ANCONA – Scholarships for Afghan and Ukrainian students, seminars for peace, activities with detained people, social agriculture, psychological help desk, virtual anti-violence help desk, initiatives for the reintegration of women victims of trafficking and for environmental sustainability. These are just some of the numerous projects carried out byPolytechnic University of Marche in the ‘social’ and for the ‘social’the theme chosen by the magnificent rector, Gian Luca Gregori for theinauguration of the 2023-2024 academic year. A large audience of civil and military authorities present, among others, in addition to the president of the Marche Region, Francesco Acquaroli, the mayor of Ancona, Daniele Silvetti, the Archbishop of Ancona Osimo Monsignor Angelo Spina, spoke the rectors of various Italian universitiestogether with those of the other universities in the Marche region (Unimc, Unicam and Unibo).
A ceremony that wanted to underline the role of the Doric University as a social actor «a role that goes beyond degrees, but which allows us to understand how many activities we can carry out, in favoring, for example, in the case of prisoners, their entry into the world of work – said the magnificent rector Gian Luca Gregori -, or in the case of women with the anti-violence centre, or in the case of social agriculture”. The objective is “to put the person at the center with less noticed but more relevant activities” added the rector.
In his speech during the ceremony, the magnificent rector Gregori illustrated the positive data achieved by the University, among which theevolution of the training offer with an increase in study courses which in five years have gone from 50 to 73 and with a constant growth in the number of students which went from 4,841 in 2020 to the current 5,254, a sign of the growing attractiveness of the Polytechnic University of Marche. New degree courses in English and new directions that keep pace with the evolution of the times and with the economic needs of the territory.
Among the new courses activated, the Engineering of Energy Infrastructures and Logistics in the port sector, the course in Techniques of Cardiocirculatory Physiopathology and Cardiovascular Perfusion, in Management for the sustainable valorization of companies and fish resources, and the course in Landscape, innovation and sustainability (in collaboration with Unicam). The number of teachers is also growing significantlywhich over the years has gone from 539 in 2019 to 653 profs in 2023, also increasing administrative stafffrom 525 employees in 2019 to 594 in 2023.
The ceremony was opened by a tribute to Rossini with ‘La Gazza Ladra’ performed byOlympia Orchestramade up of women committed to promoting gender equality, and which played four very special instruments: a viola, two violins and a cello, built with wood deriving from boats arriving in Lampedusaand handmade by people detained in Opera prison, thanks to the project Metamorphosis conceived by House of the Spirit and Arts Foundation.
After the rector’s report they spoke Gianluca Ferripresident of the Student Council, Ava Ghasemi Head Erasmus Generation Meeting EGM Ancona 2025 e Filomena Savini of the Technical Administrative Staff. The social theme was also expanded in the discussion between the Univpm rector Gian Luca Gregori and Don Aldo Buonaiuto from the Pope John XXIII Communitythe teacher Stefania Gorbi University contact for Sustainability, Dr Arnoldo Mosca Mondadori president of the Casa dello Spirito e delle Arti Foundation and the professor Elena Spina University contact person for Integration and Multiculturality.
Very touching video testimonies of two women victims of trafficking saved from the ugliness by the Pope John XXIII Community led by Don Aldo Buonaiuto. Maria, now 19 years old, who arrived in Italy from Bulgaria at 13, told her story of slavery, which began with the promise of earning money to help her sick parents, but instead ended up in a nightclub. «One evening while I was on the street – said the young woman – Don Aldo arrived (Buonaiuto, ed) of the Pope John XXIII Community, together with other people, and told me: ‘My daughter, what are you doing here, come away with me'”. From there the beginning of a new life for Maria. A similar story is that of Stefania, a young woman who came from Romania and was also a victim of terrible violence, from whom her tormentors tore out her hair and an ear. Terrible stories that moved.
The women victims of trafficking were involved by the Polytechnic University of Marche in a project with the Pace In terra Onlus association of Fabrianowhich sees them as protagonists in creation of the laurel wreaths worn by young female and male graduates of the University on the occasion of the Graduation ceremony in the Square, «a moment of celebration that summarized the contamination between celebration of academics and commitment to an inclusive society» Rector Gregori recalled in his speech, a very important concept, that of inclusion, which the University transfers to its members.
With the Municipality of Ancona the social agriculture project for prisoners who have reached the end of their sentence, while with the University Hospital of the Marche the opening project of a restorative surgery clinic for patients undergoing genital mutilation. «It is estimated that more than 3,200 women reside in our region from countries where this practice is implemented – said Gregori – the commitment required of the University is therefore complex, it is a question of being protagonists also in the social sphere, contributing from a on the one hand to the reduction of conflicts and inequalities that are undermining the social fabric, and on the other to the construction of good practices, public policies and projects functional to the stability of the social system”.
«University and school – he concluded – must encourage the realization of personal objectives, making one’s dreams come true, also by cultivating an ambition», but a healthy one without competition, «characterised by commitment and effort, without shortcuts and in compliance with others”.
