Mediterranean Network of Universities

The Mediterranean Network of Universities (MedNet'U, Mediterranean Network of University) is the predecessor to the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO.

It was funded by the European Commission in the framework of the EUMEDIS Programme and coordinated by NETTUNO - Network per l’Università Ovunque. It saw the participation of 11 Mediterranean Countries (Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Tunisia, Jordan, Greece, France, Italy, Morocco and Syria), and the following results were obtained:

1. The design of two common curricula in the Engineering area according to the lines indicated in the Bologna and Sorbonne processes (three years of basic studies plus two specialisation years).
2. The production, in four languages (Arabic, English, French and Italian) of all the modules of the degree course in Information and Communication Engineering and in Mechanical Engineering
3. The training of teachers, tutors and technical staff strictly related to the competences and skills needed in distance education
4. The realisation of networked structure based on transmitting and receiving bi-directional satellite technologies, set up at the 11 Production Centres and 31 Technological Poles, at the Mediterranean Partner Universities’ sites: it is the only bi-directional distance teaching network existing n the Euro-Mediterranean Area;
5. The development of a didactic platform based on Internet via satellite, in four languages – the only one worldwide Arabic, French, English and Italian – and the availability on the satellite channel, RAI NETTUNO SAT 1, of an area entirely devoted to the broadcasting in four languages of the videolessons realised by the professors of the universities of the Arab World and of Europe.

Med Net’U takes origin from the model of NETTUNO. Today the governments of the partner countries support the development of Med Net’U from project to system: support for this process was expressed in the context of the Third Catania Conference for the creation of Euro-Mediterranean Area for Higher Education (27 to 29 January 2006), during which 14 Ministers of Higher Education of various Mediterranean Countries undersigned a joint declaration to start up new relationships aimed at “strengthening the distance learning system, by expanding the results attained through the Med Net’U Project, in order to encourage the widest possible access to education and training in a perspective of lifelong learning”.

The shift from the Med Net’U Project to the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO has been concretised by the conclusion of academic agreements with some universities of the Arab World and of the Middle East, belonging to countries such as Egypt (Helwan University and Cairo University), Jordan (Yarmouk University and Jordan University of Science and Technology) and Tunica (Tunis Virtual University) and the Ministry of Education and Training of Morocco (SEFT - Secrétariat d’Etat chargé de la Formation Professionnelle of Morocco).

The MedNet'U web site is at http://www.consorzionettuno.it/mednetu/e/main.asp?id=010001010100000001000000010300000000

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