What’s it like to study in Italy?
Following on from our posts about studying in France and Spain, we now share some experiences of students who have been abroad in Italy. There are currently undergraduate School Abroad opportunities at the Sapienza University of Rome, Bocconi University, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the University of Padua, the University of Turin and the University of Verona. More details on all such opportunities can be found here: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/csa-app/search.htm.
Ben Champion
Ben studied abroad at Bocconi University in Milan as part of his undergraduate degree in Management:
Studying Management at Bocconi was truly gripping: an opportunity to study at a world-class business school in the heart of Milan. Whether I was learning about Fintech and financial transformation or the strategy behind some of the world’s largest organisations, I would whole heartedly recommend the experience. Lecturers had first-hand knowledge in their field with top CEOs and tech pioneers often invited to speak and share their visions for the future. A community feel with interactive lectures and approachable staff, not an opportunity to miss!
Eleanor Crabtree
Eleanor spent a semester abroad at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice during her PhD in Italian:
I would highly recommend an Erasmus stay at a university abroad for any PhD students whose interest lie in foreign cultures. Being a scholar of the contemporary means that, unlike some of my colleagues, I have fewer concrete reasons to go and visit archives or other sites in Italy. However I found that spending a semester on Erasmus at Ca’ Foscari, and being surrounded by people who all have an opinion on contemporary Italy, allowed me to better contextualise my object of study, as well as to understand my own work in relation to that done by Italianists working with Italian academia. The Erasmus grant in addition to the smooth organisation of my stay on behalf of both universities also meant that I was able to use the period to begin my writing process, facilitated by the wealth of beautiful libraries to work in in Venice and the active cultural scene of the city and university.
Holger Kaasik
Holger studied abroad at the University of Siena as part of his PhD in Medieval History:
My PhD research is on medieval Italian manuscripts and so my time in the Università degli Studi di Siena was invaluable for conducting the wide-ranging archival work necessary for the project. In the process, I got to experience some truly amazing places. Taking a period to study abroad is something I can wholeheartedly recommend to any postgraduate student and researcher.
