Institutional philosophy
Vision, mission, values and guiding principles are the cardinal aspects of the university philosophy, strengthening its identity and the extent to which its staff, students and alumni identify with it.
Vision
We aim to be a vocational, multidisciplinary, innovative and Latin-culture university, prominent in Switzerland, a network-creation leader, both in Switzerland and internationally, in the academic, business and political-institutional contexts.
The SUPSI vision focuses particularly on relationships with partners in the territory, and on exploiting the full potential of its valued position in the national and international academic community.
This aspect is essential for emphasising its nature as a vocational university, prominent for its ability to create collaboration networks and ensure vocational education, applied research and services, in different ways, structured to meet the specific requirements of each subject area and professional context.
The role of SUPSI as an agent of change for its various target groups is strengthened by leveraging on the aspect which, through time and experience, has transpired to be one of the University’s strong points: its ability to create networks, system and to trigger research synergies between different subject areas, partners and projects.
Mission
The majority of our students come from the local territory, and, on completion if their programmes, they possess professional skill sets, are highly qualified and immediately operational, able to move around regional, national and international contexts with great flexibility. Our research projects provide solutions that are innovative and rapidly applicable, can make local institutions, organisations and businesses more competitive, and improve individual quality of life.
The SUPSI mission is based on the needs of its stakeholders and on the ways in which these needs can be best met. This emphasises the double role played by the University with regard to its various partners in the territory: on the one hand, training professional workers, and on the other hand boosting competitive capacity by transferring the knowledge generated. The mission also marks the osmotic process between academic education and applied research, necessary in order to meet these dual needs. Last, but not least, it focuses on the SUPSI response to complex problems associated with human needs and that require simple solutions deriving from a variety of areas of knowledge and experience, which in this way work together toward transforming and improving quality of life.
What guides and inspires us
The seven values listed above guide and inspire SUPSI operations. In effect, they are multidimensional values which, in the course of University activities, make it possible to combine a range of aspects that are different but that can nonetheless blend together, safeguarding its applied academic institution character.
Strenght
Teaching, research and service provision activities capable of responding in form and content to actual user needs.
Originality
Ability to come up with methodologies that integrate theory and practice with a flexible organizational structure that is able to enhance identities and differences in a balanced way.
Multidisciplinarity
Approach that integrates diverse knowledge for solving complex problems by combining the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability.
Partnership
Internally, with academic institutions and other public and private entities for synergistic and efficient action.
Innovation
As a fundamental attitude in any context to proactively anticipate the future in a rapidly changing reality.
Territoriality
As a sign of special attention to the needs of the region in the performance of all institutional tasks.
Internationality
Create an opportunity for mobility and international cooperation among teachers, researchers and students.
Integrity
Responsability
Collaboration
Ethical Code
SUPSI has operated in Southern Switzerland for the last 20 years, plus many more if we consider the history behind the establishment of the institution, and in its primary role the University supports the development of our society by means of its activities in the fields of education, research and high-level technology transfer, in an ever-increasing range of professional contexts.
This is why the SUPSI Board and Executive have decided that it is essential to codify the three guiding principles, a source of inspiration for everyday University activities: integrity, responsibility and collaboration.
Around these three cardinal guiding principles, the ethical code summarises and clarifies the code of conduct and the most important organisational principles to which all those operating in SUPSI must refer, accepting roles and responsibilities that apply both internally and externally.
At the same time, the code defines the SUPSI commitment toward its students, partners and all other stakeholders in the territory and in the national and international scientific and academic communities.
Understanding and adhering to the ethical code, which integrates and reinforces the principles described in the regulations and directives, are fundamental conditions underlying the reputation of SUPSI.
Educational agreement with students
A university subsists first and foremost because of its students, who must be engaged in its daily activities in order to experience a sense of belonging to the institute they will attend for the duration of their study programmes. The SUPSI objective for its students is twofold: their education should equip them with the proper professional skills, but they should also become citizens who are informed and able to build up valuable knowledge, in terms of both personal development and the development of the community of students to which they belong. The educational agreement initiative is based on these considerations and is also marked by the desire to remodel the teacher-student relationship approach, requiring the latter category to assume responsibilities while at the same time providing them with adequate responses to their learning needs, provided by their instructors in the classroom, in the partner companies or in virtual spaces, and also by means of high-quality services to support them in their personal development and transform the period of study into an experience of life and participation. On the one hand, the university constructs the contents and the learning environment, while on the other hand, the students construct their own learning process, based on their motivational thrust and assuming responsibility for themselves, for others and in general for the community in which they live.
SUPSI has operated in Southern Switzerland for the last 20 years, plus many more if we consider the history behind the establishment of the institution, and in its primary role the University supports the development of our society by means of its activities in the fields of education, research and high-level technology transfer, in an ever-increasing range of professional contexts.
This is why the SUPSI Board and Executive have decided that it is essential to codify the three guiding principles, a source of inspiration for everyday University activities: integrity, responsibility and collaboration.
Around these three cardinal guiding principles, the ethical code summarises and clarifies the code of conduct and the most important organisational principles to which all those operating in SUPSI must refer, accepting roles and responsibilities that apply both internally and externally.
At the same time, the code defines the SUPSI commitment toward its students, partners and all other stakeholders in the territory and in the national and international scientific and academic communities.
Understanding and adhering to the ethical code, which integrates and reinforces the principles described in the regulations and directives, are fundamental conditions underlying the reputation of SUPSI.
Educational agreement with students
A university subsists first and foremost because of its students, who must be engaged in its daily activities in order to experience a sense of belonging to the institute they will attend for the duration of their study programmes. The SUPSI objective for its students is twofold: their education should equip them with the proper professional skills, but they should also become citizens who are informed and able to build up valuable knowledge, in terms of both personal development and the development of the community of students to which they belong. The educational agreement initiative is based on these considerations and is also marked by the desire to remodel the teacher-student relationship approach, requiring the latter category to assume responsibilities while at the same time providing them with adequate responses to their learning needs, provided by their instructors in the classroom, in the partner companies or in virtual spaces, and also by means of high-quality services to support them in their personal development and transform the period of study into an experience of life and participation. On the one hand, the university constructs the contents and the learning environment, while on the other hand, the students construct their own learning process, based on their motivational thrust and assuming responsibility for themselves, for others and in general for the community in which they live.