Degrees Without Borders

Some borders are becoming more visible again. Borders between countries, borders between economies and borders between technological systems. Geopolitics is reshaping global value chains, influencing mobility and putting pressure on the circulation of people and knowledge that for years we had almost come to see as irreversible. Yet just as the world appears to be fragmenting, universities continue to move in the opposite direction: building connections.

A Double Degree is one of the deepest forms of this cooperation. It is not simply a study abroad period. Two universities share a substantial part of their students' education, aligning curricula, academic standards, assessment systems and educational objectives. The outcome is two degrees, but behind them lies above all a shared vision about what it means to educate a student.

"Today, internationalization cannot be measured only by the number of students moving from one country to another," says Francesco Saita, Dean for International Affairs at Bocconi University. "The challenge is to build relationships between institutions capable of producing educational experiences that no single university could offer in quite the same way."

For Bocconi, this is a story spanning more than 20 years. The first Double Degree agreement at the graduate level dates back to 2004, followed the next year by the China MIM Double Degree. In 2012 came the first undergraduate Triple Degree, the World Bachelor in Business; in 2018 the first Double Degree in Law; in 2019 the first undergraduate Double Degree with Peking University and in 2023 another one with HEC Paris.

The network now includes 38 partner schools in 19 countries, 65 Double Degree programs and more than 450 incoming and outgoing students on mobility programs in the 2025–2026 academic year alone.

So it is not only the number of opportunities that has increased. The scope of Double Degrees has also expanded: from graduate programs to undergraduate and Law programs, from management to finance, and increasingly to new contaminations with STEM disciplines.

Much More Than an Exchange

Building a Double Degree means going far beyond a standard mobility agreement. Programs, credits, requirements, academic calendars and assessment systems all need to be aligned, and most importantly the two institutions must agree on the knowledge and skills students need to have acquired by the end of the program delivered by both universities.

"A Double Degree is built on trust," says Saita. “When you create a joint academic pathway, you are entrusting another university with part of your students’ education. It requires a much deeper institutional relationship than a standard exchange.”

This level of integration also makes the experience distinctive for the students who take part. At the graduate level, mobility generally lasts one year. In other cases, it can radically shift the balance of the entire university experience: in the undergraduate Double Degree with Peking University, for example, students spend two years abroad.

It is not simply a matter of moving to another city. It means entering a different academic system, understanding how it works, adapting the way you study and rebuilding both academic and personal relationships.

“Living and studying in another country encourages students to become more independent and take greater responsibility for their own learning journey,” says Safwan Mchawrab, Director of the Finance and Investment Banking program at Grenoble École de Management, Bocconi’s partner for the Double Degree with Accounting and Financial Management.

For Enrico Basili, who attended the Double Degree in International Management with HEC Montréal, it was “by far the best experience I have ever had, both academically and personally.” For him, it was an opportunity to live in another country, work in an international environment, use different languages and build relationships with people from around the world.

For Alessandro Chiaromonte, who completed the Double Degree in Law at Singapore Management University, the impact was even more profound. The experience, he says, “changed my life.” It convinced him to stay in Singapore, continue his legal studies and begin building his professional career there as well.

Two different experiences, united by the fact that mobility does not end with the time spent abroad, but can reshape expectations, choices and future trajectories.

Two Systems, Two Ways of Thinking

This is perhaps where the less immediately visible value of a Double Degree emerges. The point is not simply to get to know another country, but to experience firsthand how the same problem can be taught, interpreted and approached in different ways.

“An international experience becomes truly educational when it challenges what we consider normal,” Saita explains. “Studying in two different systems forces you to change perspective, adapt and recognize that there is not necessarily just one way to approach a problem.” 

The complementarity between institutions also makes this comparison tangible. WU Vienna is a Bocconi partner for the Double Degrees in International Management and International Management and Technology. Werner H. Hoffmann, Director of the Master in Strategy, Innovation and Management Control at the Austrian university, highlights the distinctive contribution of the two experiences: WU students who come to Milan benefit in particular from “Bocconi’s academic rigor and strong emphasis on quantitative methods,” which are also valuable when working on their thesis. For all participants, including Bocconi students who choose Vienna, the value of the exchange lies in being immersed in a different cultural and academic environment.

From a professional perspective as well, this ability to adapt can make a real difference. Angelica Carbone, who attended the Double Degree in Finance at Keio University, emphasizes the professional value of the experience. In her view, flexibility, adaptability, the ability to work in multicultural environments and the willingness to step outside one’s comfort zone are skills that recruiters increasingly recognize and value.

In other words, the value of earning two degrees goes well beyond adding two lines to a résumé. It lies above all in having learned how to navigate different contexts, methods and cultures.

The New Frontier: Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries

The evolution of Double Degrees, however, is not just about geography. The new mobility programs starting in 2027–2028 point in a clear direction. Bocconi will launch a Double Degree in Law with the University of Notre Dame in the US, one in Marketing with Aalto University in Finland and a new program with ESSEC in International Management, Fashion and Luxury Management.

But perhaps the most interesting development comes from a partnership with École Polytechnique in France: Bocconi’s first two Double Degrees with a STEM institution, one in Artificial Intelligence and one in Finance.

This is a significant step because the logic of the Double Degree is being applied not only to the meeting of different countries and academic cultures, but also to disciplines that are increasingly interdependent. Economics, management and finance now constantly intersect with data, technology and artificial intelligence. The boundaries that education must teach students to cross are therefore no longer only geographical.

Building Bridges as Distances Grow

There is another fundamental difference between the world of 2004 — when Bocconi signed its first graduate Double Degree agreement — and the world of today. Back then, educating international students primarily meant preparing them for an economy that seemed destined to become increasingly global. Two decades later, geopolitical tensions are shaping trade and mobility, competition between countries increasingly extends to technology, data and knowledge, and academic collaboration itself must contend with a more complex environment.

This is a challenge that partner institutions experience firsthand. “Geopolitical fragmentation increases both the time costs and the administrative burden of a Double Degree program,” says Zeno Adams, Executive Director of the Master in Banking and Finance at the University of St. Gallen, which partners with Bocconi’s Master of Science in Finance to offer a Double Degree program. This does not make international cooperation any less important. If anything, it changes what that cooperation means.

For Bocconi, the future growth of Double Degrees therefore does not simply mean adding new destinations to a map. The real question is which partnerships can generate genuine added value by combining different areas of expertise, disciplines and academic cultures.

“I don’t think the goal should be to have as many Double Degrees as possible,” Saita concludes. “The priority is to build the right programs with the right partners, identifying strong complementarities. In the future, what will increasingly matter is our ability to cross together not only geographical boundaries, but also those between disciplines and areas of expertise.”

In 2004, the starting point was a single graduate agreement. Today, there are 65 programs, 38 partners and more than 450 students moving through this network in a single academic year. Tomorrow, the boundary to cross may increasingly be less the one between two countries and more the one between disciplines, methods and different ways of interpreting the world.

Because the two degrees a student receives at the end are only the most visible part of a Double Degree. Its value begins much earlier: when two universities decide that, for at least part of the journey, educating students together can mean educating them better.