...

Most universities have a department of academics and a department of didactics which are separate but I guess here they have just united the two. Good luck!

I rather think that this refers to a department that deals with teaching in an academic setting. For example there could be courses offered to university lecturers on the theory and practice of education methods. The quote below is an example (taken from the webpage given in the references):

"classes leading to key qualifications through the Centre for University and Academic Didactics, run by the Institute for Educational Theory"

Google gave 0 results for "Department of Academics". Since an educational institution, such as a university, already implies "academics", a department of academics does not make a lot of sense in English. This is why I would think that in this context the word "academic" does not stand alone as a discipline, but rather it is a description of the type of didactics being offered.

see the web page in Italian:

http://web.unicam.it/unicam/organizzazione/aree/aree.asp?p=1...

it seems clear "Area" is not used to refer to a department, but to the office whose services are listed on the right:

- Immatricolazioni // Immatricolazioni on line

- Iscrizioni

- Iscrizioni on line

- Aggiornamento carriere

- Rinunce

- Decadenze

- Trasferimenti

- Passaggi di corso

- Pagamento tasse universitarie

- Esonero totale

- Esonero parziale

- esami di Stato

- Iscrizione studenti stranieri

- Concorsi per ammissione a corsi a numero programmato


This corresponds (roughly) to the "Admissions Office" in most universities. Alternatively, you could use the more generic "Administration" or "Administrative Offices", which is probably more appropriate here, seen as the office performs more functions than admissions.


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Note added at 23 hrs 46 mins (2004-10-18 15:56:51 GMT)
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on second thoughts, perhaps \"Admissions Office\" is more specific here

- see:

http://www.harvard.edu/administration/

the \"Administrative Offices\" page mentions a few similar services - for instance, grants - however, the \"Admissions Office\" is separate:

http://www.harvard.edu/admissions/

The list of all \"aree\" in the University of Camerino:
http://web.unicam.it/unicam/organizzazione/aree/aree_indice....
shows there is a separate \"AREA AMMINISTRATIVA FINANZIARIA\", so I would perhaps use \"Admissions Office\" for \"Area Accademica Didattica\", since most of the services do seem admissions-related anyway...

(If you check the separate link for the Area Accademica Didattica:
http://web.unicam.it/unicam/ospiti/segr_stud/index.html
you see they also refer to \"Segreteria Studenti\", with the \'modulistica\' for admissions etc.)