The University of Florence at the Festival d’Europa

11 February 2011 – Travelling, training and researching in Europe. The University of Florence participates to the Festival d’Europa 2011 with a programme of meetings, lectures, seminars and workshops on the role of the European Union for the support to research, training and student mobility. During the event, the University of Florence, with the support of the European University Institute, will offer to the public, as well as to university and secondary school students, a broad programme of initiatives to disseminate information about EU activities in these fields and about the international activities of the University. Since 1999, the University of Florence has been recognised by the European Union as a “European University” for its specialization in the sector. Public meetings will focus on five topics: research project financed by the European Union and by other European Institutions, training to European integration, European fellowship for higher education, teacher and student mobility in Europe, and a debate on the cost of a “no” to Europe. This final topic will be debated on the 6th of May in the lecture “European Union: how we can overcome the impasse” by Giuliano Amato, who will speak at the Faculty of Political Sciences “Cesare Alfieri”. Such topics will also be presented on boards placed in the main areas of Florence devoted to the Festival, with the collaboration for their exposition from the students of the graduate course in Strategic Communication of Political Sciences. Moreover, during the Festival, students of the graduate course in International Relations and European Studies of the Faculty “Cesare Alfieri”, will offer the public a number of lectures on the main European topics, also presented to secondary school students of Florence within the event. “The European dimension has long become a profile of excellence in the University of Florence – stated Michele Papa, vice rector of the University of Florence – The extremely high number of research groups of the University of Florence winning competitions for European Commission financing, the strong attraction potential of Erasmus students and curricula focusing on topics on European integration are the main pillars of our international scope. The Festival d'Europa - maintained the vice rector - offers the occasion to strongly promote the role of higher education and of research as instruments to strengthen our European citizenship.”