The Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies has been given separate university status by the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (Italy) and together with Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa is leading the model of Scuole di Eccellenza, i.e. Superior Graduate School in Italy (Grandes écoles)[2][20] Students are admitted after passing public national and international competitions.
Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies offers to those who decide to take excellence, a multi-disciplinary approach to learning, research, and internationalization.
The fields of study and research are: Prospective undergraduates undergo a rigorous public examination, and only the very best are creamed off to combine their Pisa University studies with the extra options available at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, thus these students are called Honors College Students (Italian: Allievi Ordinari).
The School offers all of its services free of charge (accommodation, canteen, internet connection, library); students also receive a small yearly income for their maintenance.
Students have to achieve a high average grade in university exams (at least 27/30) and attend internal courses (including foreign language classes offered in French, Spanish, German and Chinese) taught by professors and researchers working at the School, both as an integration and as an extension to the regular academic schedule.
[13] The School also offers graduate courses such as master and doctoral programmes, provided by its research laboratories and joint ventures with foreign universities, leading enterprises and international organizations.
Polo Sant'Anna Valdera (PSAV) has 25 offices, 4 classrooms for teaching, 7 laboratories, 20 rooms, all six thousand square meters.
In the framework of the bilateral cooperation between Italy and China i.e. the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna hosts the third Italian Confucius Institute.
Research Institutes:[31] Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies has signed international agreements with respected partner universities around the globe.
[38][39] As part of the Pisa University System, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies is small and elite, specialised only in applied sciences.
[50] The Scimago Institution Ranking are based on the SCOPUS bibliometric database, featuring thirteen performance indicators of, innovation and web visibility.
The following are some of Sant'Anna Schools best results at the world and national level:[42][53][full citation needed] World The official agency of the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR), the Agenzia nazionale di valutazione del sistema universitario e della ricerca (ANVUR) ranks Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies the best small university for 2013 in Italy (National Rank # 1).