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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol.7, No.10

Publication Date: October 25, 2020

DOI:10.14738/assrj.710.9168.

Garito, M. A. (2020). Uninettuno University for Refugees: A Model of Network for an Education without Boundaries. Advances in Social

Sciences Research Journal, 7(10) 454-466.

Uninettuno University for Refugees: A Model of Network for an

Education without Boundaries

Maria Amata Garito

International Telematic University, Uninettuno

ABSTRACT

In the European countries, and especially in Italy, one of the hardest

challenges we are facing these days is the escalating crisis of migrants

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 lecturers 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 168 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, that will be presented in this paper)

allowing refugees and migrants to access the University for free from

any place across the world, providing services like: Recognition of the

study title, Recognition of Professional Skills, Language Learning

courses, Health Services, Mutual Rights and Duties. This initiative,

launched in 2016, became a true laboratory of intercultural and

interlingual communication that promotes a truly effective model of

cooperation and inclusion with refugees and students from different

parts of the world.

Key words: distance university, e-learning, migration, social integration,

intercultural dialogue

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URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.710.9168 455

Garito, M. A. (2020). Uninettuno University for Refugees: A Model of Network for an Education without Boundaries. Advances in Social Sciences Research

Journal, 7(10) 454-466.

INTRODUCTION

Today, more than ever, in the turmoil of the contemporary world, characterized by a technological

revolution, affecting all countries, and by a large migration stream involving, above all, Europe, our

society, on its overall, needs to learn a new culture of civil coexistence and the Universities can offer

humankind the cultural instruments that help living and acting in more and more globalized and

interconnected society. Regardless of their race, religion, social status, in their own lives, all people

of the world share common aspirations such as those of living in peace and security, of receiving an

education and have a decent job, love their own family and foster their own community, their own

traditions, their own values or their own religions. These are the same hopes shared by the whole

humankind, in our common home which is our Earth planet. Getting aware of our common

belonging is only the starting-point of our undertaking; becoming global citizens, thanks to

appropriate educational policies, should be the commitment of humankind in the XXI Century.

In the global squares of the Internet, people from the whole world communicate with each other,

but, because of migration, many are the countries whose physical squares are full of populations

who are no longer homogeneous in terms of ethnicity and culture. It is a truly landmark revolution

that challenges our balances, our certainties, no longer bound to a single country, to a single nation.

It is indeed the Universities that must give rise to a new educational model in which, thanks to

shared curricula, different cultures are confronted in the purpose of:

• Enlarging knowledge;

• Making cultural, religious and political differences being respected;

• Making a fair use of new technologies and of new languages;

• Developing professional skills and general cultural competences;

• Helping people to successfully cope with the complexity of diversity.

The Universities should made available both their real and virtual spaces, where people of different

nationality, religion and culture are able to produce new knowledge through research work and

spread it though their teaching activities. Together, they must meet the educational needs of a

globalized world, interconnected, though sharply divided. And, when I speak about universities, I

mean all universities in the South and the North, West and East of the World. We should not forget

the economic, cultural and social value that Universities have had since their origins; it is just from

there that Europe’s cultural growth began and also in the Arab World Countries where, historically,

the first universities were established, such as the University of Fez, in Morocco in 859 and the

University of Al-Azhar in Cairo, born in 975. (Garito, 2017).

In the Middle Ages all the universities were open to people of all nationalities and they represented

a transnational network. Young people felt that, in order to get a valuable intellectual and scientific

education, they needed to attend some universities, and for this reason they faced exhausting

journeys on foot or on horseback to be able to attend the lectures of law of Prof. Irnerio at the

University of Bologna or the lectures of Saint Thomas at the University of Paris; what moved them

was the reputation of the Master, as well as their personal interest in the discipline. For centuries

masters and learners have been producing and spreading knowledge, encouraging the rise of new

ideas, keeping constantly alive the spiritual unity of Europe; moving from one town to another they

contributed to the development of a culture without boundaries. Most of the Universities were born

with the aim, which is still prevailing, of creating and spreading knowledge. In the Middle Ages each

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol.7, Issue 9, September-2020

University was a separated entity, and all together they made up a European network of students,

teachers and knowledge (Garito, 2005).

The Universities have always been the melting pots of international identities and of respect for

differences, makers of the most creative chapters of history. And today more than ever, in the

turmoil of the contemporary world, the Universities can still play an essential role in the progress

of humankind. Global challenges require an equally global response in order to educate all of the

citizens and ensure social security in an increasingly interconnected world.

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE XXI CENTURY — A NECESSARY TRANSFORMATION: THE

INTERNATIONAL TELEMATIC UNIVERSITY UNINETTUNO

The mission of the University has always been to improve and develop mankind and now,

regardless of nationality, race, color or gender, the Internet technology can ensure that everyone

can access knowledge and that everyone can contribute to the education of the global citizen. The

new places of access to knowledge can be anywhere: on a PC, on smartphones or on tablets, anybody

can access knowledge with no limits of space and time. In this new framework, the Universities must

be capable of finding a new identity of their own, an identity capable of enriching humankind with

the knowledge and learning provided by the institutions that are responsible for delivering them.

It is from these beliefs that the International Telematic University was born, replacing the

Universities’ physical buildings with technological infrastructures that allowed to develop a new

psycho-pedagogic teaching model and a new knowledge production and delivery system. The

creation of the new model of Digital University required radical transformations of its

organizational, teaching and, consequently teaching and learning model.

The UNINETTUNO University had to change the role and functions of the lecturers and of the

professors, its physical structures, classrooms, research laboratories, the actual places shared by

the students, all its teaching and learning processes. The interactions between lecturers and

students and among the students themselves take place in the didactic cyberspace of

UNINETTUNO’s platform, on www/uninettunouniversity.net with over 30,000 students coming

from 168 different countries across the world who are enrolled in the 31-degree courses offered by

UNINETTUNO and in the many master’s courses.

The Didactic Cyberspace makes available nearly 90,000 hours of academic videolessons, digitized

and linked to the subjects of the various courses, realized by professors coming from different

Universities of the world in many languages (Italian, Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese,

Russian, Chinese, Greek, Moldavian, Georgian). For each issue of the videolessons, the same

professors realized texts, multimedia educational materials, exercises, webographies, virtual

laboratories for a total amount of 10 million of digital educational materials.

The teaching, organizational and technological model and the Web-based learning environments of

the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO are the outcome of more than 25 years of

research carried out at international level, related to the application of information and

communication technologies to face-to-face and distance teaching and learning processes. The

results of these research activities allowed to produce theoretical knowledge and practices

promoting a fair balance between technological-engineering and cognitive, methodological, cultural

and educational aspects and on these bases we realized the Didactic Cyberspace.