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Milan. Launched San Raffaele 2: “We’ll move the university.”

08 July, Corriere della Sera

The San Raffaele University Vita Salute might be transferred in five years to the former Falck steelworks in Sesto San Giovanni. “The Ministry of Education has just given us 160 places for our students instead of the previous 115. The State believes in us. We want to give our students the best since the space where they currently are is rather small”.

Last Wednesday, during a meeting with the representatives from healthcare, politics and finance, Paolo Rotelli presented his expansion plans for Gruppo San Donato, which manages 18 hospitals and acquired San Raffaele in 2012. Not only: Rotelli has just been appointed president of the University’s Board of Directors. The plan consists in buying, for an amount allegedly around 30 million euro, lands for over 75 thousand Sq m where the steelworks used to be. The area is now property of the company MilanoSesto guided by Davide Bizzi.

Ville Turro, a branch of San Raffaele with nearly 400 beds, will move to the same area. The facility includes the neuroscience, urology, radiology and infective diseases departments, along with several doctor’s practices and laboratories. Ville Turro is currently located in seven buildings in the park in Via Stamira D’Ancona 20. The project is assigned to the architect Mario Cucinella, and it proceeds along with the reclamation works in the area while waiting for the construction permit. According to the plans of Milano Sesto, the works should conclude by autumn 2019. Velca is the special purpose company that entered the agreement. The Rotelli family could have withdrawn from the agreement until the 5th of July. Since this didn’t happen, the contract will be signed shortly. Rotelli said: “We’ll go ahead with the project. We know what we want: San Raffaele 2”.

The University Vita Salute includes the faculty of medicine (featuring programs in dentistry and physiotherapy as well), psychology and philosophy. Rotelli has in mind to use shuttles to link Sesto with the San Raffaele hospital. He said: “The only thing impossible to move is the research department”. He insists: “From a clinic and educational point of view, San Raffaele is one of the best universities. Our students can learn from the best professors in Italy. But we could do even better. We must go from a traditional way of teaching to a more digitalised and interactive one. The idea is to copy, Italian regulations permitting, the more modern and digitalised campuses in Europe, like the one in Delft in the Netherlands”. The professors, however, are sceptical about the idea of separating the academic teaching from the clinical one. The primary clinical specialisations, in fact, are in Via Olgettina, where the hospital and the university are currently located. After all, students should attend lectures and at the same time practising, while professors have to teach and carry out surgeries. Anyway, the project is only at the beginning.

Source: Corriere della Sera

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi