University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Italian Switzerland

We aim to be a vocational, multidisciplinary, innovative and Latin-culture university, prominent in Switzerland, a network-creation leader, both in Switzerland and internationally, in the academic, business and political-institutional contexts.

The SUPSI vision focuses particularly on relationships with partners in the territory, and on exploiting the full potential of its valued position in the national and international academic community. This aspect is essential for emphasising its nature as a vocational university, prominent for its ability to create collaboration networks and ensure vocational education, applied research and services, in different ways, structured to meet the specific requirements of each subject area and professional context.

The role of SUPSI as an agent of change for its various target groups is strengthened by leveraging on the aspect which, through time and experience, has transpired to be one of the University’s strong points: its ability to create networks, system and to trigger research synergies between different subject areas, partners and projects.

The majority of our students come from the local territory, and, on completion if their programmes, they possess professional skill sets, are highly qualified and immediately operational, able to move around regional, national and international contexts with great flexibility. Our research projects provide solutions that are innovative and rapidly applicable, can make local institutions, organisations and businesses more competitive, and improve individual quality of life.

The SUPSI mission is based on the needs of its stakeholders and on the ways in which these needs can be best met. This emphasises the double role played by the University with regard to its various partners in the territory: on the one hand, training professional workers, and on the other hand boosting competitive capacity by transferring the knowledge generated. The mission also marks the osmotic process between academic education and applied research, necessary in order to meet these dual needs.

Last, but not least, it focuses on the SUPSI response to complex problems associated with human needs and that require simple solutions deriving from a variety of areas of knowledge and experience, which in this way work together toward transforming and improving quality of life.