In October 2024, two Laurea Information and Publishing Services experts participated in an exchange week for university library staff organised by the IUAV University of Venice through the Erasmus+ programme. In this article, we report on our key observations regarding the factors that link Laurea and IUAV: the PIONEER cooperation, the sustainability activities and the commonalities of the pedagogical approaches of our two universities.
IUAV in a nutshell
Founded in 1926, Università Iuav di Venezia (IUAV) is a university in Venice where you can study architecture, urban planning, fashion and performing arts. The university has several impressive campus buildings in the historic city of Venice (IUAV 2024a.). The university library and the main campus are located in an old cotton mill on the edge of Tolentini Square, in the Santa Croce district (Figure 1).
The IUAV has just over four thousand students, with around 160 incoming international exchange students and around 380 outgoing students each year. In total, there are about 790 members of staff (IUAV 2024a.)
Laurea and IUAV launching cooperation – what do we have in common?
Shortly after we had applied for the exchange, we received the news that the European Commission had granted a 4-year developmental funding to the PIONEER Alliance. IUAV and Laurea are both PIONEER universities. The PIONEER Alliance is a strategic partnership of 10 European higher education institutions with the aim of promoting sustainable urban development. The members of the Alliance are united by their interest in education and research, development and innovation (RDI) (PIONEER 2024). It was great for us to visit the partner university and get to know the partners at this early stage, knowing that the PIONEER Alliance will officially start its cooperation in January 2025.
Sustainable development at the heart of teaching and research
Higher education institutions have an important role to play in promoting sustainable development by training the talent of the future to find solutions to sustainability challenges (Žalėnienė & Pereira 2022). For both Laurea and IUAV, sustainable development is a cross-cutting dimension of their activities. IUAV promotes sustainable development through its research projects on sustainability, climate change, ecological transition, reconstruction of areas affected by disasters, etc. Venice is a unique environment to address cultural and urban sustainability (Gatto 2024; IUAV 2024a.).
Maria Gatto from International Services at IUAV, told about the university’s sustainability activities during the exchange week. The IUAV coordinates the Green Train Consortium project, which is part of the European Green Deal initiative. The consortium provides its members with a network for sustainability-focused cooperation, training and opportunities for sustainable international mobility. In the everyday life of the university, sustainability is visible through the recycling of books and the sale of leftover food in the name of the ”Too good to go” campaign (Gatto 2024).
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