University of Rome Tor Vergata


Tor Vergata University of Rome, also known as the University of Rome II, is a public research university located in Rome, Italy. Its current president is Orazio Schillaci, a professor in the Faculties of Medicine and Surgery.
It was established in 1982 with the goal of providing high-quality education for students preparing to meet the ever-evolving needs and opportunities of the 21st-century workforce. Located in the southeastern suburb of Rome, the university combines a liberal arts tradition with emphasis on career orientation in the field of Economics, Engineering, Sciences and Medicine. Many professors of the university are important members of the Italian cultural and political environment.

Origin of the name

The university takes its name from the 14th-century farmhouse "Turris Virgatae" that was owned by the Roman noble family of Annibaldi, whose remains lie beneath Villa Gentile on campus.

Campus

The university occupies a area outside the Grande Raccordo Anulare highway connection, in the eastern sector of the city. One of the most modern University Hospitals in Italy, with state-of-the-art medical equipment, is located on campus. The university hospital is well equipped with diagnostic and therapeutic vanguard structures and is considered a flagship hospital at national and international levels.
Near the university, there are accommodation facilities owned by the regional organization as well as Campus X, a private company, considered the largest in Italy, providing 1500 bed spaces, starting from March 2011

The City of Sport

The innovative City of Sport project, designed by the internationally renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava was an integral part of the city of Rome's bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics and would have hosted the volleyball, gymnastics, trampoline, and basketball finals. On February 14, 2012, the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti called an end to the bid, citing uncertain costs and unknown financial benefit. The announcement came a day before the deadline for applicant cities to submit the application files. The project would have transformed the area of south-east of Rome. The two main buildings of the project the Sport Forum and Swimming Forum are symmetrical; each of them is about in area and about 75 m in height. The complex, whose construction began in April 2007, was to be completed in 2009 in time for the 2009 World Aquatics Championships but is still under construction. The new university tower, located on the opposite side of the road with respect to the City of Sport project, will rise to about 90 meters, whose penultimate floor would host the new administrative office of Tor Vergata, while the top floor would host a wide lobby that would offer panoramic views. The lower floors would welcome other offices. The layer below the tower would accommodate underground parking.

Academics

The university is divided into six schools: Economics, Engineering, Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Law, Medicine and Sciences. There are 19 departments; combined, they offer 31 PhD programmes and 120 Masters programmes. The university offers 114 undergraduate degree programs, 9 of which are taught in English. The university has taken concrete steps in the past years to participate in international projects and to link industries to its research. It also participates in interdisciplinary dialogue with local businesses to provide support to entrepreneurial activities and small businesses. In 2016, the University is ranked among top 10 universities in Italy.

Faculty of Economics

The Faculty of Economics in Tor Vergata has been consistently ranked among the top 3 economics departments by La Repubblica newspaper's annual ranking of economic faculties in Italy and currently holds the top spot nationally and 93rd worldwide. The school is particularly strong in the field of business, financial economics.

Centre of Economic and International Studies (CEIS)

Founded in 1987, The Centre of Economic and International Studies is an internationally recognized research centre within the Faculty of Economics at the University of Rome, Tor Vergata. CEIS is engaged in creating and supporting international research and higher-learning networking in the major fields of economics. CEIS hosts numerous seminars and conferences bringing together leading economists and experts in academia and government.

Research

Research is carried out in 27 departmental and inter-departmental research centers. On campus there are also other major research institutions. The new main headquarters of the Italian Space Agency was inaugurated in Tor Vergata on July 25, 2012. Other important national centres include the Tor Vergata research establishment of National Research Council and the National Institute for Astrophysics. The close proximity and research ties with other distinguished research centers that are near campus, such as the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Environment, the European Space Agency Center for Earth Observation and the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics makes Tor Vergata a unique research environment and one of the most dynamic aggregations in the country. The University scientifically supports the UNESCO-Merck Africa Research Summit, together with the University of Cambridge and the Institut Pasteur.

Notable faculty members and alumni