Italian universities now offering courses in English: Ambassador Andreas Ferrarse

Newswire

Islamabad: Italy’s Ambassador to Pakistan Andreas Ferrarse has said that Italian universities were offering courses in English – a big attraction for the Pakistani students.
In an interview, the envoy said previously the Italian universities were teaching in the national language which was a hurdle to draw students from countries like Pakistan.

“Given that about 30,000-35,000 students go abroad to study every six months, countries are interested in attracting students from Pakistan. Until recent times, Italian universities taught in the national language, which was a bottleneck. But now more courses are being offered in English,” the Ambassador said.
He said Italy offered good public-sector universities that cost roughly as much as a degree from the Lahore University of Management Sciences or the Indus Valley School of Arts and Architecture.

However, the envoy said, Italy is still working on developing an infrastructure to process large volumes of students coming in. Sifting through actual students and those using education as a ploy to find a way into the country to settle and flip pizzas is an arduous labour-intensive task, the ambassador explained.
“While a foreign student is allowed to work 18 hours a week, they are not allowed to enter the job market on a student visa,” he maintained.

To a question, Ambassador Ferrarse recalled that twenty years ago, the salary in Pakistan was 10 percent of the Italian salary but now it was 45pc. “If you want a quality worker, you have to pay. At the same level of skills, the salary is not so much different.” Add to that the fact more people speak English here than in, say, Vietnam, he added.

The Ambassador continued: “When people think of Italy, they think of fashion. But our main voice in exports is robotics and machinery — all the textiles in China are made with our looms.”