Course units and programme of study

The list of course units in the programme of study represents all the training activities available for each of the years of the degree course and changes according to the year in which the student enrols. ‘Free-choice or restricted-choice' course units are optional learning activities that students may include in their programme of study according to the selection criteria specified on this page; the remaining course units are compulsory for all students.
Every year, the programme of study must be submitted online by the student using the Esse3 system (see dedicated section).
Students are allowed to submit their own programme of study with different options than those presented on this page (and available in Esse3), as long as it is consistent with achieving the degree course learning objectives. In that case, the programme of study must be submitted to the Degree Council for approval.
Compulsory workplace safety training The Master's degree STAR is one of the degree courses for which there is a compulsary workplace safety training course. All students will have the possibility to follow the compulsory training modules on workplace safety by following the instructions at the following link: https://scvsa.unipr.it/it/corso-di-sicurezza.
 

During the dissertation project, the student prepares three seminars: at the beginning of the activity (presentation of the dissertation project), in the middle (advance seminar on experimental design and methods, in English) and at the end (final seminar presenting the whole dissertation project). All three seminars are rated and contribute to the final grade. Successful completion of the third seminar is a prerequisite for admission to the final degree examination.

Initial seminar

In the initial seminar, the candidate presents the dissertation project. The presentation consists of the state of the art, i.e. a critical analysis of the scientific literature on the subject. From the state of the art must emerge the motivations that led to the development of the proposed topic, in particular hypotheses and knowledge that can potentially be acquired and that justify further research. The objectives of the dissertation and, briefly, the materials and methods to be used should then be explained. Ideally, the dissertation should answer questions and thus one should be able to provide meaning to the expected results, at least hypothetically. Most of the presentation should be dedicated to explaining the state of the art and the hypotheses of the study.

Intermediate Seminar (in English)

The intermediate seminar is held in English and is mainly dedicated to the methodological aspects of the work: illustration of the work plan and experimental design, work schedule, sampling, justification of the sample size used, data analysis and appropriateness of the analyses proposed. Both the scientific rationale and the objectives supporting the methodological choices should be reiterated at this stage. Any preliminary results should also be presented.

Final seminar - Rehearsal of the final presentation

Due to its nature, it will be held approximately one month before the date of the final degree examination in order to allow corrections to be made as a result of the discussion. Having recalled the scientific justification and objectives, most of the time will be dedicated to the reporting of the results and their interpretation. The structure of this seminar is similar to that of a congress presentation.

To view the evaluation grid for each of the three seminars click here.

For students enrolled in the first year from the 2016-17 academic year and for students enrolled in previous years, registration to  dissertation seminars must be carried out at least one week before each seminar session on Esse3 and exclusively online using the links indicated below. In detail, to register for the first seminar, the teaching activity '1007201 - Research activities in preparation for final examination Part I' must be selected, for the second seminar the teaching activity '1007202 - Research activities in preparation for final examination Part II' must be selected, for the third seminar the teaching activity '1007203 - Research activities in preparation for final examination Part III' must be selected. Successful completion of each seminar results in the acquisition of 4 ECTS credits.

After each seminar, send the presentation file (in ppt or pdf format) to Prof. Michele Donati.

Si tratta di attività formative finalizzate a fornire allo studente un primo bagaglio di conoscenze, abilità e qualità che entrano in gioco quando si deve tradurre una competenza in comportamento, rispondendo ad un'esigenza dell'ambiente organizzativo, nonché ad implementare e migliorare lo sviluppo delle cosiddette soft skills per una maggiore integrazione nel mondo del lavoro. 

Soft Skills – Attività didattiche trasversali per l’anno accademico 2022/2023

The Master's degree course in Environmental Science and Technology (Master's degree 745) attributes a lot of emphasis on these activities and organises numerous one-day and multi-day excursions each year, which are part of different course units.