Department of Human Sciences for Education “Riccardo Massa”

About us

About Milan-Bicocca

The University of Milan-Bicocca was built in a post-industrial area (the largest in Europe), where the Pirelli factory previously produced tyres and 25,000 blue-collar workers were employed. Today, the same grounds host 35,000 students. Milan-Bicocca is the newest public academia among the eight universities already existing in Milan.

The University of Milan-Bicocca was placed 55th in the ‘“Top 150 Under 50 Ranking 2017″, issued by the Times Higher Education. The research activity is carried out at 14 Departments and over 30 university and intra-university Research Centers where nearly 900 professors and researcherswork and about 1500 young graduates in training (PhD students, post-graduates and research fellows), in collaboration with many important national and international companies. 17 PhD courses in 7 different disciplinary areas: a single PhD school to promote interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinary skills and international exchanges.

The University of Milan-Bicocca moves a new important step towards the East and presents its Confucius Hall, a dynamic educational and cultural on China, born from the collaboration between the University (in particular of the “Riccardo Massa” Department of Human Sciences for Education) and the Confucius Institute of the University of Milan. Thanks to the promotion of the Chinese language and culture, the Confucius Hall wants to be a meeting point for those in Bicocca who are interested in knowing and understanding with clear and authoritative style the multiple realities of China of yesterday and today. For information on the classroom activities: aulaconfucio@unimib.it.

Welcome to the “Riccardo Massa” Department of Human Sciences for Education

The "Riccardo Massa" Department of Human Sciences for Education is one of the fourteen departments that make up the University of Milan-Bicocca, located in the northern part of Milan and founded in 1999. The Department promotes a pluralistic, democratic and inclusive ideal of education, pursued both through the cultivation of multiple reflective-interpretive approaches and through a strong focus on a variety of experiential methods and practice-oriented research.

In this sense, the "Riccardo Massa" Department is a center of excellence in pedagogical research that hosts advanced research and teaching also in a wide range of human sciences, including anthropology, geography, history, linguistics, philosophy and psychology.

Over the years, the Department has worked in a variety of contexts, following its vocation to explore how formal and informal knowledge is transmitted and transformed in public schools and private firms, in academic institutions and small communities, in Europe and the Global South.

In line with its attention to children's education, the Department also promotes "Bambini Bicocca", an experimental nursery school that encourages the active participation of parents and offers children a space where they can achieve autonomy and self-confidence in an extended and stimulating social environment full of sensory, cognitive and expressive experiences such as music and scientific exploration. The school is also designed as a training laboratory for educational service providers and future educators.

Finally, for the five-year period 2023-2027, the "Riccardo Massa" Department of Human Sciences for Education has been selected by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research as one of 180 national "Departments of Excellence". During this period, the Department will develop a Project of Excellence focused on the study of educational and socio-cultural changes and potentials related to the digital transition, understood as a process that generates both new opportunities and new forms of inequality. The aim is to explore the possibilities and difficulties that emerge in a variety of educational and socio-cultural contexts in order to respond to the challenges posed by the ongoing transformations by developing models and intervention strategies that combine contributions from humanities research with cutting-edge technological solutions.

What does the Department offer?

The Department offers 2 bachelor’s degree, 4 master’s degree, 1 single-cycle Master’s Degree Programmes and 3 doctoral degrees. The department also offers Masters, advanced courses, teacher training courses. The research areas are:

  • Childhood, Family, Adult Education, Educational Services;
  • School, Innovative Technologies and Didactics;
  • Anthropology, Geography, History and Philosophy;
  • Human Resources and Psychology;
  • Oriental Languages, Literature, Linguistics and Communication.

Bachelor's and Master's Programs of the Department 

Courses taught in English

Courses in English