On Wednesday, the 13th October, at 7:00 pm, in the premises of the Embassy of Egypt in Italy His Excellency the Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Dr. Ashraf Rashed, meets the first 15 Egyptian students of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO (UTIU) that, at the end of a training period in some Italian companies working in the innovation field, will get a double degree title recognised in Italy, in Europe and in Egypt.
The Egyptian students, enrolled in the Information and Communication Technologies Engineering Degree course of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO (UTIU), who attended their lessons on the distance mode at the UTIU Technological Pole of Helwan University, in Cairo, have completed the training period in Italy, required to discuss their theses. These students will be the first UTIU’s Egyptian students, who, thanks to cooperation agreements established between the Egyptian and the Italian Governments and between the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO and Helwan University, Cairo will get a double title, recognised in Italy, in Europe and in Egypt.
This training period gave the Egyptian students the opportunity of achieving specific applied research projects and to familiarise themselves with the professional dynamics of some important Italian companies working in the field of technological innovation. These companies have greatly appreciated the students’ work both in terms of skills and competences as well as for the enthusiasm and determination they showed in their work. This project represents the first concrete case which sees the commitment of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO in overcoming distances, not only as it regards the training path, by exploiting the potentials and the tools of the new information and communication technologies, but also concretely bringing closer to each other students and companies to make the former ones acquire skills that are more closely linked to needs of the globalised labour market, to promote a qualified and aware migration, but also to concretise dialogue among cultures. The Egyptian students, who will receive a training certificate, studied without moving from their own country attending the lessons of the best lecturers coming from the most important European and Egyptian universities by means of the distance teaching model of the International Telematic Unversity UNINETTUNO and of its educational portal www.uninettunouniversity.net, the only one where teaching and learning are carried on in 4 languages: Italian, Arabic, English and French. These students had the opportunity of studying and critically interact with their teachers and tutors, and also with other students coming from other countries of the world, through continuous meetings on chats, in Internet-based virtual classrooms on Second Life, on the UTIU Island of Knowledge; they made their exercises, wrote papers and became active builders of new knowledge. “A true network of shared knowledge was born – explains the UTIU Rector, Maria Amata Garito – the experience we are making with these youths makes me realise, day after day, that making young people coming from different cultures live together with success and dignity is possible. What makes the work we are doing with Helwan University, Cairo, very important lays in the fact that we are giving these young people the opportunity of acquiring competences that enable them to access an ever-increasingly globalised labour world, but we are also giving them the tools that enable them to develop a permanent dialogue among the different cultures of the world. In my opinion, this experience could also be useful to support innovative migration policies.”
(STATEMENT BY THE AMBASSADOR ….)
This initiative of the UTIU – International Telematic University UNINETTUNO adds to other important projects of cooperation with Arab language and culture countries aimed at supporting the development of actions targeted to professionalising human resources and democratising access to knowledge, such as the EDICT project, in cooperation with UNIDO, aimed at training Iraqi young entrepreneurs (see: http://edict.uninettuno.org) and the significant initiative carried on in cooperation with the Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry in favour of the Kingdom of Morocco, “I learn Arabic – The Treasure of the Letters”, the first televised course to learn how to read and write Arabic, designed and developed for the benefit of the Moroccan illiterate population and that is aired on a daily basis on Morocco’s national television network. Today, UTIU spreads and promotes the quality of knowledge and culture beyond boundaries; its students come from 40 countries of the world and, thanks to the Internet, knowledge and culture move under open skies, with no limits, they create the skills to foster development and lay the foundation for freedom and peace.
The event will be filmed by UTIU cameras and will be streamed on the website: www.uninettunouniversity.net and on the digital satellite channel RAI NETTUNO SAT free to air on Sky 822 channel and watchable in Europe, Middle East and Northern Africa, starting from the morning of the 14th October.