An alliance of 24 Italian universities has created an internet portal for Italian language and culture studies, which, from the next academic year, will also become a "virtual university".
Italian Culture on the Net (Icon) will offer a variety of degree courses. The project is backed by the university ministry and the Italian foreign ministry.
Students worldwide will be able to "attend" lectures, study and take exams under the guidance of a tutor.
Non-degree courses, in language and other fields, are already available.
It is also possible to download 1,200 Italian literary classics, reproductions of work by Italian artists and pieces of Italian music, from Monteverdi and Vivaldi to pop classics.
The portal, available in English and Spanish, as well as Italian, leads to libraries, art archives, information on language courses and degree courses, and to the Enciclopedia Treccani , Italy's most prestigious encyclopedia.
There is an online Italian language test so that students can choose a course at the appropriate level. A number of foreign institutions, including King's College, London, are involved in designing the language courses.
Access to information and downloads are free. Degree courses will be priced at the equivalent of the lowest university fees of a student's native country. The portal is as "light" as possible, without elaborate graphics, for students using older computers.
The degree courses are modular with each module corresponding to seven hours of lectures and 18 hours of study. More than 100 academics have prepared 2,000 online lectures.
Details: www.italicon.it