On Monday 7 September the Embassy of Italy in London hosted Italy-UK University Partnership Day, an event organised in collaboration with Uni-Italia to create partnerships between higher-education institutions in the two countries and to provide updates on the UK’s re-entry into Erasmus+.
The Deputy Head of Mission, Minister Plenipotentiary Riccardo Smimmo, gave an opening address in which he highlighted the international attractiveness of both the British and the Italian higher-education systems. He also commented on the value of Erasmus+, a programme that offers students and staff of schools, colleges and universities a once-in-a-lifetime experience abroad and promotes cultural exchange and the strengthening of relations between participating countries.
The panel, moderated by Prof. Giuseppe Kito Fusai, comprised representatives of Uni-Italia, Indire and the British Council.
Marco Calvi, head of the International Promotion and Marketing Unit at Uni-Italia, an association initially created to promote international student recruitment but which has expanded its activities to include facilitating academic cooperation. He observed that academic relations between Italy and the UK are already strong, with over 500 inter-university agreements in place.
The next speakers were Sara Pagliai, the director of Indire, the national agency responsible for Erasmus+ for Italy, and Eduardo Ramos, head of university systems and internationalisation at the British Council, the agency responsible for the programme in the UK. Both expressed great enthusiasm for the UK’s re-entry into the programme, and they highlighted that the aim is to achieve even higher levels of mobility than pre-Brexit.
They also pointed out the attractiveness of both the UK and Italy as academic destinations. Italy recently overtook France and Germany to become the second most popular European destination for international students (after Spain), and it remains the fourth most popular among British students. Meanwhile, among British universities, approximately 25% of students are international, as are a third of academics, and there are 700,000 “transnational” students, who study at international campuses of British universities.
Finally, Sam Herman Wilson of the Department for Education presented the British government’s priorities for the Erasmus+ programme. The aim is to create valuable experiences for individual participants and connections between different countries’ education systems. A particular priority is to make the programme inclusive and accessible, allowing – and encouraging – participation among students and staff who may have specific needs, who have limited financial means, or who are based in remote areas.
The panel talk was followed by a networking session, during which the representatives of the approximately 40 attending institutions held one-to-one discussions to establish opportunities for collaboration and partnerships.
