern the dissemination of information, reception, support and tutoring to help students during their university careers. More specifically, students are offered advice on drawing up their programmes of study and on issues relating to prerequisites, course, tutorial and laboratory attendance, the cultural and professional guidance of students, the promotion of their participation in national and international exchange or mobility programmes, as well as the referral to appropriate support structures in the event of any difficulties or psychological distress.
In this context, student services that contribute to their cultural and scientific education and facilitate their entry into the world of work are prioritised and strengthened, with the aim of offering students the opportunity to acquire certified supplementary skills during their chosen degree course.
In connection with secondary schools, the University of Parma has launched a specific project involving school teachers in coordination with university teaching staff with a view to supporting the preparation of students enrolled in the first or second year in need of subject reinforcement. IDEA Project (https://smfi.unipr.it/it/progetto-idea e https://dusic.unipr.it/it/didattica/progetto-idea), aimed at didactic integration by means of assisted tutorial sessions, is in fact an initiative that aims at the realisation of an operational link between high school and university, for a profitable connection between secondary school teaching and university teaching, as an effective means of reducing student difficulties and drop-out phenomena and is operational in various mathematical, scientific and humanistic fields.
Tutoring and tutorial sessions also make it possible to support both the process aimed at increasing the number of students who enrol in the second year of the same degree class or single-cycle degree having acquired an adequate number of ECTS credits in relation to the cohort of enrolled students in the previous academic year, and the process aimed at increasing the number of graduates who obtain their final degree within the normal duration of the degree course.
In addition, tutoring is adapted to suit the choice of a second-cycle degree, so as to offer guidance, encouraging vocation and talent, through more intensive contact with students, school directors and the career guidance of upper secondary schools.
The President of the Degree Course supervises ongoing tutoring and guidance activities.
Furthermore, according to Law No. 170 of 11 July 2003, article 1, paragraph 1, letter b), which provides for the allocation to capable and deserving students enrolled in specialisation degree courses, PhD programmes and the specialisation schools for secondary teaching, of allowances to incentivise tutoring, didactic-integrative, preparatory and remedial activities, the following student tutors were selected for the academic year 2019-20:
Daniele Ambrosini
Costante Belicchi
Diego Giaccari
Roberta Stefanini
