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Education
Education for primary, secondary, and tertiary levels is largely driven by the private sector. All institutions, private and public, must be registered with the Ministry of Public Administration. Cristinese is the language of instruction in all public schools, and all subjects are taught and examined in Cristinese.
Royal University of Cristina, Aline ward.
Education takes place in three stages: primary, secondary, and pre-university education. Only the primary level is compulsory. Students begin with six years of primary school, which is made up of a four-year foundation course and a two-year orientation stage. The curriculum is focused on the development of Cristinese, the mother tongue, mathematics, and science. Secondary school lasts from four to five years, and is divided between Special, Express, Normal (Academic), and Normal (Technical) streams in each school, depending on a student's ability level. The basic coursework breakdown is the same as in the primary level, although classes are much more specialised. Pre-university education takes place over two to three years at senior schools, mostly called Junior Colleges.
Post-secondary education institutions include four polytechnics, institutes of technical education (ITEs), three private universities and one public university of which the Royal University of Cristina and the Korvini Technological University are among the top 20 universities in Europa.
Cristina is an education hub, with more than 80,000 international students in 2017. 5,000 students from Mantella cross the borders daily to attend schools in the Free Port. In 2017, 20% of all students in Cristinese universities were international students – the maximum cap allowed.
With 39,500 students, and 11,200 faculty and staff, the Università Reale do Cristina - URC (Royal University of Cristina) is the main university, which includes the Scuola Superiore di Studi Storici di Cristina (Graduate School of Historical Studies), a distinguished research and advanced international study centre governed by an international Scientific Committee. Other important institutes are the Istituto Musicale Cristinese (Cristinese Musical Institute) and the Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj Cristina or Accademia Internazionale delle Scienze (International Academy of Sciences Cristina). The latter is known for adopting Esperanto as the language for teaching and for scientific publications; further, it makes wide use of electronic educational technology (also called e-learning).
The URC is a comprehensive research university, offering a wide range of disciplines, including the sciences, medicine and dentistry, design and environment, law, arts and social sciences, engineering, business, computing and music at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The University incorporates four national level institutes, honoured as research centre of excellence in Cristina, which includes the Mechanobiology Institute.
URC has a semester-based modular system for conducting courses. It adopts features of the Mantellan system, such as small group teaching (tutorials) on top of regular two-hour lectures, and the system of course credits. Students may transfer between courses within their first two semesters, enroll in cross-faculty modules or take up electives from different faculties (compulsory for most degrees). Other cross-disciplinary initiatives study programmes include double-degree undergraduate degrees in Arts & Social Sciences and Engineering; Arts & Social Sciences and Law; Business and Engineering; and Business and Law. At the start of every semester, students are allocated a set number of points with which they use to bid for enrollment to their module of choice. URC has 16 faculties and schools, including a music conservatory.
URC offers many programmes for student enrichment, with one of these being the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (PORUni). Students are expected to spend several hours each week on their projects during the semester, and to work full-time on them during the vacation. PORUni is offered in the following Faculties/Schools/Residential College: Arts & Social Sciences, Computing, Dentistry, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Science, University Scholars Programme, and Tembusu College. As every Faculty handles their PORUni application slightly different, more information should be sought from the respective faculty.
Faculties and schools
• Arts and Social Sciences: The Leonardo School of Arts and Social Sciences is organized into three divisions – Europan Studies, Humanities, and Social Sciences – under which 15 departments and programmes are grouped.
• Business: The URC Business School has six departments: Accounting, Strategy and Policy, Decision Sciences, Finance, Management and Organisation, and Marketing.
• Computing: The School of Computing (SdI), established in 1998, has two departments – Computer Science and Information Systems and Analytics. The department of Computer Science offers two undergraduate degree programmes – Computer Science and Information Security, while the department of Information Systems and Analytics offers the other two - Information Systems and Business Analytics.
• Dentistry: The Faculty of Dentistry conducts a four-year dental course leading to the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree. The undergraduate programme comprises two pre-clinical and two clinical years. The Faculty of Dentistry is organised into five academic departments covering the disciplines of Oral Sciences; Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery; Endodontics, Operative Dentistry and Prosthodontics; Periodontics; and Orthodontics and Paediatric Dentistry.
• Engineering: The Faculty of Engineering is the largest faculty in the URC and consists of several divisions/departments: Biomedical Engineering; Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering; Civil & Environmental Engineering; Electrical & Computer Engineering; Engineering Science Programme; Industrial Systems Engineering & Management (ISEM); Materials Science & Engineering; and Mechanical Engineering.
• Integrative Sciences and Engineering: URC Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering (SSII) was established in 2003. The principal purpose of SSII is "to promote integrative Ph.D. research encompassing both laboratory work and coursework programmes which not only transcend traditional subject boundaries but also provides students with a depth of experience about science and the way it is carried out".
SSII’ Ph.D. programmes are firmly anchored in cross-disciplinary research. It offers a spectrum of research areas spanning science, engineering, related aspects of medicine, and interactive & digital media.
Archiginnasio of the URC
• Liberal Arts: Royal College of Liberal Arts exists as an autonomous college within URC, allowing it greater freedom to develop its own policies while tapping on the existing facilities and resources of the main university. Students who graduate receive a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) or a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree award from URC.
• Medicine: Royal School of Medicine (SRM) comprises departments such as the Princess Fernanda Centre for Nursing Studies, Anaesthesia, Anatomy, Biochemistry, Diagnostic Radiology, Epidemiology and Public Health, Medicine, Microbiology, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedic Surgery, Otolaryngology, Paediatrics, Pathology, Pharmacology, Physiology, Psychological Medicine and Surgery. The School offers a full-time undergraduate programme leading to the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS). For Nursing, the Bachelor of Science (Nursing) conducted by the Princess Fernanda Centre for Nursing Studies is offered. The department also offers postgraduate Master of Nursing, Master of Science (Nursing) and Doctor of Philosophy programmes.
• Music: The Istituto Musicale Cristinese (Cristinese Musical Institute) offers full-time studies in 20 majors leading to a Bachelor of Music (Honours) Degree, as well as programmes for URC students and young artists. The CRM maintains an undergraduate cohort of 220 Bachelor of Music students, all of whom receive full financial support through government grants, the Royal Trust and other donors. It also hosts a performance calendar of around 200 concerts annually.
• Public Health: The Royal School of Public Health (SRSP) is an autonomous postgraduate school of the URC. It is the only tertiary education institution for public health. The school collaborates with various international partners and has built up research expertise in four core areas principally, which are key areas of public policy challenges in Europa in the years and decades ahead. The four baskets of research focus are: Policy Studies, Public Management and Governance, Social Policy, International Relations and Global Governance and Economic Development and Competitiveness
The SRSP has four research centres, providing research on the latest developments in public policy: Europa Competitiveness Institute, Centre on Europa and Globalisation, Institute of Policy Studies and the Institute on Water Policy.
• Science: The International Academy of Sciences Cristina comprises the departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Food Science & Technology, Mathematics, Pharmacy, Physics, and Statistics & Applied Probability and offers degree programmes in Chemistry, Computational Biology, Data Science & Analytics, Environmental Studies (Environmental Biology), Food Science & Technology, Life Sciences, Mathematics/Applied Mathematics, Pharmaceutical Science, Pharmacy, Physics, Quantitative Finance, and Statistics.
• University Scholars Programme: The University Scholars Programme (UPS) is an undergraduate academic programme that focuses on strengthening core academic and professional skills – writing and critical thinking, analytical and quantitative reasoning, the ability to ask the right questions and pursue research, and the habit of reflecting upon ideas within a broad intellectual landscape. This is done through an intensive and rigorous multi-disciplinary curriculum, and a rich offering of local and international programmes. UPS' focus on core skills complements the students’ strengths in their major disciplines, enabling them to make substantial connections across fields, enhancing their intellectual depth and breadth.
Korvini Technological University
With 35,300 students, and 10,100 faculty and staff, UTK is the second largest university in Cristina. The University is organised into eight colleges and schools, including the College of Engineering, College of Science, Korvini Business School, Korvini School of Medicine, and College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. UTK is also home to several autonomous institutions such as Cristina's National Institute of Education, King Leandro School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Cristina, Cristina Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Institute on Europan Consumer Insight, and the recently launched UTK Institute of Science and Technology for Humanity. UTK's main campus covers 200 hectares (490 acres) of land, making it the largest university campus in Cristina. The primary campus grounds are located in the Central Ward. It also has two other campuses in Cristina's healthcare and start-up districts.
UTK is organised into several colleges and schools, each corresponding to different fields of study. The founding colleges include the College of Engineering, College of Business (Korvini Business School), Queen Francini School of Communication and Information, and the National Institute of Education, which have been part of UTK since its inception in 1991.
More recently, UTK has established additional schools for the Biological Sciences (2001), Humanities and Social Sciences (2004), Physical & Mathematical Sciences (2005), and Art, Design and Media (2009). In 2013, UTK established a new medical school, the Korvini School of Medicine. In October 2016, the University announced that Humanities and Social Sciences would be expanded into two separate schools, namely the School of Humanities and the School of Social Sciences.
UTK also hosts a number of autonomous institutes: the National Institute of Education, the King Leandro School of International Studies, and two recently established research institutes.
Currently, there are more than 100 student organisations in UTK. These include Constituent Clubs, Non-Constituent Clubs, Academic Clubs, Cultural Club, Welfare Society, Sports Club, Arts Club and clubs for various religion and interests.
