Skills related to services to people and the community have become of paramount importance due to the need to train professionals who are able to work in the field of inclusion policies and of the protection of human dignity.

The Faculty of Political Science, founded in 2000, is fully geared towards such a training mission. In the last three years an internationalisation process has been started through the organisation of “double level” degree courses in Political Science (at the University of Calabria) and in Derecho (at the University of Jaén, Spain). Admission to the “double level degree” is only for 20 students enrolled in the degree course of Political Science, selected on the basis of a special procedure described on the website of the Faculty.

Along the lines of development of cultural and international skills, the Faculty’s educational programme includes some subjects that are taught in French and in English in order to foster students’ language skills.

The faculty offers four first-level degree courses: a degree course in Political Science, two degree courses in Social Services (one of these in Crotone), and a degree course in Administration, as well as two second-level degree courses (the specialist degree course in Political Science and the specialist degree in Social Work Policies).

The degree courses in Political Science (both first and second-level courses) include three different curricula: administrative, international and sociological. The European curriculum, in the three-year and, now, the two-year courses is reserved for students enrolled in the “double” degree in Political Science and in Derecho.

The degree course in Social Services includes two curricula: community and organisation. A single curriculum has been organised for each of the specialised degree courses in Politics and Social Work, as well as for the degree course in Administration.

Within the next academic year, the Faculty will proceed with an organic reform of the organisation. These reforms will be put into practise starting from the academic year 2009-10. Starting from the same year, all educational activities (examinations and degree examinations) connected to the old system of the degree course in Political Science will cease.

The Faculty is especially focused on the process of self-evaluation and didactic improvement, in compliance with the guidelines of the MIUR (the Ministry of Education and University) and the National Committee for the Evaluation of the University System. To do this, a monitoring process has been implemented with the aim of providing the Faculty with analytical knowledge of students’ performance and with the identification of the means to improve their work, as well as providing support to students who have educational insufficiencies or who are lagging behind in their studies.

In the next academic year, additional teaching services will be offered to students, (remedial classes in some cultural areas, as well as for foreign languages and computer studies) thanks to a special support initiative started by the Regione Calabria (European Funds).

Other relevant initiatives organised by the Faculty include the participation in the project – in collaboration with the Office of Equal Opportunities – for the implementation of programmes focussing on “equal democracy” and on the promotion of equal opportunities for men and women in accessing elective positions and in the social and economic life (“Women, Politics and Institutions”). The Faculty also organises first and second level Master’s degree courses.

The Faculty promotes students exchange programmes and supports students participating in international mobility programmes such as “Erasmus” and “Erasmus Placement” in Europe. This objective has been specifically promoted by the Faculty in support of the training process and intercultural relationships for students. Other educational initiatives co-financed by the European Union and organised by the Faculty can be included in the same theme of knowledge expansion and European integration.

Accordingly, the mission of the Faculty is strongly aimed at training graduates, from first and second level degree courses, who will be able to find work in the labour and professional markets, not only at the local or national levels, but also the European and international ones. To do this, the Faculty considers linguistic and computer studies as indispensable subjects in its curricula. Therefore, the Faculty has two computer laboratories and three language laboratories equipped for the teaching and the learning of foreign languages.