Curricular Plan
COURSE PLAN
Course Offering and Credit Structure
The Doctoral Program requires a total of 180 credits, evenly distributed over the three years of the program (60 credits for each year). One credit corresponds to 6 hours of classroom teaching.
The training program provides a total of 21 credits, of which 13 (equal to 78 hours) are classroom teaching delivered in courses specifically offered by the University of Messina and 8 are mandatory supplementary training activities. In-person teaching may also be conducted synchronously online for doctoral students who are engaged in other activities related to their research or are completing mandatory research periods, as required by their research project and previously approved by the Doctoral School, at foreign institutions or companies located outside the Municipality of Messina. Course attendance will be certified by the instructor. Only for doctoral students who are unable to attend the course online, alternative training activities may be offered, as defined by the instructor in charge, upon request, to assist in earning mandatory academic credits. To acquire the 13 credits of classroom teaching, you must attend at least 85% of the total teaching hours (over 66 hours).
The credits must be earned through attendance at in-depth lectures and seminars in the common subject areas (SSD) or individual curricula, supported by language and IT training activities. Part of the teaching activities will be dedicated to exploring issues related to the valorization and dissemination of results, intellectual property, and open access to research data and products, as well as the management of research and knowledge in European and international research systems.
The remaining number of credits (159ECTS) is assigned by the teaching staff to activities related to the specific research of individual doctoral students (117ECTS), including participation in conferences, seminars, schools, and stays abroad. (13 CFU) and thesis writing activities (28 CFU).
Specifically, the training credits are distributed as follows:
- classroom teaching activities: 13CFU
- Mandatory supplementary training activities (linguistics, IT, management, etc.): 9 ECTS credits
- Participation in research-related activities chosen by the doctoral student: participation in conferences and congresses; Erasmus or other types of stays abroad; publications; tutoring activities; Supplementary teaching activities: 13CFU
- Individual research activities, to be illustrated and discussed in the annual report for the transition to the years following the first: 117CFU
- Thesis writing: 28CFU
The following criteria will be used to assign training credits to the activities freely chosen by the doctoral student.
- Participation Conference, congress, or seminar (0.5 credits/day of participation) in accordance with the Resolution of the S.A. of 23/12/2013. Participation in a conference, congress, or seminar as a speaker (1 credit/day of participation). Research stay abroad, Erasmus or other type (1 credit/month of stay abroad). of 21/12/2018
- Attendance at specialization courses or certifiable training activities related to the doctoral student's training and research will be evaluated by the Teaching Board for the purposes of assigning training credits and quantifying them based on the indications provided by the organizer.
- The publication of scientific articles in journals, essays in volumes, book chapters, or monographs, for which the date of acceptance of the contribution or publication of the volume will be considered valid, will be evaluated by the Teaching Board for the purposes of assigning training credits and quantifying them (from 1 CFU for publication in a national or unlisted journal a 5 CFU for public(reference in ISI or Scopus journals of class Q1 or A).
- Student tutoring activities in the Bachelor's and Master's degree courses at the University of Messina, subject to the approval of the Teaching Board, may be evaluated for the purposes of awarding credits and quantifying them (1 credit every 8 hours; up to a maximum of 5 CFU per academic year).
- Supplementary teaching activities, always within the maximum cumulative limit of 40 hours per year and subject to the approval of the Teaching Board, may be evaluated for the purposes of awarding credits and quantifying them (1 CFU every 5 hours of supplementary teaching up to (up to a maximum of 4 ECTS credits).
- Excess educational credits will not be counted towards reaching the annual threshold.
The Doctoral Program in Bioengineering Applied to Medical Sciences Board approves the teaching activities associated with each year of the program (Activity Plan).
There are no exams/assessments requiring individual instructors to pass aptitude tests. Credits for institutional courses are specified in the annual Study Plan and are valid for the year in which the course is attended.
To be admitted to the final exam, students must have produced 2 scientific publications (journal article, conference proceedings article, monograph), or have submitted at least two papers for peer review.
The official language is Italian, however, courses may be held in English if foreign students are present.
The course schedule will be published on the Doctoral Program website https://bioingegneria-applicata-scienze-mediche.phd.unime.it/it/attivita/insegnamenti in the section Calendar.
In order to comply with current legislation regarding mandatory training (pursuant to Articles 36 and 37 of Legislative Decree 81/08 and subsequent amendments), doctoral students who do not possess other safety certifications issued by the University of Messina are required to participate in the 4-hour General Training Course on Occupational Safety, with a learning assessment test, online. This course is accessible at the following address: Autonomous Service Prevention and Protection through institutional credentials (codicefiscale@studenti.unime.it) on the Moodle platform.