Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore or Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, colloquially the Catholic University of Milan (Italian: Università Cattolica di Milano) or simply the Cattolica, is an Italian private Catholic research university founded in 1921. Its main campus is located in Milan, Italy, with satellite campuses in Brescia, Piacenza, Cremona and Rome.

The university is organised into 12 faculties and 7 postgraduate schools. Cattolica provides undergraduate courses (bachelor's degree, which corresponds to Italian Laurea Triennale), postgraduate courses (master's degree, which corresponds to Laurea Magistrale, and specializing master) and PhD programs. In addition to these, the university runs several double degree programs with other institutions throughout the world. Degrees are offered both in Italian and in English.

Agostino Gemelli University Hospital serves as the teaching hospital for the medical school of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and owes its name to the university founder, the Franciscan friar, physician and psychologist Agostino Gemelli.

History

The project

The embryonic project of a Catholic university began around 1870, guided by representatives of various Catholic cultural currents. In September 1918, when the First World War was ending, Giuseppe Toniolo, before dying, recommended to Father Agostino Gemelli and his staff to found the university, saying: "I will not see the end of the war, but you, when it is finished, do it, found the Università Cattolica".

The foundation and the establishment of faculties

In 1919 Father Agostino Gemelli, Ludovico Necchi, Francesco Olgiati, Armida Barelli, and Ernesto Lombardo founded the Istituto Giuseppe Toniolo di Studi Superiori. On 24 June 1920, the institute was legally recognised with a decree signed by the Minister of Education, Benedetto Croce; at the same time, Pope Benedict XV officially recognised the university's ecclesiastical status.

On 7 December 1921, the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore was officially inaugurated with a special Mass celebrated by Father Gemelli in the presence of Achille Ratti, the Cardinal and Archbishop of Milan, who three months later was elected Pope Pius XI. The first campus was in Palazzo del Canonica, at via Sant'Agnese 2. In October 1930, it was moved to the ancient St. Ambrose Monastery, where the main campus remains today. In 1921, 68 students enrolled in the university's 2 available programs, philosophy and social sciences. As of 2016, 14 programs were offered to 30,263 students distributed over the Milan, Brescia, Cremona, Piacenza and Rome campuses.

In 1924, following recognition from the Italian state, which allowed the awarding of legally-recognised degrees, the Humanities and Law Programs were inaugurated. The charter of the Università Cattolica was approved by Royal Decree on 2 October 1924, and published on 31 October on the Gazzetta Ufficiale. In 1923, the Istituto Superiore di Magistero was opened and in 1936 became an independent program, later evolving to become, in 1996, the School of Education Sciences.

In 1926, the economics and politics departments became independent from the School of Law and, in 1931, the autonomous Faculty of Political, Economic and Social Sciences was born, awarding also the university's business degrees until 1947. In 1936, the School of Political Science became independent. The work and efforts of the Università Cattolica continued throughout the post-war period with new campuses and programs opening. The School of Economics officially opened in 1947 with both day and night classes. On 30 October, in the presence of Italian President Luigi Einaudi, the first stone of the Piacenza campus was laid, with the official opening of the School of Agricultural Sciences taking place in November 1952.

Rector

The Magnifico Rettore is the most senior post in this institution, elected every 4 years by the board of directors. The role of the Rector is to represent the university and to convene and chair the board of directors, the management committee, the academic senate, and the board of the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital.

Organization

Schools

The UCSC offers a wide range of degrees in 12 faculties.

• Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences (1951) ‒ Piacenza-Cremona
• Faculty of Arts and Philosophy (1924) ‒ Milan, Brescia
• Faculty of Banking, Finance and Insurance Sciences (1990) ‒ Milan
• Faculty of Economics (1947) ‒ Milan, Rome
• Faculty of Economics and Law (2000) ‒ Piacenza-Cremona
• Faculty of Educational Sciences (1936) ‒ Milan, Brescia, Piacenza
• Faculty of Law (1924) ‒ Milan
• Faculty of Linguistic Sciences and Foreign Literatures (1991) ‒ Milan, Brescia
• Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences (1968) ‒ Brescia
• Faculty of Medicine and Surgery (1958) ‒ Rome
• Faculty of Political and Social Sciences (1931) ‒ Milan, Brescia
• Faculty of Psychology (1999) ‒ Milan, Brescia

Postgraduate Schools

Postgraduate Schools (Alte Scuole) are centres of excellence in research and teaching.

• ALMED - Postgraduate School of Media Communications and Performing Arts (2002) ‒ Milan
• ALTIS - Postgraduate School Business & Society (2005) ‒ Milan
• ASA - Postgraduate School of Environmental Studies (2008) ‒ Brescia
• ASAG - Postgraduate School of Psychology Agostino Gemelli (2001) ‒ Milan
• ASERI - Postgraduate School of Economics and International Relations (1995) ‒ Milan
• ALTEMS - Postgraduate School of Health Economics and Management (2009) ‒ Rome
• SMEA - Postgraduate School of Agricultural and Food Economics (1984) ‒ Cremona

Campuses

Milan campus

Cattolica has campuses in six Italian cities, with its seat in the historic Cistercian monastery near the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in the heart of Milan. Originally a monastery built by Benedictine monks in the 8th century, the UCSC Milan campus expanded under the care of Cistercian friars in the 15th century and from military and social developments both during the Napoleonic era and World War II.

The restructuring of the Benedictine monastery by Giovanni Muzio in collaboration with the engineer Pier Fausto Barelli began in 1929 and finished twenty years later.

The campus, nestled within the original city walls of Milan, features a façade by Giovanni Muzio, the Chapel of the Sacred Heart, the atrium of the zodiac, and the Great Hall (Aula Magna).

The main section of Gemelli consists of the following buildings: monumental with cloister by Bramante, offices, Gregorianum, Antonianum, Via Lanzone 18, Ambrosianum, Franciscanum, and Domenicanum.

Most of the buildings, colleges, and campus facilities are located in St. Ambrose district, within the city centre of Milan. The seat in Via Necchi 5/9 was the historic seat of the Augustinianum College, containing, in addition to classrooms and offices, the economic institutes, the department of economics and the department of linguistics, library, science, economics, mathematics and statistics, catering services for staff and students, and the Domus restaurant. The seat in Via Carducci 28/30 is located in the Palazzo Gonzaga and was built by Arpesani in a Lombard style, incorporating the existing cloister of St. Jerome. Here is the main office and the office of international relations. The historical site of St. Agnese Catholic is on route 2, consisting of the Palazzo del Canonica. ALMED is located in this building.

Satellite campuses

The Cattolica is based in Piacenza at the Palace Ghisalberti. The construction of the headquarters of Piacenza, which would house the Faculty of Agriculture, started in 1953 at the bidding of Agostino Gemelli. The headquarters of Piacenza has a sports centre of 8,000 m2 called San Martino. The students of UCSC of Piacenza and Cremona participate, under the ASUB student association (Associazione Sportiva University Piacenza), in football, volleyball, basketball, capoeira, and table tennis. The headquarters of Cremona was inaugurated on 19 November 1984, by the academic activities of the SMEA.

The UCSC 37-hectare medical campus is situated in Rome. In 1934 Pope Pius XI granted Istituto Giuseppe Toniolo di Studi Superiori the property of Monte Mario to construct the buildings of the future Faculty of Medicine, followed by a speech by Pope Pius XII to start the execution phase of the project. In 1958, the Higher Council of Education approved the teaching and scientific project, and on June 18 of that year, with the decree of the President of the Republic, work began on the biological institutes, with classes beginning in November 1961. In 1961, construction began on Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic, completed in 1964. The Rome campus has 2 faculties, 34 institutes, 18 research centres, and over 7,000 students (5,000 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate).

Academics

The programs of the university are accredited by various departments of the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research.

Research

Research activities of the university included nearly 3,000 research projects underway in 2009 and 4,668 publications and 4 atheneum centres. The research is divided into 22 departments, 54 institutes, and 70 research centres. The 22 departments (if these are added to 16, which refer to the medical care area) are aimed at promoting and coordinating the activities of institutional research and contributing to the organisation of doctoral research (PhD). The atheneum centres were established in 2007 and have structures for the conception, development, and implementation of research projects and training on social issues. The specific fields of focus for the atheneum centres are bioethics, the family, social teaching, and international solidarity.

Admissions

All schools have a limited number of seats, and most of the schools require an admission test to enrol.

The admission test of the School of Medicine "Agostino Gemelli" is one of the most selective of the university. This test consists of a written test and/or an oral exam. In the admission test in 2017, which took place in Rome and Milan, there were 8907 candidates for 300 seats.

Libraries

The UCSC Library System works with numerous national and international bodies: IFLA - International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, AIB; Associazione Italiana Biblioteche, AIDA; Associazione Italiana per la Documentazione Avanzata, NDLTD; Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, LIBER; Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche, LOCKSS; Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe, CLOCKSS; Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe, NEREUS e INNOVATIVE.

Rankings & Internationalization

The Cattolica, according to a study of the International Student Barometer, a survey of a sample of 65 universities in Europe, is the second in Europe and fourth position at the international level among the most recommended universities by foreign students.

According to QS World University Rankings 2025, Cattolica is ranked 442 overall. Globally by subject, as of 2017, Cattolica is among the top 100 in law and legal studies, top 150 in economics and econometrics, top 180 in agriculture and forestry, top 200 in accounting and finance, top 250 in business and management, etc. In addition, the university is ranked between 81 and 90 in graduate employability. UCSC is a part of a series of international networks including: LLP – Erasmus Network, UCSC International Bilateral Agreements, ISEP Network, International Network of Universities (INU), Fédération des Universités Catholiques Européenes (FUCE), Fédération Internationale des Universités Catholiques (FIUC), and International Partnership of Business Schools (IPBS).

Media

The publishing house of UCSC is Vita e pensiero, founded in 1918. The owner is the Istituto Giuseppe Toniolo di Studi Superiori.

The following are the publications and magazines of the UCSC. Vita e pensiero, founded in 1914 by Agostino Gemelli, has been the official magazine of the Cattolica since its inception. Presenza is the UCSC in-house organ, examining topical issues and the latest news of the university. The magazine is divided into two main parts. The first covers services and current affairs, and the second is devoted to news from the headquarters of Cattolica (Milan, Brescia, Piacenza-Cremona and Rome). The magazine is distributed free to faculty, students, graduates, and opinion makers at the national level. Comunicare is a bimonthly magazine, founded in 1990, for the School of Medicine and Surgery of Rome and the Policlinico Agostino Gemelli.

Youcatt, the web TV of the UCSC (Brescia), debuted in September 2009 and is in charge of the university hosted events, foreign experiences of students, and topical issues. It also carries "Books in brief". In 2011 Youcatt won the award Teletopi for the best Italian web TV.

In UCSC, there are some student media like Radio Catt and TV Catt, which were founded in 2012.

Student life

Residential colleges

Inside the UCSC campus there are some colleges: Augustinianum College (Milan), Marianum College (Milan), Ludovicianum College (Milan), Paolo VI College (Milan), Sant'Isidoro College (Piacenza), Ker Maria College (Rome), San Damiano College (Rome), Nuovo Joanneum College (Rome), San Luca - Armida Barelli College (Rome).

A short distance from the university there are other colleges located in urban areas: Orsoline (Milan), San Francesco (Milan), Stimmatine (Milan), Sacro Cuore Buonarroti (Milan), Franciscanum (Brescia), Sacro Cuore (Brescia), San Giorgio (Brescia), Villa Pace (Brescia), Morigi De Cesaris College (Piacenza), Orsoline (Piacenza), Capitanio (Rome), Renzi (Rome), Romitello (Rome), Sacra Famiglia (Rome).

Ex-alumni of the colleges of the Cattolica have formed associations: Agostini Semper (Augustinianum College) and Associazione Mea (Marianum College).

Code of ethics

On 1 November 2011, the code of ethics was introduced. This document contains the values that characterise the Cattolica and the rules of conduct. Each student must sign the code before enrolling. The code is based on principles such as integrity, honesty, legality, solidarity, subsidiarity, hospitality, dialogue, excellence, dignity, the promotion of merit, and individual skills, as well as the prevention and rejection of any unjust discrimination, violence, abuse and improper treatment. The code is formulated to implement the Treaty of Lisbon.

Student associations

There are many student associations across the five campuses. They organise cultural activities and publish several magazines that are distributed free of charge within the university. Associations are also active, both dealing with intramural matters and looking at social issues.

IT services

I-Catt is the student home page which contains information about suspended classes, exam schedules, and teachers' notices. Cattolica uses Blackboard Inc. as the e-learning platform on which professors post teaching materials. The telecommunication stations UCPoint & InfoPoint, located on all campuses, perform clerical duties and provide information related to teaching and services. In each location, computer labs and wireless connections are available.

Sports

The university's sports and activities of the degree course in "Physical Education and Sports" are held in the UCSC sports centre "Rino Fenaroli" of Milan. As of 2011, the teams had won the Milan Collegiate Championships four of the previous five seasons.

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