Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, IUAV university of Venice, Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello and Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia join forces in the project “Study in Venice”, an education pole gathering Venetian higher education institutions which aim to work together and create a new entity that will be able to interact internationally in the strategic international context of higher education.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed to launch collaboration in common fields of interest: attracting international students and offering them specific services, promotion and international marketing, and offering Italian language and culture courses.
In the Venetian context, characterized by its small scale compared to international standards, working together is a necessary condition for the development of the city as a globally relevant higher education pole. It will also contribute to constructing a new vision of the city - a city that can overcome touristic monoculture and become a university destination from around the world thanks to its invaluable intangible heritage of accumulated knowledge and skills in centuries, in the areas of expertise that Venice and Italy has been associated with.
The City and Metropolitan city of Venice will support the initiative notably with policies aiming at developing high quality work environment for young graduates both coming from the region and from abroad. The city administration will play the role of a control room and offer sport, culture and leisure activities together with the necessary logistics, transportation and regional marketing following the model of praised university cities such as Boston. The City can cement relationships between universities and existing productive players and create the required conditions to attract new ones.This would allow for the key identity features of the city to strengthen and to open up to the contributions of students from around Europe and the world and their families.
The real added value of Venice and its inland is its high quality of life and of social and health services, with the potential for an expanding work market. This protocol commits the participating institutions to bring Venice, an international metropolitan city turned to the future, to talk to the world.
Michele Bugliesi, Rector of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice said: “Many universities are joining forces to present their academic offer abroad and in Venice it appears as a very simple and natural option. We used to do it and we are doing it today for our four universities have complementary features which can allow for synergy and hence bring about added value. Study in Venice is a coalition that provides access to the whole academic offer in Italian and English on its website. Abroad, and particularly in China, a rich academic offer such as the one we can offer within our four institutions is sought for: design, performing or visual arts, art history, culture, urbanism. The city is key and it can benefit from all these incoming students who could contribute to bringing vitality from a demographic and economic standpoint; the city is shedding light on institutions and institutions are shedding light on the city. Venice is a lively city where people can study, work and live in a Campus that only Venice can be”.
Art and culture, architecture and music, economics and business are some of the main fields that are historically linked to Venice and the Venetian institutions that established ‘Study in Venice’ are the current venues that cherish this heritage. An intangible heritage of knowledge and skills that hold a relevance to produce value and welfare in our current society.
The historic role of Venice as a strategic meeting point between East and West will be met again with ‘Study in Venice’ which will focus its activities on China as a single interlocutor for higher education in Venice and bring back its centrality within ‘One Belt, One Road’, Chinese policy evoking a modern metaphoric ‘Silk Route’, to strengthen the existing strong economic and cultural tie between Europe and Asia.
Shared activities will be presented as a ‘Venetian system’ when addressing Italian or international institutions such as Embassies, Consulates, foreign governmental Agencies. ‘Study in Venice’ will enable a shared marketing strategy in recruitment events like student fairs, promotion on social networks and through specific agencies, joint presentations in international high school with shared communication material, common services for international students like Welcome units, housing, buddy programmes and common cultural leisure activities to create a Venetian student community.
The 4 institutions will share:
• common academic projects and initiatives;
• Study Abroad programmes and Summer Schools;
• linguistic training;
• internship offers.
2-3 course modules will be accessible for a few months, a semester or a year and will allow students to get credits and receive a Degree.
Common academic offer will include courses in arts, music, sculpture, design, architecture, graphic design, fashion as well as many leisure and cultural activities such as exhibitions, concerts, dance, sport, but also language, literature, Italian history classes at the SIE (School for international education) and internships with local players.
Successful students will get a ‘Study in Venice’ Degree.
