Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta (LUMSA) is a highly ranked Italian Non – State University,principally located in Rome and Palermo, with over 8000 students (10% international). The number of administrative staff employed of the applying research entity is 121. The number of full time professor is 107 and the external professors (in charge or course or laboratories) are 291. In the most recent Research Assessment (2018), LUMSA scored first in law and social sciences, among other fields.
University teaching is distributed across three departments: Law, Economics and Politics and Modern languages – Rome campus; Law-Palermo campus; Social Sciences – Communication, Education and Psychology http://www.LUMSA.it/en/about_departments). LUMSA offers B.A. and M.A degree programs in law, business administration, economics, education and communication, psychology – Rome campus. LUMSA awards PhD degrees in social policy, law, psychology, education and economics http://www.LUMSA.it/en/teaching_phd.
All training programs, including PhD, are open to international students. LUMSA has signed more than 193 bilateral agreements worldwide (Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa). In 2018, LUMSA has 17 currently running projects funded by the EU, including H2020, COST, and Jean Monnet. It has been awarded by the European Commission with two Excellence Labels : ECTS and DS (Diploma Supplement) Label. LUMSA is a member of the Agency for the Promotion of European Research (Agenzia per la Promozione della Ricerca Europea – APRE), part of the EURAXESS network – Researchers in Motion – and Eduroam (Education Roaming).
LUMSA is the owner of its premises and research facilities. The Department of law economic, political and modern languages (Rome), where the research activities will be performed, is located in two buildings (with a total 6,000 m2) with study rooms for full-time and part-time staff, both senior and junior. It has administrative and research staff, computers, meeting rooms, overhead projectors, etc. In the LUMSA Central Library (Rome), one section (400 m2) of Floor 2 includes individual study carrels, in use for visiting researchers. All study carrels are equipped with PCs and logged to fast band. Besides its own book collection LUMSA Library networks with the Italian inter-library loan and 50 international electronic databases. The Library Staff is an outstanding resource for supporting the advancement of scholarship. The LUMSA training center in Palermo is dedicated to legal, economic and social training. The five year degree course in Law offers students a knowledge of legal disciplines in European and international perspective, with advanced contents, many collaborations with companies and public bodies and very high levels of employment for their graduates. The internationalization of the training offer is ensured by the presence of a unique “International Program” in Sicily, for a maximum of 20 students and characterized by the presence of some subjects taught in English.
Since 2014, the Faculty of Law as part of LUMSA is committed to enforce its internationalisation strategy with European and neighbouring partners, starting firstly to the enforcement of the exchange among the academic staff and mobility for studies and researches. We remark the recent cooperation started with Serbia, Belarus and Moldova. The mobility activated has strengthened the academics and improved competences of the participants, favouring curriculum compatibility, creating common courses and therefore credit and grade transfer; with a cascade effect it fostered the quality of knowledges and the opportunity for employability thanks to the new skills and the increased adaptability spirit acquired in different contexts from the country of origin. The result of the cooperation is brilliant in terms of mutual enrichment for all the institutions involved. LUMSA works in order to develop opportunities of growth and exchanges not only among universities institutions, but also among different cultures, social, economics and law systems.
LUMSA as University of a catholic inspiration is strongly committed to developing the research in the area of human rights and equality, promoting the measures to ensure equality and equal opportunities between men and women in the education and workplace. In this perspective, many research project and activities were being carried out (e.g. equal opportunities and integration of foreigners, anti-discrimination, prevention of gender violence). Through this application LUMSA to improve the results already gained by the previous project focusing on subject matters Law and Gender.
