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Type

Degree Programme

Access mode

Programmed

Length

3 years

Location

Modena

Language

Italian

Department

"Enzo Ferrari" Department of Engineering

The Degree Course in brief

Construction and land management

The professionalising Degree programme in Construction and Land Management reconciles the need to ensure that students have an adequate command of general scientific and technological methods and content with the acquisition of specific professional skills. In fact, the main feature of the Course is to guarantee, also with the contribution of temporary extra-university lectures entrusted to external experts and professionals, the balanced presence in graduates of the knowledge/competences/skills necessary to exercise the free profession as technical experts in the construction, infrastructure and environmental protection sectors. This modern professional figure can be interpreted as the evolution of the technical surveyor, who now has a three-year professional degree, as required by recent European legislation on intermediate professions.

There is no need to remind us of the social, economic, technical and cultural importance of the surveyor profession. There is not a family that has not, at least once, turned to a surveyor for extraordinary maintenance or minor renovation of their home, for the survey of a building or land, to draw up the millesimal tables of a condominium, for a cadastral survey or division of land, for a division of property between owners or heirs, for the valuation of a property, for technical advice in the event of property litigation. Not to mention the technical offices of public bodies or building and construction companies, which are never short of a working surveyor. The freelance profession of surveyor is carried out in Italy by over 100,000 people, of whom there are only about 9,000 women, but their number is growing at a rate of over 15 per cent every year. The professional offices of surveyors are spread throughout the territory in such a capillary manner that there is no municipality, no matter how small, that lacks one, even on the less easily accessible islands. The surveyor is a familiar figure in every community, a true multidisciplinary technician next door. It is also a profession that still offers considerable scope for economically satisfying self-employment, even for young people. The professional figure of the surveyor exists all over the world, albeit under different names: from the géomètre-expert in France to the surveyor or chartered surveyor in the Anglo-Saxon world, the German Vermessungsingenieure, the ingenieros técnicos en topografia in Spain, the agrimensores in Argentina, the surveying and cadastre engineers in Turkey. Since 1878, there has been the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), founded by the surveyors' associations of seven European countries, including Italy, and now comprising professional associations from over 120 states.

The recent Ministerial Decree No. 446 of 12.08.2020 sanctioned the conclusion of the experimental phase and formally established the classes of vocationally-oriented degree programmes. A legislative process on vocational degrees that had been going on for a few years was thus completed. Ministerial Decree no. 446/2020 defines degree class L-P01 'Technical professions for construction and territory' and specifies its qualifying educational objectives, largely incorporating the CUN indications of 24 October 2018. Therefore, as of today, a well-defined situation has taken shape, in which a professional degree can be activated and the necessary indications are available to formulate the educational objectives and the relevant manifesto. In addition, with the entry into force of Law no. 163 of 8 November 2021 (Articles 2 and 3), the final exam for the professionalising degree qualifies the holder to exercise the profession of graduate surveyor or graduate industrial surveyor - section of the register: Construction, Environment and Territory (Interministerial Decree no. 682/2023 and Interministerial Decree no. 685/2023). The procedures for conducting the final examination are described in Interministerial Decree no. 682 of 24 May 2023.

In addition to regulatory issues, the need for a degree for the building and territory technician stems first and foremost from cultural, social and technological reasons. In fact, it is necessary to offer and demand from the building and territory technicians of the future a dedicated training, broader and more in-depth than the current one, so that they can best exercise their profession, so important and at the widespread service of citizens, within a society characterised by a very rapid rate of innovation, by the pervasive presence of ever new and different technologies, and by the growing demand for procedures and technical solutions that meet the safety and protection needs of individuals, communities and the natural environment.

Info

Law: D.M. 270/2004
Department: "Enzo Ferrari" Department of Engineering
Degree class: L-P01 -
CFU: 180
Didactic method: PRESENCE

Study plan

Teachings

Study plan

Year of study: 1
Required
  • DRAWING
    6 CFU - 54 hours - Second Half-Year Cycle
  • PHYSICS
    6 CFU - 54 hours - First Half-Year Cycle
  • ENGLISH
    3 CFU - 0 hours - First Half-Year Cycle
  • TOPOGRAPHY
    6 CFU - 54 hours - Second Half-Year Cycle
Year of study: 2
Required
Year of study: 3
Required
Year of study: 1
Required
  • DRAWING
    6 CFU - 54 hours - Second Half-Year Cycle
  • PHYSICS
    6 CFU - 54 hours - First Half-Year Cycle
  • ENGLISH
    3 CFU - 0 hours - First Half-Year Cycle
  • TOPOGRAPHY
    6 CFU - 54 hours - Second Half-Year Cycle
Year of study: 2
Required
Year of study: 3
Required

More information

Prerequisites for admission.

As provided for by the regulations in force, to be admitted to the Professional Degree Course one must hold a high school diploma or another qualification obtained abroad and recognised as suitable. Admission to the Course requires good knowledge of written and oral Italian, logical reasoning skills, knowledge and ability to apply the main results of basic mathematics and the fundamentals of the experimental sciences. The procedures for verifying the knowledge required for access and for assigning any additional training obligations (OFA) to students will be described in detail in the Course Regulations.

Admission procedures

The 'Construction and Land Management' course of study has a local programmed number of students pursuant to Article 2 of Law no. 264 of 2 August 1999. The number of students admitted to the Course is 50. All information on access, criteria, enrolment procedure, will be contained in the admission notice.
Students who have been admitted to the Course of Study with a non-positive TOLC-LP result may be given specific additional training obligations (hereinafter referred to as OFAs) to be fulfilled by the end of the first year in the following way: by taking special OFA Compensation Tests, organised throughout the academic year.

Skills associated with the function

1. Technical expert in construction, town planning and environment
With specific reference to the sequence of operations and the necessary controls, in this context the graduate must be able to carry out the activities of design and execution management and control, understood as an intellectual process for the conception (design) of a new work or an intervention on the built environment with the preparation of a set of papers, relating to the architectural, structural and plant engineering part, in compliance with the technical prescriptions and the current legislative provisions on town planning, building, energy, safety and hygiene.

2. Technical expert in topography and cadastral activities
In this field, the graduate must be able to carry out the activities related to the drafting of a cadastral file, understood as a technical activity aimed at the drafting of the type, mapping, parcel and ascertainment of the urban real estate unit, through appropriate cadastral procedures. Furthermore, he/she must be able to carry out the activities related to the survey of the territory and buildings, understood as a technical activity aimed at measuring and graphically restoring planimetric and/or altimetric layouts, plans, sections and elevations.

3. Technician expert in surveying and appraisal work
In this field, the graduate must be able to manage the valuation process of a property, which consists of a series of activities including document analysis, verification activities, market surveys, data processing and the drafting of the valuation report, according to specific rules and objective criteria in accordance with reference standards, allowing the valuation process to be transparent.

Function in a work context

1. Technical expert in construction, town planning and environment
The first declination of the graduate's professional profile is that of a technical expert in: works design; works management; works accounting; works testing; support for the monitoring and diagnostics of structures, infrastructures, territory and plants; prevention and protection service manager (RSPP); prevention and protection service officer (ASPP); control of the safety process; safety coordination during the design phase of the work; safety coordination during work execution phase; drafting of recovery plan; drafting of allotment plan; drafting of colour plan; energy certification; consultancy for building energy qualification; building acoustic certification; consultancy for building acoustic qualification; design and verification for fire prevention purposes; property administration; drafting of acoustic zoning plan.

2. Technical expert in topography and cadastral activities
The second declination of the graduate's professional profile is that of a technician expert in: drafting type or fractioning plan; drafting mapping type; drafting particle type; reporting to the cadastre of buildings; cadastral turnaround; management of cadastral, state and local authority databases; land surveying; building surveying; precision surveying; plotting land infrastructures; plotting buildings; plotting allotments.

3. Technician expert in surveying and appraisal work
The third declination of the graduate's professional profile is that of an expert technician in: real estate valuation; judicial technical consultancy; out-of-court technical consultancy; office technical consultancy; arbitration; drafting of contractual expertise; mediation; technical consultancy at the transfer deed; drafting of millesimal tables; reconfiguration; drafting of the expropriation particle plan; drafting of the inheritance declaration (tavolare); ascertainment of civic uses; real estate due diligence; document auditing; management of works accounts.

Employment and professional opportunities for graduates.

1. Technical expert in construction, town planning and environment
Graduates of the Project Course will be able to find employment in the following areas: companies and professional firms in an autonomous or associated form in interdisciplinary consulting and design groups; public administration and bodies responsible for land management and protection; concessionary companies; companies and consortia managing technological networks and infrastructures; service companies and firms; construction companies. Continuing studies in master's degrees is not a natural outlet for graduates of this course.

2. Technical expert in topography and cadastral activities
Graduates of the Project Course will be able to find employment in the following areas: companies and professional firms in an autonomous or associated form in interdisciplinary consulting and design groups; public administration and bodies responsible for land management and protection; concessionary companies; companies and consortia managing technological networks and infrastructures; service companies and firms; construction companies. Continuing studies in master's degrees is not a natural outlet for graduates of this course.

3. Technician expert in surveying and appraisal work
Graduates of the Project Course will be able to find employment in the following areas: companies and professional firms in an autonomous or associated form in interdisciplinary consulting and design groups; public administration and bodies responsible for land management and protection; concessionary companies; companies and consortia managing technological networks and infrastructures; service companies and firms; construction companies. Continuing studies in master's degrees is not a natural outlet for graduates of this course.

Educational goals

The main educational objective of the professionally oriented degree programme 'Construction and Land Management' is to guarantee, also with the contribution of temporary extra-university lectures by experts and professionals, the balanced presence in graduates of the knowledge/competences necessary to exercise freelance work in the construction and infrastructure sector, as well as the possession of an adequate mastery of general scientific methods and content relating to the subject areas concerned, as required in any university-level training.
In detail, the specific training objectives of the Course contribute to the training of an expert technician, with a marked propensity for the use of the most modern technologies, endowed with cultural and professional skills relating to the sectors of construction, town planning and environment, topography and surveying, which constitute the three fundamental and classic areas of the profession. In the fields of construction, town planning and environment, the graduate acquires a variety of skills that enable him to perform services such as planning, supervision and accounting of works, as well as testing, safety coordination, building diagnostics and management of ancillary installations. This also includes consultancy for property administration and energy certification. In the field of topography, the graduate applies the skills acquired by carrying out activities such as the survey of buildings, the graphic rendering of plans and cadastral practices. In the field of valuation, the graduate can put into practice what he or she has learnt during the course of training for consultancies ranging from the assessment of the market value of real estate, to technical and regulatory assistance, which is indispensable both for private citizens, in judicial and extrajudicial disputes, and for companies awarded public or private procurement contracts.
As indicated in the recent Ministerial Decree no. 446/2020, the Course's training pathway has a tripartite structure, consisting of basic, characterising and related educational activities, laboratory activities and the curricular internship. The first year of the Course is devoted to basic subjects (mathematics and physics), together with drawing, topography and elements of law. The second year sees the core subjects of building science and architectural and urban composition. In the third year, there is the characterising teaching of estimation. In the three-year course, the basic examinations are over 12 CFU, while the characterising ones are over 27 CFU. Ample space is reserved in the course for laboratory activities. They are spread over the three years of the course. The laboratories are essentially designed to develop students' 'know how' in professional subjects and at the same time to support, with their pragmatic dimension, the basic and characterising lectures. The laboratory activities are dedicated to building materials, spatial planning, topographical surveying, energy and plant engineering, architectural and structural design and expert and estimative activities. A total of more than 48 CFU are dedicated to laboratory activities. Since the course is a vocationally-oriented degree, the curricular internship, included in the third year, is fundamental for the student's training. The internship must necessarily be carried out outside the University, in Italy or abroad, in enterprises, companies, professional firms, public administrations, public or private bodies, including those of the third sector, or professional orders or colleges. The internship is a unique on-the-job training experience for students, allowing them to acquire practical freelance skills and also to reduce the time taken by graduates to enter the world of work. During this activity, students will be supervised by a company tutor and an academic tutor. A total of more than 48 CFU are dedicated to the internship.
The characteristics of the curricular traineeship, known as the Practical Appraisal Traineeship (PTV), are specified in Article 2 of DI 682/2023. Successful completion of the Practical Appraisal Test (PPV) gives access to the degree examination, which also qualifies the student to practise as a freelance professional pursuant to Law no. 163 of 8 November 2021.
The final examination for a professional degree in Building and Territory Techniques - class L-P01 qualifies the holder to work as a graduate surveyor or graduate industrial surveyor - section of the register: Construction, Environment and Territory.
The learning objectives resulting from the performance of the TPV can cover all the areas set out in Article 2 paragraph 5 of Interministerial Decree No. 682 of 24 May 2023.

Communication skills.

Graduates must have effective and efficient communication skills, in written and oral form, so that they can share and disseminate their work with full information and full comprehension. These skills must enable them to communicate unambiguously with both specialists and interlocutors of different cultural backgrounds or lower education levels, making them equally aware of their own ideas and intentions. This is crucial for the graduate technician, who often finds himself interacting with professionals from different cultural backgrounds.
Graduates must be able to draft and interpret technical reports and standards that may also involve other fields, within the meaning and terminology of ethics and professional ethics. Graduates must be able to collaborate and communicate effectively both nationally and internationally. For the development of communication skills, the didactic approach of the course includes group activities related to workshops and project writing. Students will be stimulated to communicate, motivate and enhance, both within the working group and towards teachers, project choices or evaluations of merit. The communication skills acquired will be assessed by means of periodic reviews of the papers/projects, written and oral examinations. Foreign language texts and documents will be used to foster communication in English.

Making judgements.

Graduates must have the ability to plan, design and conduct cognitive investigations, in order to be able to choose the most suitable techniques and methodologies for the realisation of the work/consultancy/service, also studying the applicability of new technologies, with attention to the management of available resources to be used according to economic and ethical criteria.
Graduates must develop the ability to design and evaluate alternative hypotheses, critically interpreting the results obtained from their analyses, and draw appropriate conclusions. Graduates must be able to consciously and critically interpret indicators, parameters, graphical representations, maps and simulations obtained from cognitive investigations, of which they must be able to estimate the significance, and be able to integrate and synthesise the information and knowledge acquired as a whole.
Graduates must likewise be able to judge analytical, experimental and even design choices made by third parties, both in strictly technical/scientific, regulatory and economic aspects, and in ethical and sustainability aspects.
The didactic approach will encourage, especially through laboratory and project drafting activities, in a context of both individual and group work, the comparison of alternatives and the proposal of a final solution.
In addition to the analysis of case studies presented in the various disciplines and laboratories, the curricular internship activity, which is closest to professional reality, and the preparation for the final examination, contribute to the achievement of the objective.

Learning skills.

Graduates must have attained learning skills that enable them to independently pursue in-depth study of work-related issues, guaranteeing the continuous updating of their professional training, covering both scientific-technological innovation and aspects of the production system, the economy and regulations.
This is achieved by acquiring the ability to study independently, not only in preparing for examinations, but above all in laboratory activities and in the in-depth study of topics for the final examination.
The graduate's training is oriented towards professional activities. The continuation of studies through master's degree programmes is therefore not a natural and compatible pathway.

Knowledge and understanding.

Construction, topography, surveying
The knowledge and comprehension skills listed above are achieved through participation in lectures, class exercises and numerous laboratories, through independent study and thesis preparation work. For the area of Construction, the principles acquired in Construction Science will be decisive, which will be the basis for the design of simple structures. Topography, in addition to lectures, will be carried out by means of field exercises, which will provide the necessary skills for surveying soils and buildings. In surveying, the various methods of estimating buildings and land will be introduced. Practical exercises will enable students to acquire the skills required to carry out property assessments. For the student's professional training, the curricular internship, carried out outside the university, will be decisive. In the course of the thesis work, which will be a fundamental phase of training, the student will have the opportunity to engage in the development and application of original solutions and contributions.

Applying knowledge and understanding.

Construction, topography, surveying
Graduates must acquire the ability to plan, design and manage construction and technological processes, in which legal and economic aspects may be relevant in addition to purely technical aspects.
In essence, the graduate must possess the ability to apply knowledge and understanding in order to practise as an expert technician in the fields of construction, infrastructure and environmental protection.

The ability to apply knowledge and understanding is achieved through direct discussion with other students and lecturers on the Course; through participation in the more applied activities of the Course, i.e. in the individual teaching exercises, laboratories, curricular internships; during the work on the thesis.