Personal Erasmus Report University Roma Tre Cultural Leadership Research Master Programme
For this exchange, which is an obligatory part of my master’s programme, the courses Sustainability and Cultural Awareness of the Faculty of Economics, Heritage of the Faculty of Architecture and Media of the Faculty of Communications were created. For these courses we received subsequently 9, 6 and 6 ECTS. Although these were much more credits that were agreed upon at the beginning of the year (we needed only 15 to finish our first year of the master), the level of education was much lower than the Netherlands. This was not due to the quality of the teaching staff or the hours that were scheduled (which may even exceed the hours allowed by the amount of ECTS) but was mainly due to the fact that there was little space for theoretical dept or personal creativity in the courses. Something that is celebrated and encouraged in the Netherlands. Let me explain this in more dept.
The first course we took was Sustainability and Cultural Awareness by Prof. Sabina
Addamiano. She was also the head of the Cultural Leadership programme in Rome and our most helpful advisor and supporter. She was always there for us, day and night, with study and non-study related tips. Together with her master class of about 12 Italians Economic students, we attacked some difficult issues of the field of tourism in Italy. Mainly this revolved around a project for a big historical festival in Umbria (a region of Italy) and their need to renew their online personality without making more costs and a project with the challenge to exploit an historical site and parc just outside of Rome, while being culturally and environmentally aware. What was nice was the fact that these were both real case studies and that most of the classes were given by professionals all over the field. What was
disappointing was the fact that it was very practical and the level of English of the guest speakers and the other students was either non-existent or disappointingly low.
Second the course Heritage, which was given by Prof. Francesca Geremia and Prof. Luigi Franciosini. Although Franciosini is a brilliant man, his English was not sufficient enough to communicate any of this. Geremia tried to make up for this, but they mostly spend time talking at the same time, which didn’t help. In this course, which we took together with the other international students of the Architecture department of Roma Tre, we studied the Via Latina, one of the ancient roads that goes from Rome into the Italian countryside and thought of a plan to blow some new life in to this forgotten part of history. Here we were lucky that the international students at least spoke a little English, but the fact that we didn’t have a bachelor’s in architecture made it impossible to really contribute to the project. Especially because most of the prescribed texts were in Italian. What was nice about this course is that it consisted of a morning lecture and an afternoon field excursion, which meant walking a part of the road or visiting a heritage site.
Last, there was the course Media by the Communications Faculty. This was taught by Prof.
Elisa Giomi. In this class there were only two Italian students, and the only two Italians I ever heard speak proper English. Giomi, her assistant and the two Italian students were as keen to learn from us as we from them, which led to a really nice working environment. This class, compared to the others, felt like a breeze of fresh air. Finally, somewhere where the
assignments were at least mildly clear, and the teacher was understandable, and if not, there was someone to translate. We ended this course with only a paper, where the other courses were a paper and an oral presentation. The topic was landscape representation in the media and this topic, although limited, was provided with ample English literature. Only complaint
is that I would have liked more freedom in the topic, because Giomi discussed a lot of interesting things in the field of media other than landscape representation.
In general, I would say that studying in Italy is hard, because everything, really everything, is in Italian and mostly there is no-one to translate around. Second, I would warn for the Italian tempo, because life is slower, and Italians take their time to do things. You simply cannot expect the teacher to begin on time or the equipment to work or the schedule to be followed.
When you quickly learn some basics in Italian and try to go with the flow, however, you will be fine. Mind that the level of education is much lower, and you might, although you are at the university from 10 in the morning until 5 in the evening, find yourself very bored.
Learned nothing academically, but much on social skills. Finally, a tip: the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) of this university is very active and very nice. They have a dinner and a drink every Monday evening. You can then get a cocktail and dinner for only €6 and hear what bad karaoke songs sound like in countries all over Europe. I am really going to miss those people.
That ends my evaluation of Roma Tre. I would estimate that my expenses were around €1000 a month, but I didn’t have any room in Groningen to pay for. The food there is cheaper and the houses more expensive. The traffic is utterly chaotic, and the busses never go on time, but if you avoid the centre with the tourists, there are some nice parks where you can enjoy some leisure time. I would advice to search for a house either in Testaccio or Trastevere (and don’t let anybody tell you “it’s near this”, because it’s not). As long as you try to adapt to the lifestyle there you are fine. If you try and get everywhere Dutch early and eat only potatoes and meat you will have a horribly frustrating and incredibly expensive time.
As for the Erasmus offices of both universities and the staffs, I have never seen such bad communication between two organisations. Groningen didn’t know what was going on in Rome and vice versa, for Erasmus and the Cultural Leadership programme alike. This ruined most of the experience for me personally and I think also for my fellow students. In stead of enjoying the city, I spend free hours telephoning with teachers, emailing staff and visiting offices. There was, for instance, a leadership themed Spring School included, for which the students didn’t receive any credits, but were expected to show up 5 days in a row. Mostly the programme was evaluated, with some visits to local musea and lectures by Dutch and Italian professors.
This chaos was not expected in the beginning, because Roma Tre started our stay with a nice tour of the Economics faculty and explanation how to use the library etc. I want to end this with stating again that Prof. Addamiano and ESN were the heroes of this exchange. They were the people available for information and help, and I would advice for anyone to go on this exchange after me to use their wisdom and kindness to help you navigate your adventure.
