From Erasmus to Erasmus Plus: a Window on the Mediterranean
As the Erasmus celebrates its 30th anniversary, the University of Catania (International Mobility Office and Foreign Languages and Literature Didactic Unit) are joining in the celebration on October 10th 2017 in Ragusa.
The so-called event "Da Erasmus ad Erasmus Plus: una finestra sul Mediterraneo" is a part of the entire international programme envisaged by the 30th anniversary of the Erasmus project. Discussions will focus on core issues and values such as the scientific and cultural relationship between Europe and the Mediterranean.
As a result of the whole European integration process, with a particular emphasis on outreach efforts at the international level, Erasmus+ has now become the most widely recognised EU’s programme involving nearly 2 million people who have been moving around and beyond Europe just between 2014 and 2016. What started as a simple student mobility tool in 1987, it has indeed grown into something bigger, inspiring some 9 million people who have actually been directly involved in it. Not to mention the indirect impact it has had on so many others up until today. Erasmus+ has been created accordingly, which is why this platform aims to bring people from different cultural backgrounds all together developing the right set of skills and abilities for them to live independently and fulfil the ideal of the European mobility through the international cooperation. When being hosted by a foreign university, the beneficiaries find a rightful place in society by experiencing and developing all of us together the notion of a European identity blended with a great touch of cultural uniqueness.
The 30th Anniversary of the Erasmus programme happen to be at the same time as the 60th Anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which is another landmark for the European integration, promoting a much closer unification with other European countries. In a sense, both anniversaries are supposed to remind us that a common goal has been achieved. It is indeed worth celebrating the year 2017 as the year for the Erasmus+ programme to be at the highest point of its success and, as a matter of fact, a good number of other European events will be taking place throughout the whole year. Amongst them, the city as well as the University of Catania do have the pleasure to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Erasmus programme by hosting in Ragusa 180 people including students from within (coming back from their respective mobility), Erasmus students from abroad, visiting scholars and staff management.
Our event
On this occasion all the participants shall be invited to taste and enjoy typical Sicilian food and drinks. In the morning, a formal welcome will be given to them by some of our institutional and local authorities. They will then have lunch and will be going on a sightseeing excursion around Ragusa, to see its most lovely and interesting spots.
In order to select the participants for this particular event, some kind of a competition has been scheduled too where some participants among scholars and students who took part in the Erasmus project of the University of Catania will be also chosen for the discussion of a few cases in point.