Peace programme

Since November 2009 the University of Foggia has joined the UNESCO Peace Programme of academic cooperation with the Palestinian universities, that was taken at an international solidarity conference convened by several European universities - members of the Coimbra Group - at the University of Sienna in August 1991, when most Palestinian universities were closed. PEACE is based on the principles of the right to education and the right to culture. The Network counts at present (March 2010) 61 members: 50 European and 11 Palestinian universities. It cooperates closely with the major NGOs of higher education: the International Association of Universities (IAU) the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP), the European Association of Universities (EAU), the Association of Arab Universities (AARU), the Community of Mediterranean Universities (CUM), etc. As an interuniversity network which seeks to promote international academic cooperation with the Palestinian universities, PEACE focuses its action on those areas in which international cooperation has made full proof of its efficiency, notably by contributing to raising the quality, efficiency and relevance of teaching and research at Palestinian universities and enhancing their institutional and staff development. This is accomplished mainly by facilitating study abroad for Palestinian graduate students and for young academics who are able to upgrade their training and return to teach at their universities of origin. It also facilitates staff exchanges and helps set up academic programmes at Palestinian universities. In keeping with the spirit which led to its foundation, PEACE seeks to play also a much wider role as a means of international opening for the Palestinian universities, of overcoming difficulties and isolation and of removing entrenched tensions and animosities that have accumulated during long years of turmoil. The PEACE programme pursues these goals in a spirit of genuine academic solidarity, with the aspiration to make a contribution - as suggested by its acronym - to the peace process in the Middle East.