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Thanks to the results achieved by the European Project Med Net’U - Mediterranean Network of Universities – the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO is born; it is the first Euromediterranean distance university based on Italian technology and methodology.
Med Net’U, coordinated by Consorzio NETTUNO – Network per l’Università Ovunque – funded by the European Commission in the framework of the EUMEDIS Programme, will close with a great ceremony taking place in Cairo, at Helwan University campus on July the 25th. The Undersecretary to University and Research, Prof. Prof. Luciano Modica, will represent the Italian Ministry at the Conference jointly with the Rector of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, Prof. Maria Amata Garito and in the presence of the Egyptian Minister of Higher Education and Research, Prof. Hany Helal. Since 2003 and in the framework of the Community EUMEDIS Programme, NETTUNO has been coordinating the Med Net’U Project to which 32 partners of 11 countries of the Mediterranean Area and of Europe have participated; among them: traditional universities, distance universities and vocational training centres.
The best professors of the different universities involved have realised the first common curriculum for university degree courses in Information Engineering and Mechanical Engineering and have produced videolessons and multimedia materials for the Internet in four languages (Italian, Arabic, English, and French). In the meanwhile a multimedia network among 11 videolesson production centres (one for each country) and several Technological Poles allowing students to attend the distance modules via satellite TV and via the Internet have been realised. Besides, it has been produced in four languages 15 training courses in the subjects that are most demanded on the labour market. This great heritage that has been accepted by the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO where all Med Net’U partner universities can enrol their own students.
This way, the students of the Arab world can enrol via the Internet, attend the lessons included in the degree courses in Engineering, International Law, Economics, Psychology and Cultural Assets choosing one among the 4 languages and studying on the portal www.uninettunouniversity.net and also on the RAI NETTUNO SAT 1 satellite TV channel; they can take their exams and get a degree recognised in Italy and in Europe as well. The International Telematic University UNINETTUNO has already opened two technological poles for distance education at the sites of the Minister of Vocational Training of Morocco, in Rabat and also at Helwan University campus. Before the great Cairo Conference, Prof. Garito, Director General of Consorzio NETTUNO and Rector of the International Telematic Universiy UNINETTUNO has remarked:
With this initiative we wish to create a distance university without distances and not only the physical distances, but also the cultural ones. On the Internet, we have realised the first platform in world to teach and learn in four languages sharing technological and telematic networks and networks of people and knowledge as well. This is our strongpoint. We can educate the new generation and supply them with the skills that are demanded by the global market of labour, but we can also help them to get to know and respect the different cultures. Since we should not forget that the new generations have to create our own future. The professors of the Arab world universities involved their governments, making it possible to shift from project to cultural system, since knowledge hasn’t only one homeland or only one religion. The greatest capital is the capital of the intelligence and maybe together we are producing some of this capital, also thanks to the support of the Italian Government that has understood the value of our work according with declaration A great opportunity for Europe, for Italy and for the Countries of the Mediterranean Basin Prof. Luciano Modica, Undersecretary to University and Research said about UNINETTUNO’s project, that aims at unifying in a single international knowledge pole teachers of the European and Mediterranean universities with the starting up of seven university degree courses in five languages in 11 different countries. “We have built Europe which is the largest space of free exchange in the world. Goods, capitals and people circulate freely, a thing that was inconceivable only thirty years ago.
This is a model that should be gradually extended also to the Mediterranean Basin to build an integrated mobility system also for the workers coming from the southern shores; the possibility of working in Italy and in Europe that UNINETTUNO degree offers is certainly a fundamental step in right direction. A final remark is devoted to the Italian research world and to its role: “UNINETTUNO project, beside meeting actual needs in terms of education-training policy, assures a central role at international level to a technological system that is entirely Italian, expressly created by Consorzio NETTUNO to support this ambitious project. This time again, in the face of adequate and constant investments in valid projects, we have got the evidence that the Italian research proves, also at an international scale, all its value and prestige