The Master’s Degree in Analisi dei processi sociali (Analysis of Social Processes) provides students with the ability to analyse and interpret changes to contemporary societies.

The knowledge and skills acquired during the course will enable graduates to successfully enter the job market.

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Course content

The Master’s Degree in Analysis of Social Processes aims to provide students with advanced skills in interpreting change within societies and guiding research activities in new areas.

The first year of the course features mandatory core modules focusing on methodology and advanced techniques in qualitative and quantitative research, as relevant to processes of social change. In the second year of the course, students can choose between three teaching programmes focusing on specific areas:

• Cities and Territory;
• Work, Companies and Society;
• Society of Knowledge.

The course trains professionals who are capable of using a disciplined, scientific approach to interpret problems cause by change and devise efficient measures for various aspects of social life.

The Master’s Degree in Programmazione e gestione delle politiche e dei servizi sociali (Planning and Management of Policies and Social Services) – PROGEST trains expert professionals equipped with critical thinking skills who can operate independently and fulfil roles at director, management and coordination level in the field of social policies and planning.

Professionals who graduate from the course can work in a variety of sectors, from health and social care integration to people and family services, migration and intercultural relations, social exclusion and marginalisation, vulnerable people and welfare policies and local cooperation and development.

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Course content

The qualification of Master’s Degree in Planning and Management of Policies and Social Services is issued on completion of the course, which entitles graduates to access second-level postgraduate programmes and PhD programmes. The qualification also allows holders to sit the State Exam to qualify as Specialist Social Workers (Register A).

In order to receive the qualification, students must obtain a total of 120 University Credits (CFUs), divided as follows:

• 81 CFUs relating to mandatory and elective modules;
• 39 CFUs relating to other educational activities (knowledge of a foreign language, educational placements, educational activities chosen autonomously by the student, educational activities relating to the final exam for the qualification).

Given the objective of providing professional skills, the course has been organised in order to give particular importance to seminars and subject-specific workshops, where students are presented with concrete cases and can therefore practise solving complex situations, particularly those of an organisational nature. The placement and/or traineeship experiences which all students on the course of study undertake are also designed to further this objective.

Skills developed

At the end of the course, graduates from the Master's Degree in Planning and Management of Policies and Social Services course will have acquired skills and knowledge that provide them with:

• advanced knowledge of fields relevant to sociology and social care and advanced skills in terms of adopting a cross-discipline approach to analysing and interpreting social phenomena in the following fields: economics/statistics, law/political science, anthropology, psychology and pedagogy, multiculturalism and gender studies;
• a command of various different methods of designing, organising and running social surveys on individuals, communities, organisations and local areas;
• an adequate understanding of methods and techniques relevant to monitoring and assessing the outcomes and social impact of measures and programmes in various social areas;
• the skills necessary to find common ground between planning action in various social areas and the corresponding services offering;
• an ability to use at least one European Union language other than Italian, within their specific field of expertise and for general exchanges of information;
• adequate knowledge and skills regarding the communication and management of information.

Career paths

Within the context of social services and action, the PROGEST Master’s Degree course produces:

• directors and managers of services, facilities, departments, sectors and complex operational units;
• experts specialising in social planning on local and regional levels;
• directors and managers of for-profit and non-profit organisations;
• experts specialising in monitoring the activities of professional social workers;
• experts specialising in intercultural relations, diversity management and change agentry;
• directors and managers specialising in local cooperation and development.

The Master's Degree in Turismo, territorio e sviluppo locale (Tourism, Territory and Local Development) offers a framework of cross-discipline, versatile knowledge and skills which equip students with the planning and decision-making ability they need to tackle the many complex issues facing the tourist industry and the way this interacts with local areas.

Professionals who graduate from the course can operate in public and regional bodies, public and private companies and non-profit bodies and associations.

Presentation
Course content

The qualification of Master’s Degree in Tourism, Territory and Local Development will be issued on completion of the course. In order to receive the qualification, students must obtain a total of 120 University Credits (CFUs), divided as follows:

• 82 CFUs relating to mandatory and elective modules;
• 38 CFUs relating to other educational activities (knowledge of a foreign language, educational workshops and placements, educational activities chosen autonomously by the student, educational activities relating to the final exam for the qualification).

Mandatory core modules will, as a rule, be studied in the first year. The second year includes focuses on specific subjects through teaching activities and workshops, in addition to placement activities and the final exam.

The Master's Degree in Tourism, Territory and Local Development allow students to continue their studies with second-level postgraduate programmes and PhDs.

Skills developed

The Master's Degree in Tourism, Territory and Local Development offers a framework of cross-discipline, versatile knowledge and skills which equip students with the planning and decision-making ability they need to tackle the many complex issues facing the tourist industry and the way this interacts with local areas.

As such, the teaching programme is split into three main areas:

• territorial analysis;
• variables of local development;
• role of tourism as a catalyst for economic, social and environmental development. 

For each area, the teaching programme sets out specific objectives designed to ensure that students are capable of:

• “Territorial analysis” area: assessing a territory from an economic, geographical, historic, demographic and environmental perspective;
• “Variables of local development” area: using a cross-discipline approach to identify the key variables – environmental, landscape, social, cultural, economic – which can be used to forecast local development. This area includes building an understanding of the main strands of international, national and local economic policy, avenues of access to credit and funding available through these;
• “Role of tourism as a catalyst for economic, social and environmental development” area: devising tourism projects which are sustainable not just from the perspective of the sector but in a broader sense, in connection with the characteristics of the local area and the key values identified as development catalysts.

Career paths

The Master's Degree in Tourism, Territory and Local Development is designed to offer a framework of cross-discipline, versatile specialist skills which allow graduates to undertake roles in the fields of coordination, communication and management within the tourism industry and, more general, with reference to all inbound travel. This is in accordance with Article 5 of Law 135/2001, which introduces “local tourism systems”, and the creation of similar regulations by a growing number of Italian regions.

In addition to an ability to work within the Italian industry in order to promote tourism growth which involves local communities and to encourage integrated tourism, including as regards public and private partnerships, the course aims to promote an ability to work in different areas in order to encourage responsible, integrated tourism development, with an onus on international cooperation.

The main career paths are as follows:

• market analysis experts, specialists in public relations and image consultants, with a particular focus on the tourism industry; 
• academics and researchers focusing on the role of tourism in how public spaces are organised, the transformation of gender and generational relationships and the promotion and redevelopment of local areas (specialists in sociology and anthropology, particularly as regards specific skills relating to the professions of geographers and tourism sociologists);
• experts in economic programmes and plans for regional development;
• specialists in tourism marketing and management and strategic marketing specialists;
• experts in tourism promotion;
• social tourism management personnel;

In roles such as these, Master's Degree in Tourism, Territory and Local Development graduates will be able to work for tourism companies in the hospitality and incoming sectors. They will also be able to act as consultants to local bodies and for companies operating in the tourism industry.

More specifically, the course prepares students for careers as:

• market analysts;
• specialists in public relations, image consultants and similar professions;
• economics specialists;
• sociologists;
• anthropologists;
• geographers;
• travel agents.

In contemporary societies there is a growing need for certainties coupled with an increase in complexity of social and organizational processes and the emergence of new risks and deviance in firms and in public institutions. This scenario calls for professionals able to identify, evaluate and manage risk factors in the urban context and in organizations, both public and private.

The Master’s degree in Security, Safety, Deviance and Risk Management (SiDeGeR) aims to prepare students to carry out their professional activity in the urban context, as experts in management and prevention of risks and insecurity, and in organizations, as experts in reliability, risk, and compliance in organizations.

SiDeGeR graduates will be able to work in various business and organizational functions of private companies, public institutions and local governments, consulting firms, accreditation bodies, business associations, trade unions, regulatory and control agencies, healthcare system, transportation system, third sector organizations, law enforcement agencies, universities, research and education bodies. SiDeGeR graduates will have the competencies to support both policy makers and organizational choices in the area of safety, risk control and contrast of emerging social and organizational deviance.

The University of Milano-Bicocca’s Master’s Degree in Management and Services Design (MAGES) was set up in 2009 (then called Service Science and Management) by a group of researchers from the then Faculty of Law, Sociology and Statistics who had been working on research projects in the services sector for many years.

The central importance of services to the majority of international economies and the growing role that services will play in the rest of the international markets in the future was the key driver behind the decision to launch a Master’s Degree – the first of its kind in Italy – designed to provide students with the skills to analyse, manage and assess services in private and public contexts and prepare them to tackle the key future challenges facing services companies.