Rector's page

I’m delighted to welcome you here, both personally and on behalf of Ca' Foscari University of Venice, which I feel privileged to represent in my role as a Rector.

Our university was founded in 1868. By Italian standards, Ca' Foscari is a young university, both in age, and, above all, in spirit. From the beginning, the Regia Scuola Superiore di Commercio has been a project that has combined economics, diplomatic sciences and languages - European, Near and Middle Eastern and Asian. There were three founding fathers: Luigi Luzzatti, Edoardo Deodati, Francesco Ferrara, who laid the foundations of a forward-looking institution, and bequeathed us a far-sighted vision of the world that is still relevant today.

The future comes from afar. Today, our identity is still the same as it was two centuries ago, albeit with inevitable differences: our university is open to the world, with a strong orientation to sustainability, interdisciplinary thought, and international relations. We firmly believe in a vision for our university that is international and particularly European. We’re aligned with our nine partner universities (Paris, Dresden, Brussels, Gothenburg, Barcelona, Lisbon, Cluj, Ljubljana and Warwick) in a commitment to the EUTOPIA Alliance, which I have had the honour of chairing since 2023.

The Ca’ Foscari community adheres to strong values, including respect for the cultures of the world; working for peace through dialogue; being open to exchange; collaborating to tackle the great global challenges - and all with the aim of contributing to a higher purpose: improving the living conditions of the less privileged. We treasure research and are outspoken in our support of these values wherever it takes place: in classrooms, laboratories or libraries, in fact anywhere research is carried out and taught. We intend to continue educating new generations of citizens, as well as scholars with passionate commitment.

Venice is a cosmopolitan city that has been familiar with challenges of change for centuries, and Ca’ Foscari is one of the city’s key assets. It is an urban and 'civic' university. It has grown and changed while never losing touch with local needs of both the historic city and the wider metropolitan area. Our various campuses are distributed over a large area, and so are our teaching, research and civic engagement activities, each carried out in constant dialogue with political and cultural institutions, and with citizens.

I welcome you to come and get to know Ca' Foscari better; you can start by browsing this website, but I hope you will also come and visit our venues and meet our wonderful community, which is made up of students, researchers and lecturers from all over the world. I leave you with a personal wish: that many of you will choose to join us, too.

Tiziana Lippiello