The Department of Education and Human Sciences (DESU) identifies its vision within the framework of an innovative and inclusive policy that, with specific attention to the multiple and complex reality of the person, promotes the achievement of high levels in research, teaching and training, also through national and international collaboration with other departments, universities and research centers and a synergy with the qualified network of services, schools, institutions present in the territory.

The DESU, whose composition follows the model of the most prestigious international Schools of Education in terms of disciplinary breadth and quality of sectors, intends to respond with responsibility, scientific rigor and innovation to the challenges that concern the various aspects related to education, instruction and cultural and professional training understood in the broad sense of the figures involved in the educational processes.

The current Department of Education and Human Sciences (DESU) was founded in 2004 as the Faculty of Educational Sciences. Currently, DESU offers a three-year degree course in Educational Sciences for nursery and socio-pedagogical professions (L-19), a single-cycle master's degree course in Primary Education Sciences (LMCU-85 bis) and five master's degree courses: Educational Sciences (LM-85), Media Education for Literary Disciplines and Publishing (LM-43), Theories and Methodologies of Digital Learning (LM-93), Religions, Histories and Cultures (LM-64, inter-university with Bologna), Philosophy (LM-78, inter-university with Parma and Ferrara).

The internship is a fundamental and essential element of the training path for the profession of teacher and educator. DESU promotes curricular internships in order to facilitate professional choices through direct knowledge of the world of work. During the internship path, you will have the opportunity to experiment and acquire practical skills, to develop essential skills for entering the world of school and the educational field; an essential moment to complete the theoretical preparation in the classroom, through comparison with daily practice.

The Department building is the former headquarters of the episcopal seminary of the diocese of Reggio Emilia. In 1946, a competition was announced to assign the design of the work. Enea Manfredini was the unanimous winner. After the award, which took place in 1947, on 12 November 1950 the Bishop Monsignor Beniamino Socche blessed the first stone of the new building.

The complex, inaugurated in 1954, is a work of great architectural value by the architect Enea Manfredini (1916-2008), an absolute protagonist of the Italian rationalist movement and of the post-war reconstruction of Reggio Emilia, a professional in contact with the most active architects of the post-war period, starting with Franco Albini, with whom he signed the construction of the Ina Casa neighborhoods of Reggio (Rosta Nuova) and Parma.

Now the headquarters is named after Monsignor Gilberto Baroni (1913 – 1999), bishop of the diocese of Reggio Emilia and Guastalla from 1965 to 1989.