Organisation of the Faculty of Communication Sciences
The Faculty's governing bodies are the Faculty Council, the Board of Professors, and the Dean's office.
Faculty Council
The Faculty Council exercises its authority on all general matters related to the interests of the Faculty, especially those pertaining to teaching and research activities. More information are available in the Faculty statute.
Board of Professors
The Board of Professors identifies the Faculty members that are called upon to sit in a commission for the appointment of professors, assigns courses to lecturers, and proposes the awarding of Honoris Causa and Professor Emeritus. More information is available in the Faculty statute.
Dean’s office
The Dean’s office is formed by the Dean and the Vice Deans. It is the executive body of the Faculty. The Dean, assisted by the Vice Deans, leads and manages the Faculty by implementing the decisions of the Faculty Council and the Board of Professors. The Dean represents the Faculty in the USI CounciI. More information is available in the Faculty statute.
One of the two Vice Deans acts as the Study Delegate, in charge of preparing the decisions concerning the application of the Study Regulations.
Current members of the Dean's office:
Andrea Rocci
Dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences
Andrea Rocci (1970) is Full Professor at USI Faculty of Communication Sciences, and Director of the Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics and of the Master in Financial Communication. He graduated in Modern Literature with specialisation in Social Communication from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan (1995). He then earned a Higher Education Degree in Linguistics at the University of Geneva (1999) and a PhD in Linguistics at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan (2001). In 2005, he won the position of Assistant Professor at USI and became Associate Professor in 2011 and Full Professor in 2015. He is the Dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences.
Sara Garau
Associate Dean and Study Delegate of the Faculty of Communication Sciences
Sara Garau is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Italian Studies (USI Faculty of Communication Sciences). She graduated in Italian Studies and History at the University of Basel. Between 2003 and 2012, she worked as an assistant in the Department of Italian at the same University, where in 2009 she obtained a PhD. Her doctoral dissertation on Ippolito Nievo was published in Rome with Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura and was awarded the Prix pour l'Avancement de la Relève (2010) by the Swiss Collegium Romanicum. Her research interests focus particularly on narrative fiction (from 18th to 19th Century), autobiographical writings and literary comments. Sara Garau is Vice Dean and Study Delegate of the USI Faculty of Communication Sciences.
Photo © Kathrin Schulthess
Matthew Hibberd
Associate Dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences
Matthew Hibberd is Professor of Media Management, Media Economics and Media and Cultural Industries at the Faculty of Communication Sciences of USI. From 2011 to 2016 he was Head of the Communications, Media and Culture and Professor of Communications, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK. He was a Professor at the Libera Università Internazionale per gli Studi Sociali (LUISS), Rome, from 2008-2015 and also held the same position at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome from 2005-2013. He is a Fellow of the UK College of Teachers (FCollT) and the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). Professor Hibberd has been Principal Investigator on a number of internationally-funded teaching and research projects. He is Director of the Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG) and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences.
Graduate Studies Committee
The Graduate Studies Committee prepares the decisions related to the doctoral schools. It is formed by the representatitves of the Faculty institutes and is chaired by the PhD Programme Coordinator. The current PhD Programme Coordinator is Prof. Suzanne Suggs.
Institutes
According to the USI statute, Institutes are education and research units supported by one or more Faculties, subject to approval by the University Council.
The responsibilities, tasks, organisation and members of the Institutes are defined by specific agreements between the Faculties and the Rectorate. These agreements set the scope and limits within which an Institute can engage in its own right with third parties. The contract has limited duration and is renewable.
The Institutes do not have a distinct legal personality and are headed by a Director appointed among professors (Full or Associate) of the Institutes, according to the terms of agreement. Specialised sub-units (centres, observatories, laboratories, groups ...) can be created inside or in cooperation between the institutes, with the aim of carrying out specific research projects and/or handling specific aspect of the training.
The list of the Institutes supported by the Faculty of Communication Sciences is available at this page:
www.com.usi.ch/en/faculty-communication/institutes
