 The Faculty of Economics
The Faculty of Economics
was set up in 1935 and is located in the Palazzo delle Scienze in Corso Italia n°. 55.
Its educational objective is to provide its undergraduates and graduates with a store of
high cultural awareness, knowledge and skills, while offering extremely flexible
educational paths. Thus the students will be appreciated and valued in the world of work
as up-to-date freelance professionals, qualified employees in both the State and private
sectors and valid entrepreneurs.
We pay
particular attention to the development of students’
ability to analyse the problems
they will meet using appropriate processes that then stimulate a balanced critical sense
and an autonomous course of searching for deeper knowledge. In
addition, we emphasise
skills involving synthesis which lead to real solution proposals following a
methodologically correct approach.
All the courses offered in the Faculty are characterised by four fundamental
discipline areas at one and the same time:
economics – where problems relative
to the allocation of resources and distribution of earnings are
studied;
business studies – where the
different functions of companies, the organisation and management of different types of
companies are analysed;
legal studies – where the problems
relative to the relationships between private individuals, to the running of
businesses,
to contracts and to the institutional framework are faced;
mathematics-statistics – where the use of quantitative tools indispensable for the
analysis of economic and financial phenomena are learnt, alongside those useful to
business people in their decision-making activities.
Moreover,
particular attention is dedicated, in all the lines of study, to the study of foreign
languages and I.T., knowledge of which today is fundamental importance for a successful
entrance into the world or work.
The Faculty’s facilities include a library, language, IT and commerce technology
laboratories.
The Faculty has a long history of links with companies and with Europe. In
view of this, it tries hard to find its students work experience to complete their
education, a phase which is considered fundamental; to this end, a "stage"
office has now been set up.
Many student exchange programmes are offered (Socrates-Erasmus) which allow deserving students to experience studying abroad in an
officially recognised scheme.
 The History
The Faculty of Economics
and Commerce was set up in October 1935 when the University of Catania took over the
Higher Institute of Economic and Commercial Sciences (ISSEC) founded in 1919-20 thanks to the initiative of Prof. Benvenuto
Griziotti, professor of Financial Science, and Prof. Pietro Delogu, professor of Roman
Law, both in the Faculty of Law. Their aim was to give rise to the first Institute of high
commercial culture in Sicily, capable of creating managerial
minds, commercial and
industrial organisational skills, and at the same time, to help many young ex-soldiers to
get adequate professional training which would allow them to find a job. The project was
followed enthusiastically and supported by many State and private bodies like the Opera
Nazionale dei Combattenti, the Chamber of Commerce, the Commune and Province of Catania,
the Unione Raffinerie Zolfi, the Società Catanese d’Elettricità, the Ditta
Baller,
the Banca Italiano di Sconto, the Credito Italiano, the Banca Commerciale and the Banco di
Roma.
ISSEC started off with
some additional commercial courses organised in the 1919-20 academic year by the Faculty
of Law; in February 1922 it became an autonomous body and in December of the same year it
obtained royal recognition. It was then transferred to the ex-Monastery of
St. Agatha.
In spite of how
difficult the middle school diploma or school-leaving certificate was and the
ever-increasing school fees, enrolment in higher commercial education by young Sicilians
and Calabrians rose rapidly; even in the first year of the course there were over 200
enrolments, despite the fact that in the beginning no legally recognised certificate of
study was awarded. This number rose even more in the following years and led to the need
for a permanent site of its own, capable of satisfying the then and future needs of the
Royal Institute.
Thus,
in 1932 the ISSEC Administration Board deliberated the construction of the new (and
present) site and to this end, the plot in Via XX Settembre (now Corso Italia) was
purchased, allocating £It 3,300,000 for the construction and
furnishing. The work began
in 1935 and was taken over by the University of Catania which
had, in the meantime,
incorporated the Institute.
The
new building, today’s Palazzo
delle Scienze, was completed during
1940 and was then thought to be too big for the needs of the Faculty of Economics and
Commerce. Thus the institutes of Physics, Mineralogy, Geology, Commercial
Technology, Vulcanology, Technical Drawing, and the schools of Mathematics found their seats in the
larger part of the premises. Some of these Institutes are still located in the Palazzo
delle Scienze.
Directors
of the ex-Royal
Institute of Economic and Commercial Sciences from 1919-20 to 1934-35: |
