20 refugee students awarding university corridors scholarships are in Italy since today, September 11
Thanks to the University Corridors for Refugees Project, twenty refugee students have awarded a scholarship and were welcomed in Rome this morning to continue their academic career in ten Italian universities.
The students, including a woman, come from Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They were selected through a public call on the basis of academic merit and motivation, by an academic committee appointed by each university. Once the mandatory quarantine period by the Covid-19 emergency is completed, students will start their university career at the universities of Cagliari, Florence, L'Aquila, Milan (Statale), Padua, Perugia, Pisa, Rome (Luiss) , Sassari, and Venice (IUAV).
The project has been promoted by Professor Stefania Varani (DIMES - Unibo) and involved: UNHCR Italy - UN Refugee Agency (project sponsor along with the University of Bologna), the Archdiocese of Bologna, the Regional Agency for the Right to Higher Education of Emilia-Romagna (ER.GO), Caritas Italiana, Federmanager Bologna and Ravenna, Gandhi Charity, Manageritalia Emilia Romagna, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), Next Generation Italy and the University of Mekelle (Ethiopia). The parties helped to create university corridors that allowed students with refugee status in Ethiopia to start their university studies, enrolling in master's degrees at the University of Bologna.
The pilot Project has successfully achieved its objectives and therefore partners have decided to create a second edition of the Project, aimed at allowing regular entry in Italy for university enrollment in a two-year master's degree for 20 refugee students (University Corridors for Refugees, UNICORE 2.0 (Ethiopia 2020-22)).
The University of Bologna will support the current Project in the coordination activities, thanks to the experience gained during the first pilot Project of the university corridors.
