TERAMO. It is called “Future in the Center”: it is a project that sees eight universities in Central Italy – the three in Abruzzo and those in Marche and Umbria – united for the first time, sharing resources and skills, to increase the prospects of professional achievement and of its members. The initiative is promoted by the Universities of L’Aquila, Camerino, d’Annunzio di Chieti-Pescara, Macerata, Perugia, Polytechnic of the Marche, Teramo, Urbino Carlo Bo and was presented in Rome by the respective rectors. It was an opportunity, we read in a joint note, «to highlight the thousand possible opportunities, including international projects, experiences abroad, services and benefits, activities linked to the territory, post-graduate courses and the numerous relationships with the world of organizations and businesses.”
What will “Futuro al Centro” actually bring? The first stage of this journey will be a shared campaign – financed by each of the universities with a share – of communication and promotion on a national scale, not only in the regions of the eight participating universities but also in Milan, Turin, Rome and Naples. In the long term, «the objective», the eight rectors say, «is to build innovative study paths that favor interdisciplinarity and flexibility of the training offer. This initiative aims to create an integrated space for Italian university education, pooling national resources to enrich study plans with additional and complementary training activities compared to those proposed by individual universities.” To give an example: the University of Teramo is already planning a new master’s degree course with that of the Marche. The Italian Erasmus program for student mobility throughout the country will also be promoted. The eight universities of Abruzzo, Marche and Umbria have joined this program through an agreement, promoting and supporting the mutual exchange of male and female students enrolled in bachelor’s, master’s or single-cycle master’s degrees.
On the sidelines of the presentation, the rectors of the Abruzzo universities all released statements. Edoardo Alesse (University of L’Aquila) said: «”Futuro al Centro”, as well as a precise space-time definition, is evidence of a strong commitment that the universities of Abruzzo, Marche and Umbria want to offer to students of these and other territories to guarantee a quality future. The operational tools of this project will be the coordinated valorisation of the extremely broad and high-quality training offering and the definition of integrated research and third mission strategies. We are three contiguous territories, a vast area that shares history, fragility, needs but also academic and productive excellence, which for some time have been collaborating effectively with an eye to the well-being of future generations and the protection and sustainable development of the territory, as well as every conflict and competition. In short, a Future at the Center, beautiful, shared and accessible to anyone.” Dino Mastrocola (Teramo): «“Futuro al Centro” represents the added value of a network logic. A model that our eight universities have already successfully experimented with in the research sector with the Vitality project in the context of Innovation Ecosystems and which will now be extended to teaching and the third mission. I also believe that this systemic network can counteract the risk of marginalization for small universities, such as the Teramo one, which are irreplaceable cultural centers for the internal areas which represent a historical, environmental and landscape value common to the three regions”. Liborio Stuppia (Chieti-Pescara): «With participation in this project, our university confirms and strengthens its vocation of strong territorial roots and great openness to the sensitivities of young people interested in a solid university path at an international level, being able to choose to do it with the right attention to the quality of one’s life”.
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