A University for Refugees: Education without Boundaries

Maria Amata Garito

(Professor Emeritus of Psychotechnologies, Rector and President, International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, Rome, Italy)

Abstract: One of the hardest challenges in European countries, and especially in Italy, we are facing these days is the escalating crisis of immigrants and refugees coming from the Arab World and Sub-Saharan Africa countries. The history of universities tells us that the first Universities realized a networked model in which students shaped their own study path, moving from one institution to another across Europe in order to attend the lectures by the best professors from different Universities. The Medieval higher education system, therefore, acted as a bridge between different cultures, fostering knowledge exchange, sharing and construction based on a networked organizational model, and an educational model promoting discussions and debates (questio and disputatio). Nowadays, ICT technologies, and above all the Internet, allow Universities to re-create a network of knowledge and of students and professors, sharing experiences and competences from different social and cultural backgrounds. The International Telematic University UNINETTUNO developed and implemented an internalization model and a psycho-pedagogic model, whose main characteristics are described in this paper, promoting the collaboration among Universities from the United States, Europe, Asia and above all from the Arab World countries. Through this collaborations, UNINETTUNO developed the first higher education portal in the world which is available in 5 languages (Italian, English, French, Arabic and Greek), enrolled students from 163 countries of the world. The success of these international cooperation activities inspired UNINETTUNO in the creation of an Internet-based portal — The University for Refugees — Education without Boundaries — allowing refugees and immigrants to access the University for free from any place across the world and this will be presented in this paper.

Key words: refugees and migrants, higher education, recognition models, internationalization, distance university