CFU stands for “University Educational Credit” and ideally corresponds to 25 hours of effort. At Polito, each CFU is divided into 10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of individual study. Regarding study hours, this is obviously an estimate: no one will check how much time you study at home…

Lectures are divided into modules of one and a half hours each. Each week, you will therefore attend:

• For a course worth 6 CFU, approximately 3 lecture modules.
• For a course worth 8 CFU, approximately 4 lecture modules.
• For a course worth 10 CFU, approximately 5 lecture modules.
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CFUs are not an exact science, but in principle, the higher the CFUs, the more substantial an exam will be. This does not translate into a difficulty indicator for courses; generally, the instructor will be the main factor, along with your personal interest and aptitude.

The study plan is the collection of all the exams that make up your educational path, from the beginning until graduation. It is defined by the Course College (an organ that also includes student representatives) and is the same for all students in the same program.

In the study plans, exams are distributed over 3 years for a bachelor’s degree and 2 years for a master’s degree (corresponding to the legal duration of the two programs). In reality, everyone progresses at their own pace: in a given year, you might not manage to take all the exams planned, or you might be able to take more.

Each student is therefore required to fill out the “career plan” at the beginning of each year, which collects all the exams they intend to take throughout their course, as well as the “Teaching Load,” which lists the exams they plan to take in that academic year.

The career plan is essentially the personalized version of the study plan.

Although the career plan concerns the entire program, it can be modified each year. For freshmen, the pre-set Study Plan for their course is automatically generated, which can be modified before enrolling in the second year.

View the study plan: You can view your course’s study plan on this page: Polito Study Plan, by clicking on it and then on “piano di studi” in the left menu.

Customizing the study plans:

• Elective Exams: Each degree program includes at least one exam that must be chosen from a catalog predefined by the University.

• Free Modifications: During the compilation of the Career Plan, students can delete and modify their study plan. All modifications must comply with the educational criteria of their course (defined in the Educational Regulations).

View the career plan: You can view your personal career plan on the Educational Portal, in the Online Secretary section.

At the university, there technically aren’t “first-year students”; instead, we talk about “students in their first year of enrollment” or “students in their first year of attendance” (this applies to second, third, fourth years, etc.).

Unlike in high school, the calculation of years always starts from when you enroll, not based on the exams you pass.

Example: Even if you don’t pass any exams, next year you will be considered a second-year student.

This clarification is very important: you will encounter the term “students in such year” many times in the regulations of the Polytechnic and EDISU, and it must be interpreted correctly.

Degree programs have an order of courses that ideally should guide you in your education, but there is no exam-year constraint (except for the first year).

The Polytechnic organizes the academic year into 2 teaching periods:

• First teaching period: from September-October (starting with the beginning of classes) until March.
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• Second teaching period: from March until September.
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This distinction is important because it affects the start of classes, deadlines, announcements, and governs all aspects of academic life at the university. To check the deadlines, you can refer to the chronological/thematic calendar specific to your course of study.

There are 3 + 2 periods in which you can take exams, known as exam sessions:

• Winter session (January-February)
• Mid-period session (October and November)
• Summer session (June-July)
• Mid-period session (March-April)
• Autumn session (September)
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Each attempt to take an exam is called an “appello.” In each normal session, there is one or more appelli, totaling 4 ordinary attempts per year for each subject. The number of appelli and sessions, as well as their placement in the academic calendar, is determined by the Academic Senate.

In the winter and summer sessions, you will have 2 appelli to take exams for that teaching period and 1 attempt for other exams (that do not coincide with that teaching period).

In the autumn session, you will have 1 appello for each exam.

You can take exams for all the courses listed in your teaching load. The autumn session in September is “in between” two years, but it is formally considered part of the year that is ending. Therefore, in September, you can take exams for your “old” teaching load.

You might wonder: in the winter session, what’s the point of having an appello for exams from the second period, given that the second period hasn’t even started yet? This appello is useful if you took the exam the previous year and have not yet passed it.

Mid-Period Exam Sessions

The mid-period sessions (October/November and March/April) are currently reserved for students in Bachelor’s degree programs who have attended all the courses listed in their career plan, excluding the final exam and any internships, meaning you must have included all courses at least once in your teaching load. In October/November and March/April, you will have one appello available for one exam of your choice from the subjects taught in the previous semester.

As student representatives of Alter.POLIS, we have been advocating for the introduction of new exam sessions at the Polytechnic for years. As previously mentioned, they are still present in the bachelor’s degree program, but with significant limitations. Therefore, we remain one of the universities with the fewest appelli in all of Italy. Having only 3 ordinary exam sessions (of which only 2 are close to the lessons) is severely detrimental to us students, often forcing us to face numerous exams condensed into a few days. Our proposal, approved after years (with great reservations), was once again called into question in 2022: the definitive cut occurred for mid-term sessions in master’s programs, while bookable appelli in bachelor’s programs were reduced from two to just one.

Our goal is to reinstate the two mid-term sessions, with the ultimate perspective of potentially involving ALL students.

At the Polytechnic, there is no attendance monitoring in the classroom or virtual classroom (except for very rare cases explicitly specified in the exam regulations, generally in laboratory courses). Once you have enrolled in a course, as soon as its lessons are finished, it is said that you have acquired attendance. To take an exam, you must first have acquired attendance for that course.

However, courses that were recorded before the pandemic may be an exception. To understand if you can take an exam before having attended a course (NOTE: attendance is NOT recorded beforehand for the mid-term sessions), you can look at the icons in the study plans.

The “esonero,” “parziale,” or “prova in itinere” is a part of the exam that takes place during the course of the lessons. At the Polytechnic, these are currently not provided for in the University Regulations, but they are conducted in some courses, especially in the first year.

As student representatives of Alter.POLIS, we have proposed their introduction and regulation multiple times, as they would allow for better distribution of effort and study throughout the teaching periods.

The rules for each exam, the required content, and the assessments to be completed are indicated on the educational portal. You can view them by clicking the “Guide” tab within the course page.

If you are not satisfied with a positive grade you received, starting from this academic year, you will have the option to “refuse” it. It will appear on the portal in the “Provisional Evaluations” section, with the option to click “Accept” or “Refuse,” which you can select within 48 hours of the publication of the results.  If you do not select “Accept” within the first 48 hours, don’t worry; the grade will be automatically validated by the portal when the time expires.

The CPD (Joint Committee for Teaching) is an organ of the Polytechnic composed of 11 students and 11 professors.

It is responsible for the quality of teaching, through the administration of CPD Questionnaires. There is a questionnaire for each course taken (i.e., included in your Teaching Load) for the first time. Generally, the questionnaire can be filled out towards the end of the teaching period, just before the start of exams.

Filling out the questionnaire is optional, anonymous, and takes a few minutes: it evaluates the management of the course through closed questions, but there is also an open space for comments.

In a pilot phase this year, it is also possible to fill out the Post-Exam Questionnaire. This is only available for some courses and is contingent upon having completed the CPD Questionnaire for the corresponding course. It can be filled out in the two weeks following the registration of the grade (the exam must be passed).

Finally, it is necessary to complete the End-of-Course Questionnaire at the end of both the bachelor’s and master’s degree programs.

The Polytechnic has not guaranteed the continuation of activities in a remote format, with the Academic Senate’s decision on 28/4/2022 definitively abandoning the guarantee of a telematic mode. This abandonment of guarantees leaves room for initiatives by the professors, who can also deliver up to 10% of the course through telematic methods.

As student representatives of Alter.POLIS, we would have preferred that all classes in the new academic year be delivered via streaming and uploaded to the portal. Additionally, we would have liked all video lectures and recordings from previous academic years to be utilized to enhance the educational offerings, especially for those who cannot attend regularly (working students, those enrolled in dual degree programs, commuters, etc.).

Despite the lack of enthusiasm from the Central Bodies in ensuring distance learning, some professors do upload or utilize these forms of teaching, particularly during the periods before the Christmas/Easter holidays.

In the first year, there are some barriers, meaning exams considered “essential” to pass in order to continue. Those who encounter a barrier are referred to as “students with educational deficiencies.” These rules apply to students enrolled in the 2023-2024 academic year:

• Engineering: You must earn at least 26 CFU from the foundational exams in the engineering area (Analysis I, Physics I, Algebra, Chemistry, Computer Science, specific course exam).

• Planning: You must have passed “Interpreting the City and the Territory (Atelier),” “Geomatica,” and “Foundations of Urbanism and Planning.”

• Architecture: You must have passed at least “Laboratory of Drawing and Surveying Architecture.” In addition to this exam, you must have earned at least 16 other CFU from first-year courses (excluding English language).

• Design: You must have passed at least “Modelling Design” and “Keywords Design.”

If you do not pass the barriers by the September 2024 session, you will not be able to access second-year exams. Furthermore, if you do not resolve the barriers by September of the second year of enrollment (2025), you may risk expulsion from the program.

In certain specific situations, the Polytechnic University of Turin provides for the expulsion from studies, meaning the forced closure of a student’s career. The case of greatest “interest” for freshmen is the one in which students are expelled if they do not pass the barrier exams within two years. Therefore, if by the September 2025 session (the last session of the 2024/2025 academic year) you have not passed the barrier, your academic career will be closed, and you will have to retake the entrance test.

How to learn more? Student Guide -> Interruption, Suspension, Withdrawal -> Expulsion

As student representatives of Alter.POLIS, we are strongly opposed to any system of blocks, barriers, and forced expulsions. All our representatives have always voted against the introduction and maintenance of these measures.