Professional Master’s Programmes

FAQs

• How do I choose between a Laurea Magistrale (Italian second-cycle degree programme) and a Professional Master’s Programme?

  To choose between a Professional Master’s Programme and a second-cycle degree programme, you should look at your personal and professional goals.

  A Professional Master’s Programme is perfect for you if you are looking for a short-term, specialist training programme with a focus on practice, designed to kickstart or elevate your career. Professional Master’s Programmes target specific knowledge and offer internship and networking opportunities in a certain professional field. If, on the other hand, you are interested in a broader, more theoretical academic programme to get advanced education and access jobs that require a second-cycle degree, such as in teaching and research, you should go for a Laurea Magistrale.

  Both options have their own advantages – consider the duration, career opportunities and your future aspirations to make an informed choice.

  If you could use some help, you can contact orientamento.itinere@unibo.it for a guidance interview.

• Does a Professional Master’s Programme award the same qualification as a foreign Master’s Degree Programme?

  No, there is no equivalence between the two. A Professional Master’s Programme usually lasts one year and awards 60 CFUs, equal to 1500 hours of learning activities overall. A Master’s Degree Programme (either a Master of Science or a Master of Arts) is a second-cycle degree programme that lasts two years and awards 120 CFUs, equal to 3000 hours of learning activities overall. The qualification awarded is the same as a second-cycle degree.

• What sort of qualification will I get from a Professional Master’s Programme?

  A Professional Master’s Programme is a postgraduate programme focused on lifelong and recurrent advanced training and scientific specialisation, at the end of which a first-level or second-level professional master’s degree is awarded.

  This qualification is not valid for admission to degree programmes of a higher level (including PhD programmes and specialisation schools), yet it allows putting the skills you have gained to use in the world of work.

• Can I enrol in a Professional Master’s Programme and in another programme at the same time?

  From a.y. 2022/23, you can enrol simultaneously in up to two programmes at the same university or at different universities or Advanced Artistic and Musical Training institutions, including foreign ones.  This, however, is only possible under certain circumstances.

  For further information, see Simultaneous enrolment in different programmes.

• Can I attend a Professional Master’s Programme as an auditor?

  This is possible for some of the programmes, although not for all of them. See the information in the relevant Professional Master’s Programme data sheet.

• Is an internship provided at all times?

  Yes, it is. Internships form an essential part of the curriculum and allow acquiring CFUs.

  If you are unable to do an internship for work-related reasons, you may agree on project work to be carried out at your place of work.

• Is attendance mandatory? When can it be suspended?

  Mandatory percentage

  Depending on the programme, a mandatory attendance percentage between 70% and 90% is required.

  Suspension

  Suspending attendance is usually not permitted.

  Suspension may be granted in the event of an extended illness, pregnancy, maternity or paternity. In any of those cases, please email master@unibo.it, which will consider your request and provide you with the information you need.

• Can I switch from another programme?

  No, switching from a Professional Master’s Programme to another, or from a Professional Master’s Programme to a different programme (and vice versa) is not permitted.