The University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) is one of the 7 Universities of Applied Sciences in Switzerland (Fachhochschule, haute ?cole sp?cialis?e, university of applied sciences). It has a university statute, focused on professional training and applied research. Together with the University of Southern Switzerland (USI), to which it is closely linked in terms of collaboration activities and common institutions, it is the only Italian language university pole in Switzerland, with almost 4,000 students in the Lugano region. The distinguishing features of SUPSI are that it provides study opportunities to those who have already gained some professional experience and who continue to operate in a professional capacity, that the teaching program incorporates full-time lecturers-researchers and part-time professional operators, that it offers a wide range of continuous courses to those operating professionally, and that it conducts applied research projects in collaboration with companies and institutions in the region. The service contract stipulated with Canton Ticino specifies that SUPSI continuous courses, third party services and much of the research work is financed by participants and commissioning parties. The Canton and the Confederation finance the basic teaching and some of the research. Excluding the affiliated schools, SUPSI has more than 400 collaborators, equivalent to almost 300 full-time posts, and a budget of CHF 50 million, roughly half of which comes from the Canton, one fifth from the Confederation and one third from other sources. Counting the affiliated schools, there are almost 2000 students in Bachelor degree cycles, more than 4000 attending continuous courses, and approximately 100 current research projects. Having affiliated the Fernfachhochschule Schweiz (FFHS) in 2004 - this is a distance learning university of applied sciences, funded by Canton Valais and recognized by the Confederation - SUPSI basically pursues two complementary strategies: – a regional strategy, as the only Italian language SUP in Switzerland, collaborating closely with the University of Southern Switzerland (USI) and creating a bridge toward Italy; – a national strategy, as leader in SUP distance education, by means of the FFHS, to help overcome the problems of isolation and critical mass, and to emphasize the unique multi-lingual nature of SUPSI.
