Oxbridge sojourn sparks Italian bid for excellence

An independent "college", partly inspired by the Oxbridge model, is to open in Milan in January 2003 with the support of a consortium, the Italian branch of the Aspen Institute and eminent academics, including Umberto Eco.

About 120 students, selected on merit and enrolled in one of the main Milan universities, will live in the college and benefit from extra courses, tutoring, libraries and computer facilities, with the aim of creating a centre of excellence for all fields of study.

"Progetto Collegium" is the brainchild of a group of Italian doctoral students at Cambridge in the late 1990s.

"One evening in 1997 we were talking about our experiences in colleges in Cambridge," said Carlo Ratti, an engineer from Turin who is now a Fulbright fellow at the school of architecture and planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"We drew up a report on the college system in various countries, including Italy, where there are three examples with a long tradition. We sent this around and the response was good. Eco was very encouraging, as were other academics and institutions."

There are tentative projects for colleges similar to the Collegio di Milano in Pavia, Trento and other places. "The long-term plan is to launch the idea of colleges as centres of learning and excellence all over Italy," Mr Ratti said.

In Milan, the city is providing a building, while a consortium of 20 Lombardy-region companies has assured a total of €1 million a year for at least the first five years. The cost per student should be about €10,000 (£6,000) a year. There will be fees for those who can afford it and scholarships and loans for those who cannot.

"Obviously we do not expect this to solve all the problems of the Italian higher education system, but it should provide a positive input," Mr Ratti said.