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Emilia-Romagna attracts students from Italy and around the world
Bologna, 9th May, 2007 - Students from all over the world come to the region every year, attracted by the high level of the educational and training system, the quality of life and the prospects offered by the job market, representing a strategic resource for the area and a source of cultural enrichment.
The universities and colleges in Emilia-Romagna, with over 68,000 Italian students away from home, make the region the most attractive area for university study on a national scale, followed by Lazio (59,000 students) and Lombardy (almost 40,000). The regional leadership is even more significant if you consider that, out of the total of students enrolled, the percentage of students away from home is the highest in Italy, at 44.7%.
The attraction of human resources from other regions is not restricted to the university sphere: in 2006, in the 30 higher technical training courses (of the I.F.T.S.) organized in the region, 20% of those enrolled were from outside Emilia-Romagna. They are courses designed to create specific professional personnel required on the job market, ranging from computer security expert to energy management specialist, from logistics expert to multimedia engineer.
Emilia-Romagna shows that, in the Italian context, it also has the highest percentage of foreign students enrolled in its universities and colleges (5.4% of the total), preceded only by Trentino-Alto Adige, that benefits, however, from strong cultural and linguistic ties with Austria.
The information on foreign students does not take into account international study scholarships, that often last for a shorter time but that nevertheless enrich the areas involved in terms of stimuli, exchanges and strengthening of interuniversity connections. An example of this is the University of Bologna, that is the leader in Italy and in second place in Europe for flows of students, both in and out, who have been granted the Erasmus study scholarship.
In the academic year 2005/2006, there were 1,402 Erasmus students hosted by the University of Bologna, almost double the number in 2001. Among the other regional universities that recorded interesting results in 2005-2006 there are those of Parma, that is among the leading 20 European universities for Italian Erasmus students who go abroad, Modena and Reggio Emilia (180 Italians and 118 from abroad) and Ferrara (166 Italians and 175 from abroad). As for where the Erasmus students come from, the majority are Spanish, but there are also French, British and German students there.
Indeed, celebrations are currently being held for the twentieth anniversary of the Erasmus program with a large number of shows in the Region, in Bologna and Rimini (www.ventidierasmus.eu).
Among the other universities and colleges that attract human resources from abroad, there is the American Johns Hopkins University, that has been in Bologna since 1955. In recent years, the university has hosted on average 185 students a year, of whom around 50% are American, while the remainder are largely from Europe, with an increase in students from Eastern Europe and Africa.
Relations with China are also on the increase. In Bologna, Chinese students can take advantage of a welcoming and integration system that has as its hub the College of China Association, founded in 2005. Top-level courses, study scholarships and help with accommodation make the area of Emilia-Romagna attractive, not to mention the job opportunities in a system of companies that is strengthening its ties with the Chinese economy.
One example is given by the advanced training course for Chinese engineers to work in Italian companies, promoted this year for the first time and fully financed by the Emilia-Romagna Region and by Api Bologna, as a result of the Agreement Protocol signed in January, 2007 by the Regional Councillor for Production Work, Duccio Campagnoli, and the Vice-chancellor of the University of Tongji Wan Gang.
Furthermore, just through the measure for attracting Chinese students of the national Marco Polo Program (run by Crui), in 2005-2006, 424 students came to Italy, 71 of whom studied at the universities and colleges in the region. It is still a small number, but it is constantly on the increase.
Another opportunity for students from countries outside Europe tostudy in Italy is the Overseas Program. The announcement of the University of Bologna for 2007-2008plans for 180 exchange posts with universities in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, China, Japan and Russia, and is aimed at students who wish to spend one semester or a full academic year at a university outside Europe.
