A veritable research hub in Milano

The Bocconi PhD School was created in 2006 to internationalize the faculty and the student body doing high-level research in economics and management. It has proved capable of attracting PhD students from all over the world and places its PhDs in top universities, companies, and international institutions.

"The school is increasingly cosmopolitan and we have just admitted 42 new students coming from 19 different countries," says Alfonso Gambardella, the School's Dean. "Our aim is to attracts the best students from all over the world, having a strong vocation for research. We want to improve their scientific grounding and prepare them for either an academic or an international career."

Set in the new Bocconi building opened last year in via Roentgen, the School is becoming an international research hub, For academic year 2008-2009, 86% of appllcations for the PhD in Business Administration were from international students, 75% for the PhD in Finance.

At Bocconi's PhD program, an international faculty teaches an international student body. 15% of full-time professors comes from abroad, and each year there are 25 visiting professors coming from universities such as Harvard, Stanford, and Sorbonne.

"I accepted Bocconi's invitation, because I knew its students and faculty had a good reputation," says Michael Tarter, Professor of Statistics at Berkeley, who has come to Milano as visiting professor for the PhD in Statistics. "I found an excellent climate for teaching and studying, and the students are particluarly enterprising. And there is a cafeteria offering great food, incomparable with what we have in Berkeley!".

The School gives strong emphasis to ensuring the doctoral students' international mobility. PhD students must present at least one of their research works abroad, typically in important international conferences (from the European Economic Association Congress to the Association for Public Policy Analysis Conference), and spend a period of research abroad. Bocconi PhDs have done research at ECB, the World Bank, Harvard University, and Shanghai's Fudan University.

"My experience at Bocconi has been pleasant. I found a fertile cosmopolitan environment," says Iryna Kaminska, from Ukraine, who now works in London as researcher at the Bank of England. "The program offers you great opportunities to do experience abroad. I did six months in Vienna, before coming to London:"

An academic career is the natural choice of most Bocconi postdocs. The School actively supports its PhDs in academic placement around the world, with its presence in the international job market in the disciplines of Management, Economics, and Finance. For example, Alberto Alemanno, PhD in International Economic Law, is now Associate Professor at HEC in Paris, while Gaia Rubera has become Assistant Professor at Michigan State University. Guenther Fink, an Austrian national, teaches International Health Economics at Harvard School of Public Health. Among those who have just earned their doctorates, Junye Li, from China, is about to start as Assistant Professor of Finance at ESSEC, and Samira Reis, from Rio de Janeiro, is currently evaluating academic job offers in Europe.

International agencies are another job prospect for Bocconi PhDs. Silvia Redaelli was selected for the Young Professionals Program of the World Bank in Washington. She was among the 45 chosen from more than 14,000 applications. On the other hand, Nicholas Groshenny, a French national, will workd for the central bank of New Zealand and Olaf De Groot, a Dutch national, was hired by the German Institute for Economic Research. For her part, Aura Leulescu, a Romanian, had already been asked to join Eurostat, the statistical agency of the EU, in Luxembourg as Project Officer, a year before defending her dissertation.

"I chose Bocconi because it has an excellent reputation in Business Administration," explains Aura, 29 years old. "I hesitated about accepting a job before finishing the dissertation. But I just could not forego the opportunity offered by Eurostat."

Finally, large banks and companies are also interested in securing the talents of a Bocconi PhD. Andrea Moro, who graduated in 2007, is Senior Product Manager atAmazon in Seattle, while Martin Birgi, a US national, is Advertising Research Manager at Google's office in New York. Marco Aiolfi, a 2006 PhD in Economics, is Strategist for Platinum Grove Asset Management, while Stephan Maier, a German, remained in Milano to work as an economist for UniCredit.