WELCOME TO
HARVEY COURSE
Dear freshers,
First things first: congratulations on your admission to the Harvey Course! After an exhausting summer of studying and taking IMAT and the jungle of deadlines, documents and bureaucracy – which is not over yet, mind you! – here you are: Pavia, your home for the next 6 years.
We know the place might seem hostile at the first glance: almost no cabs past midnight, but wild flocks of bicycles; mist during winter, mosquitoes in summer; an unnecessary number of pharmacies but apparently only one club. But there’s no need to panic. We can guarantee that Pavia’s spirit will get to you and you will soon start to get into the rhythms and habits of our beautiful, student-sized city.
In fact, Pavia’s local population is overwhelmed by students coming from all over Italy and also from abroad. There are 18 student residences (“Collegi”) in the city, which are not just simple dormitories but very active centers on both the academic and social side. Student parties light up the city center every night (but especially on Wednesdays!), and many pubs and restaurants keep their prices low to students’ reach. Also, the University sports center (CUS) has many opportunities to offer, from athletics to fencing and canoeing.
But we are all here to study, right? Then you shall not forget that Pavia has been an important center for medical studies in the past centuries and some very important discoveries have been made here. Our number-one superhero is Camillo Golgi, who is famous not only for the discovery of the intracellular Golgi apparatus, but also for his groundbreaking studies in nervous system cytology and malaria. On the surgical side, Edoardo Porro, a gynaecologist and obstetrician, was the first to perform a successful C-section to which both the mother and the baby survived.
Nowadays, our University still keeps up to the old pace. The Department of Molecular Medicine, for example, has been awarded the title of “Department of Excellence” (and quite some extraordinary funds) from the Ministry of Education, University and Research for its high-quality research projects. As for our medical school, which is probably what concerns you the most, the national rankings of 2018 put the Medical Faculty of Pavia on the very top of the list before all the other Italian Universities.
We hope that you are as excited as we are for this academic year! We have put together a short guide for you that includes things that you will probably need to hear during your first few weeks in Pavia.
Harvey MedSoc
Gruppo Kos
Medical School in Pavia: A Summary
The first thing you need to know about our Medical Faculty is made up of two programs: one is taught in Italian (the so-called Golgi course) and the other one is in English (Harvey course). The two courses have different lecture and exam schedules, but they often share lecture rooms and hospital wards for traineeships.
Every academic year has an appointed course coordinator and a traineeship coordinator, that you can reach out to in case you have any issue. These issues and/or request are usually channeled through your class representatives that you will elect in the first few weeks of lectures.
first year: the scheme
The first thing you need to know about our Medical Faculty is made up of two programs: one is taught in Italian (the so-called Golgi course) and the other one is in English (Harvey course). The two courses have different lecture and exam schedules, but they often share lecture rooms and hospital wards for traineeships.
Every academic year has an appointed course coordinator and a traineeship coordinator, that you can reach out to in case you have any issue. These issues and/or request are usually channeled through your class representatives that you will elect in the first few weeks of lectures.
Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri
Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo
DEA
Istituto di Cura Santa Margherita
Biblioteca Tamburo
Biblioteca Botta 2
Biblioteca Universitaria di Pavia
Biblioteca Policlinico
Biblioteca di Economia/Chiesetta
Biblioteca Francesco Petrarca/San Tommaso
Map to the LIBRARIES
One great thing about Pavia is that it has many libraries that are spread out all around the city. Here, we have listed the best ones for you. Remember that to access the libraries in the science faculty, you would need to make a library card (known as bbb card). It is pretty simple; just go to the front desk at any of the scientific libraries and ask for one.
Biblioteca Tamburo
Biblioteca Botta 2
Biblioteca Universitaria di Pavia
Biblioteca Policlinico
Biblioteca di Economia/Chiesetta
Biblioteca Francesco Petrarca/San Tommaso
Study Material
In order to receive all the help you will need with your courses and exams, we recommend that you join the facebook group of your class. You can write to us (see “Contacts” later in this page) and we’ll get you added in the groups you need.
Apart from this, other facebook groups you might find useful are the following:
- Facolta di Medicina e Chirurgia – Universita degli Studi di Pavia
- Harvey course – Second hand books & stuff
- Cosa ti hanno chiesto? Medicina e chirurgia Pavia
The last one is particularly a good one: students write in there all the questions they are asked at exams, in order to provide a pool for the other students to know how the exams usually work out. Most of it is in Italian, but it may still turn out useful.
Every class usually stores their study materials altogether in Google Drive or Dropbox folders. Don’t be shy and ask your classmates (or upper year students) to share them with you! Should you have any problem with it, write to us – we’ll be happy to help you out.
Last but not least, Gruppo Kos (one of the authors of this short handbook) is working on a Guide to Courses, where the programs of all exams are written down together with useful sources to study from and some more tips. Follow them in order to be updated and receive the Guide when it is published.
Who are We?
Harvey MedSoc is an organization of students from Harvey course in the Faculty of Medicine. Harvey MedSoc first started its work in the academic year of 2015-16. Harvey Medsoc represents Harvey Medical Students of the University of Pavia in areas that are not previously addressed by the faculty and other organizations, including social and extracurricular activities, workshops pertinent to medical studies and interests, in English.
In fact, all events, committee meetings, and communications are held in English. The goal of our society is to strengthen the course identity, and to increase communication between students of various years and the lecturers and course coordinators.
MedSoc is apolitical and does not support or oppose any political parties or movements both within the university and without. It is also worth mentioning that MedSoc has no place in the formal structure of the student government of the University of Pavia.
With all the aforementioned points in mind, MedSoc’s mission is to unify the students of the Harvey Course of Molecular Medicine of the University of Pavia, Italy, through regular common activities and opportunities.
MedSoc hold regular annual (and a few biannual) events both in academic and non-academic fields. Note that a timeline of the future events will be published here at the start of 2018-19 academic year. You can refer to our facebook page to learn more about our previous events.
Additionally, Harvey Medsoc provides a platform for students of all 6 years to come together informally, both with and without professors to provide free information by the students, for the students. This includes knowledge of events in Pavia, within the university and the colleges, and updates on information pertinent to the Harvey course. An example of this, is our Mentorship Program.
Finally, MedSoc’s ultimate goal is to seek out research and internship positions in English both within and outside the University of Pavia and to provide medically relevant extracurricular activities in addition to the lessons and courses provided by the university curriculum and the colleges.