University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Italian Switzerland

[EduCativ]

The SUPSI strategy for 2017-2020 results from teamwork involving SUPSI staff members and our local territory partners. All these contributions have been developed and summarised in a map.

When delineating our strategic plan, our starting point was our identity, together with the concept of a university of experience firmly rooted in the local territory and open to the rest of the world. We want to propel ourselves into the future.

Discussion regarding the paths to follow, and the choice of these paths, led us to focus on five fundamental strategic directions. And then we paused to consider the perspectives for outcome analysis and evaluation, identifying four in particular. This matrix generated sixteen objectives, coherent with the fundamental strategic directions and with the four dimensions.

The SUPSI vision focuses particularly on relationships with partners in the territory and on exploiting the full potential of its valued position in the national and international academic community. This aspect is essential for emphasizing its nature as a vocational university, prominent for its ability to create collaboration networks and ensure vocational education, applied research, and services, in different ways, structured to meet each subject area's specific requirements and professional context. The role of SUPSI as an agent of change for its various target groups is strengthened by leveraging on the aspect which, through time and experience, has transpired to be one of the University's strong points: its ability to create networks, system and to trigger research synergies between different subject areas, partners and projects.

• Integrity
• Responsibility
• Collaboration
• Image
• Ethical code

SUPSI has operated in Southern Switzerland for the last 20 years, plus many more if we consider the history behind the institution's establishment. In its primary role, the University supports the development of our society using its activities in education, research, and high-level technology transfer, in an ever-increasing range of professional contexts.

This is why the SUPSI Board and Executive have decided that it is essential to codify the three guiding principles, a source of inspiration for everyday University activities: integrity, responsibility, and collaboration.

The ethical code summarises and clarifies the code of conduct around these three cardinal guiding principles and the most critical organizational principles to which all those operating in SUPSI must refer, accepting roles and responsibilities that apply both internally and externally.

Simultaneously, the code defines the SUPSI commitment toward its students, partners, and other stakeholders in the territory and the national and international scientific and academic communities.

Understanding and adhering to the ethical code, which integrates and reinforces the principles described in the regulations and directives, are fundamental conditions underlying the reputation of SUPSI.

A university subsists first and foremost because of its students, who must be engaged in its daily activities in order to experience a sense of belonging to the institute they will attend for the duration of their study programs. The SUPSI objective for its students is twofold: their education should equip them with the proper professional skills, but they should also become citizens who are informed and able to build up valuable knowledge in terms of personal development and the development of the community of students to which they belong.

The educational agreement initiative is based on these considerations. It is also marked by the desire to remodel the teacher-student relationship approach, requiring the latter category to assume responsibilities while at the same time providing them with adequate responses to their learning needs, provided by their instructors in the classroom, in the partner companies or virtual spaces, and also utilizing high-quality services to support them in their personal development and transform the period of study into an experience of life and participation. On the one hand, the University constructs the contents and the learning environment. On the other hand, the students construct their learning process based on their motivational thrust and assuming responsibility for themselves, others, and general for the community in which they live.

SUPSI is an autonomous organization established under public law in Canton Ticino, including its departments and associated schools, which are run by private institutions but are integrated into the structure and culture of SUPSI while maintaining their own administrative and financial autonomy.

Relations with Canton Ticino are governed by a performance contract that defines cantonal contributions based on the number of students and the volume of acquired projects. The Swiss Confederation also contributes to finances. For the rest, SUPSI administers and organizes itself autonomously and pursues objectives of growth and self-financing.

Strategic direction and control are the SUPSI Council's responsibility, composed of people not working at SUPSI and appointed by the State Council (Government) of Canton Ticino.

The operative direction is the responsibility of SUPSI Management, including directors of departments and affiliated schools. Departments are structured by academic discipline (Institutes, Laboratories, Centres of Expertise) directly responsible for the first level modules, continuing education courses, and applied research projects. All teachers, researchers, and other collaborators of SUPSI report to these departments.

The faculty of SUPSI is composed in a balanced proportion, depending on individual disciplines, of internal teachers-researchers and active external professionals. The professor's title does not distinguish a function. However, it is conferred as an honorific title by the SUPSI Council to collaborators who have not already obtained it elsewhere and achieve effective teaching and applied research goals. Departments have the support of advisory committees.

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