'Social Sciences for Global Challenges': first degree course to address global challenges

Creating new professional figures who know how to juggle challenges such as climate emergencies, pandemics, demographic crises and the problems that will characterise the political scenarios of the coming years, once they become operators in the public and private sectors. This is the aim of 'Social Sciences for Global Challenges', an innovative three-year degree course in English, the only one of its kind in Italy, which has just opened for enrolment in these days: it is a proposal of the University of Pavia, where 100 years ago - in 1924 - the teaching of Political and Social Sciences was born with a dedicated School.

Today, the university's Department of Political and Social Sciences offers this course of study designed to better understand the constant changes in social dynamics, particularly those linked to disruptive events for the management of which it is essential to deploy interdisciplinary tools of analysis. The programme follows a progressive and interdisciplinary academic path, moving from more general to specific courses, enabling students to use methods, theories and approaches from different disciplines: economics, history, statistics and foreign languages, with additional skills offered by socio-cultural anthropology, mathematics, epidemiology and complexity theory.

"In order to train new professional profiles, a dialogue between social political sciences and hard sciences is increasingly necessary," explains Silvia Figini, director of the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Pavia. "The degree course in 'Social Sciences for Global Challenges' is fully taught in English and aims to train future experts on global challenges, such as biodiversity, health, climate change, population ageing, migration and natural disasters. We want to provide the analytical tools and organisational skills to work effectively in public administrations and international and national organisations'.

The first year of the Social Sciences for Global Challenges degree programme includes general courses ranging from sociology, political science, contemporary history, cultural anthropology and principles of economics, to data analysis and interpretation, in order to provide a solid introduction to the topics that will be explored throughout the programme. As the degree is taught entirely in English, the first year also offers an advanced English course to develop basic transversal skills.
In the second year students will take courses aimed at acquiring knowledge, methods and skills to analyse complex global phenomena and challenges, as well as to assess their local impacts. In the second and third year students will also acquire 12 Cfu in an additional foreign language to be chosen from the numerous European and non-European languages offered within the Department.
In the third year, Social Sciences for Global Challenges offers a wide range of more specialised courses. More electives will be available to students through which they will have the opportunity to explore specific areas of interest in greater depth.
To provide a more practical and work-oriented experience, the degree programme offers the possibility of attending curricular internships or training activities at qualified national and international organisations.

Partners of the study course are: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), World Health Organisation (WHO), Ministry of Health, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, ENI, Assolombarda, Thomas Jefferson University, Ethox University of Oxford.