The Chancellor of the University of Naples L’Orientale, Prof Roberto Tottoli, and Italy’s Consul General Danilo Giurdanella visited the Institute of Business Administration and Karachi University on the invitation of the IBA.
The visit highlights the Italian consulate’s efforts to strengthen academic exchanges and cooperation.
L’Orientale University of Naples has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Karachi, which was signed in 2022 and is envisaging establishing long-term cooperation with the IBA.
Prof Tottoli’s expertise lies in Arabist studies, Islamic history and Quranic manuscript traditions. L’Orientale University also has a Department of Urdu Language and Culture.
CG Danilo Giurdanella accompanied Chancellor Tottoli to meet both the vice chancellors of the IBA and the University of Karachi to discuss further possibility of cooperation.
The growing interest of students in Sindh and Balochistan in pursuing higher education in Italy is increasing, with over 600 students from Sindh and Balochistan having gone to Italy for graduate, postgraduate, and doctorate degree programmes in the past year. The university portal provides a step by step guidelines for students to access top universities in Italy.
The Italian system of higher education includes around 144 institutions, most of them being public sector universities imparting excellence in research and education. Four out of ten oldest universities in the world are Italian and these are the University of Bologna (1088), the University of Padua (1222), the “Federico II” University of Naples (1224), and the University of Siena (1240).
The influx of Pakistani students into Italy has significantly increased during the last few years as leading universities in Italy offer degree programmes taught in English and hence has become a popular destination for higher education.
The exchanges between Italian and Pakistani universities have been primarily in the fields of natural sciences, engineering, medicine and technology with several top Italian universities engaged in Pakistan.
With the visit of Prof Tottoli to Karachi, besides academic cooperation in varied discourses and disciplines, the consulate of Italy in Karachi is aiming for bilateral promotion of Italian and Urdu languages between Italian and Pakistani universities that aims to promote teaching of the Italian language in Sindh and the promotion of the Urdu language in Italy.
The Italian Consulate in Karachi has since long promoted university cooperation between Italy and Pakistan, as evidenced by a sizable and growing number of Pakistani students who choose Italy as their destination for higher education as well as by the joint-research projects undertaken with benefits for both countries.
