The Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta, often simply abbreviated as "LUMSA" is a private university founded in 1939 in Rome, Italy. The LUMSA University was privately founded but belongs to the national Italian network of universities and is therefore able to confer recognised degree and diploma titles which have full legal force. The principal aspects of LUMSA are to be found in its humanist vocation and Catholic orientation. It has a humanist vocation because in a society which is scientifically and technologically advanced there is a growing awareness of the need for ‘wise knowledge’ which is rooted in an authentic idea of man and is able to promote progress for the real good of man and the human community. It has a Catholic orientation because it is a free academic community which sees Christian inspiration of the Catholic heritage as a specific feature of its identity. In particular, LUMSA strives to promote an overall education of the person and for this reason the university devotes especial care to its students and their professional and human education through the employment of constant services of direction and tutoring, and of procedures designed to give full expression to their right to engage in study. LUMSA belongs to the national and international scientific research network and has research programmes which operate within certain specific areas: education, the social services, the philosophical, philological and literary sciences, mass communications, and the juridical sciences and economics. LUMSA pays great attention to new professional profiles and requirements and to the emerging needs of the world of work, and is thus constantly engaged in the up-dating of its research and the teaching it offers. In this way, the university strives to make a constructive contribution to meeting individual needs when it comes to qualifications and skills, and to responding to the increasing requirements of specialisation which are ever more evident in today’s complex society.
