Statute of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
TITLE III - University facilities
Art. 27 - Departments
The Departments are the basic organisational facilities of the University, responsible for scientific research, teaching and training activities, as well as external activities related to or ancillary to them. The Departments are stable facilities, hinged in one of the two University locations.
The Departments include professors and researchers of homogeneous and similar Scientific Disciplinary Sectors, as well as the units of technical-administrative personnel assigned to them. The Departments can have an interdisciplinary character, based on tested and solid experiences both in research and in teaching.
Each Department must include a number of professors, permanent and fixed-term researchers of no less than thirty-five, to allow adequate coverage of teaching and research activities. Each professor and researcher belong to a single Department and at the same time, if the Department to which they belong is located in both seats, they indicate the one they belong to.
The establishment of a Department requires that:
a) there is coherence between the research requirements and teaching activities characterising it;
b) the minimum number of members referred to in paragraph 3 is represented by permanent professors and researchers;
c) the minimum number of members referred to in paragraph 3 is not intended to cease in the three years following the approval of the Statute for programmable events, without prejudice to the contextual provision of the modalities for reconstituting the quorum according to the composition criteria provided for by the Law of 30 December 2010, n. 240;
d) one has the necessary resources to manage at least two Degree Programmes or to make a significant contribution to a single-cycle master's programme;
e) those belonging to the Department guarantee adequate coverage of the educational credits provided for in the didactic regulations of the study programmes. If this is not possible, the remaining part of the teaching resources must be provided by other Departments, as part of the coordination operated by the Departments and / or the University Schools.
For the sole purpose of internal organisation, and if the complexity of the cultural and scientific areas in a single Department makes it appropriate, the Departments concerned can be divided into sections, without administrative autonomy. The breakdown into sections does not imply changes in the composition of the Department's bodies.
It is up to the Departments:
a) To promote and coordinate institutional research activities, respecting the autonomy of each individual professor and researcher and their right to directly access research funding;
b) To promote and manage research initiatives and programmes in collaboration with cultural and research institutions, local, national and international organisations and businesses;
c) To promote and manage educational activities related to degree programmes through their human and instrumental resources and approve the training offer;
d) To promote initiatives in the context of educational activities for the development of internship activities in collaboration with cultural and research institutions, local, national and international bodies and businesses;
e) To collaborate in the Programmes as well as in the PhD and Specialisation Schools, within the scope of their own disciplinary skills and lines of research.
f) To deliberate on the membership of professors and researchers who have requested it in accordance with the procedures established by the general University regulations.
The Departments prepare annual and three-year plans for the development of activities for the planning of the objectives and needs of human, material and financial resources. In particular, it is up to the Departments:
a) to formulate, as far as they are of specific interest, the requests for teaching and research staff on the basis of a detailed research development plan and didactic needs;
b) To submit requests for technical-administrative staff, financial resources and facilities based on the research and teaching activities carried out and planned, as well as teaching support services.
After evaluating the adequacy of requests with expected objectives and the consistency with the University's needs, the development plans of the Departments are integrated by the Rector in the University's three-year planning document. The periodic reporting on the use of the resources acquired and the results achieved is also subject to final assessment.
The Conference of Department Directors is established, which exercises consultative and propositional functions towards the Board of Directors, the Academic Senate and the Evaluation Board. The functioning of the Conference is governed by the University General Regulations.
