Over the years, the University of Bologna has increasingly concentrated in its four Campuses in Romagna – Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna and Rimini – Schools, Departments, Graduate and Master Degree Courses that study the quality of life, including the creation, in 2012, of a new Department for Life Quality Studies at Rimini.
Today, 30 years since its establishment, the Wellness Valley Multicampus is the study and research hub with the highest concentration of Degree and Master Degree courses dedicated to Wellness and its applications, involving 10,300 students every year.
Different scientific fields such as Exercise and Sports sciences, Food Sciences, Psychology, Pharmacology, Medicine, Cultural Heritage, Fashion, Design, Biotechnology and Architecture intersect and converge on the issues of quality of life to meet the challenges of today’s growing demand for wellness.
In 2017 the University of Bologna launched the first Master’s Degree Course in “Wellness Culture: Sport, Health and Tourism” at the Rimini Campus. The course, entirely in English, prepares professionals capable of planning, promoting and managing programmes, initiatives and projects in the areas related to Wellness Culture. From sport to tourism, from health to culture, the graduate will learn to analyse the needs and potential of the territory to promote quality of life. They will be able to create integrated and sustainable system projects by fostering collaboration among public institutions and private entities, companies. The aim is to ensure that the benefits of Wellness are made available to people, to the production system, to tourism and the public sector.
The Higher Technical Institute “Tourism and Wellness” with headquarters in Rimini is a highly specialised school set up in connection with the production sector to answer the industry’s need for new professionals with high-level technical and technological skills to promote innovation processes.
The courses award credits recognized by the University and train skilled technicians in strategic areas for the economic development and competitiveness of the territory: “Hospitality Facilities Management”, “Tourism Marketing and Event Management” and “Marketing 4.0, Tourism and the Territory”.
The Institute is managed by a Foundation that brings together schools, companies, local authorities, training institutes, and the University, to ensure a close link with the world of production and research.
With 2,000 hours of training, 800 hours of internships and half of teachers coming from the world of work, these essentially practical and experiential courses aim to prepare professionals capable of promoting the territory and its tourist offer in an integrated perspective with innovative skills related to technologies and wellness.
In 2006 the State Professional Institute Versari-Macrelli in Cesena created a new course in “Wellness Lifestyle” for students aged 14-18 to prepare professionals with the knowledge and skills about the offer of sport, fitness and wellness activities in the territory of Romagna.
The course integrates classroom lessons with field activities that allow students to learn about healthy lifestyles through educational workshops, field trips, the creation of events, and work experience programmes.
“Benessere alimentare”(Food well-being) is the research project carried out by the students of the 3rd and 4th classes of the “Garibaldi Da Vinci” Institute in Cesena who are studying to become agri-food experts.
A careful mapping of the tourist accommodation facilities, mainly farmhouses, of Romagna, that produce and grow food with a focus on quality and respect for the environment.
The aim of the project is to promote the value of Romagna’s agricultural and food production that expresses the most authentic features of the territory according to criteria of quality and eco-sustainability, in terms of agri-food heritage, landscape integrity and agricultural biodiversity, and wellness.
It also aims to promote the rural and environmental specificities of Romagna and its agri-food products as a great cultural heritage of the territorial identity.
