Università per Stranieri di Perugia
European Union Integration to Expand RoleThe Università per Stranieri di Perugia was established in the 1920s by Astorre Lupatelli, a well-known Perugian lawyer. He instituted courses for foreign students to foster their appreciation of what was then called "high culture," the cultural heritage of Umbria and of Italy in general. These courses were the germ of the University, which was chartered in 1925 and was soon installed in its present headquarters in Palazzo Gallenga Stuart (Count Romeo Gallenga, who donated the palace to Perugia, could claim a distant relationship with the Stuarts of Scotland).
Since then the University has expanded continuously. It has acquired additional building to accommodate classes and high-tech language labs, and it now owns the magnificent 16th-century Villa La Colombella, located on a fine hilltop site in the countryside a few miles outside Perugia and fitted out as a conference center. The institution's headquarters in Perugia have become the hub of a network of activities related to its specific expertise and to European Union integration.
Chancellor Paola Bianchi De Vecchi weighs the University's role in the broader European dimension of language education. "We are the sole Italian member of the Association of Language Testers in Europe, an organization that is developing common European standards of language proficiency and testing. And through the Campus and Socrates scholarship programs, the University participates in the exchange of students and teachers throughout the European Union."
Moving beyond Europe's boundaries, the Università per Stranieri di Perugia has developed programs of cooperation with universities in North and South America, Asia, and Australia. In 1998, either directly or through other institutional channels such as cooperating universities, Italian embassies and Italian Cultural Institutes abroad, the University awarded scholarships to almost three hundred students form fifty-eight countries. Additional scholarships funded by private companies and benefactors were given to twenty-five students from fifteen countries.
Though the University's activities are still keenly focused on teaching Italian and on studying and promulgating the didactics of language education, it has branched out into related fields, offering three-year university-level diploma courses in Advertising Studies and Teaching Italian to Foreigners. A university-level course in international communications was instituted this year. Firmly anchored to the University's tradition are two new academic offerings, soon to be made available to students: a school of specialization in teaching Italian as a foreign language and a university degree course in the Italian language and culture.
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