Didactic activities

• DESIGN STUDIOS: project base courses, involve different Professors and ​students usually work in teams
• MONODISCIPLINARY COURSES: they are characterized by the theoretic contents taught in lectures and verified throughout the year with tests and interviews.
• INTEGRATED COURSES: they cover more than one discipline or specific context. They are complementary and taught by several professors.
• WORKSHOPS: project base activity held at the end of each semester in one fulltime week and host International professors and/or companies.
• ELECTIVE COURSES: interdisciplinary courses, combine project and theory activities.

Course selection rules

• Maximum 36 ECTS credits per semester (minimum 6 ECTS credits). This normally equates to 3 or 4 courses per semester.
• No more than 12 ECTS credits per semester in other Schools of PoliMi.
• Integrated Courses consist of several modules: you must take the entire integrated course (all the modules)

PLEASE NOTE: Exchange students at bachelor level can select and mix courses from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year of Bachelor, considering that:

• 1st year courses are usually at an introductory level and may not require much previous knowledge or study in the subject. 2nd and 3rd year courses will normally require some previous study in the subject.
• Most of our courses at Bachelor level are held in Italian language, some of them are available to offer and academic support in English. Therefore, we recommend students to have some basic Italian knowledge in order to fulfill the course assignments.
• Master Level courses will be available only to Master Level students and to Bachelor level students only if they have already attended at least 3 years of University. Priority in the Master courses will be given to Master Level students.
• Most of the courses are available but have a limited number of places. Due to possible timetable clashes, changes in scheduling or high demand for popular courses, it is not possible to guarantee access to all the courses, therefore exchange students are encouraged to identify some reserves that can be used if necessary.

The courses have limited places. The allocations in the courses are determined by the "first arrived, first served" rule. The earlier you submit your Study Plan, the better it is.

Good to know

• Due to possible timetable overlapping exchange students are encouraged to identify some alternative courses
• A full workload at the School of Design of PoliMi is 30 ECTS credits per semester
• Use the Customized Schedule tool at the Manifesti degli Studi to verify your weekly schedule
• Pay attention to where the course is held and avoid choosing courses held in different campuses

Most courses at BSc are offered in Italian, while the majority of courses at MSc are taught in English. Pay attention that courses at Master level are available only to students from Master level or from the 4th year.

For more info visit the School’s website at this link.

Final project thesis

Please note that it is not possible for incoming design students to develop a final project thesis.