Advising and guidance

Advising

Advising actions play a decisive role in the complex and articulated process of higher education of the new generations. The choice of a university study path is indeed a very delicate moment in the life of the student who has to make a conscious choice in order to build his or her own life project; shortcomings in entry guidance contribute to an increase in the number of study drop-outs, as well as to slowing down student careers by disproportionately increasing the time it takes to obtain a degree.

First entry to university is therefore an extremely delicate phase of a student's education, as evidenced by the fact that most drop-outs occur during the first year of enrolment. It is therefore extremely important for the university to organise, at this stage, activities capable of supporting one of the most delicate passages in a young person's training career, through assistance and information services aimed at alleviating perplexities and uncertainties related to the impact with the university world.

The University of Parma pays particular attention to orientation projects aimed at high school students, in order to promote an accurate and in-depth knowledge of the University's course catalogue and, at the same time, to stimulate conscious choices of their university career also through appropriate preparatory activities aimed at verifying the possession of the knowledge and/or skills or the adjustment of personal preparation necessary for access to study courses.
At the same time, advising activities, in addition to focusing on investigations into the motivations and expectations of incoming students, contemplate the use of innovative teaching experiences, as a function of orientation itself, in order to achieve career regularity. With this in mind, the service is aimed at enhancing the tools for assessing students' incoming skills, particularly for those courses of study with a high drop-out rate.

The procedures for enrolling, admitting students and managing their careers are set out in the Prospectus and the University Regulations and communicated through specific sections of the University website; a specific section of the University portal is dedicated to freshmen: University of Parma the world that awaits you .

An important network of activities and services, described in the document University Policy for Student Services and coordinated by the Guidance Delegate, is constantly updated and optimised to accompany students throughout their university career, from entry orientation to tutoring, internships and traineeships to job placement, taking into account the dynamic needs of students, University strategies and the opportunities offered by national or regional calls for orientation.
 

Guidance and tutoring

The service is intended to support the proper integration of students into the course of study through, in particular, specific tutoring activities aimed at students enrolled in the first year of the course, as well as to encourage effective career progression by students through, in particular, assistance in the compilation of individual programmes of study, guidance activities aimed at encouraging students to choose the course of study best suited to their characteristics, as well as remedial activities for students experiencing difficulties.

In parallel with strengthening the tools for assessing students' incoming skills, particularly for those with a high dropout rate, the university provides remedial teaching actions and ensures adequate tutoring services throughout the university course, calibrated taking into account the assessment mechanisms of the courses of study, in order to pursue the result of improving their quality, by providing tutors for each individual course of study.

Guidance and tutoring, therefore, take on particular significance 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 underperformance of matriculated students. In order to improve specific performance, the university has set out to develop a series of actions aimed at integrating and strengthening the core subject areas, as well as implementing supplementary preparatory and preparatory 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, including through initiatives tailored to the needs, aptitudes and requirements of individuals. The 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 adapted to changing needs. In particular, the activities implemented, carried out by teaching staff members embedded in the courses of study, concern the dissemination of information, reception, support and tutoring to help students during their education. More specifically, the activities carried out include advising on the drawing up of programmes of study and on issues relating to propaedeuticity, how to attend courses, tutorials and laboratory activities, the cultural and professional orientation 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 situations of psychological distress.

In this context, services to students that contribute to their cultural and scientific education and facilitate their entry into the world of work are favoured and strengthened, with the aim of offering students the opportunity to acquire certified supplementary skills during their chosen learning pathway.

In connection with high 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 who need disciplinary reinforcement.

The IDEA Project (https://smfi.unipr.it/it/progetto-idea  aimed at Didactic Integration through Assisted Exercises, 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 didactics and university didactics, as an effective means of reducing student difficulties and drop-out phenomena and is operational in various mathematical, scientific and humanistic fields.
Tutoring and tutorials 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 university 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 course of study.

In addition, it was intended to design the mentoring also in the light of the choice of a second-cycle degree, so as to orientate it, favouring vocation and talent, through more intensive contacts with students, school heads and the career guidance delegates of upper secondary schools.