The cooperation agreement between the Department of Music Studies of the Ionian University and the corresponding one of the University of Alabama was “stamped” today, Friday, during the meetings held by representatives of the two educational institutions in Corfu.

The nine-member delegation of the University of Alabama arrived on the island today, with the aim of having a more detailed discussion on possible collaborations, at a research level first.

This is the second visit of a delegation of the American university to Corfu and as the rector of the Ionian University, Andreas Floros, told APE-MBE, the discussions aimed to find with which departments a more institutional dialogue can be established, in order to expand cooperation in educational level, where various issues will have to be addressed, such as the recognition of credit units and the courses to be taught.

“We have launched an initiative, the Alabama Greece Initiative, which includes a network of Greek universities with which we wish to cooperate and which allows us to proceed with exchanges at the research level,” the vice-chancellor said for her part, speaking to APE-MPE of the University of Alabama for International Programs and Experiential Learning, Lisa Pawloski.

More specifically, the departments with which the collaboration is apparent, beyond the Music Studies department — “we are very excited about this collaboration,” said Ms. Poloski— are also the fields of Political Science in the part of International Relations and Tourism, Theological studies in the part of History and Digital Humanities, as well as Geology in the part of Environmental Studies.

“Within the context of this initiative, we might look at how we can do a multi-institutional curriculum, it’s something that will be seen from the discussions themselves and how they will evolve,” said Mr. Floros.

As part of the “Alabama Greece Initiative”, discussions have also taken place with the University of Western Macedonia, while the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki has already been part of the initiative’s network since 2011.

Ms. Poloski described Greek universities as “unique”, with a “wide range in the fields they treat”.

“We not only want to expand this initiative with the collaborations of the departments,” he noted, “but also to be able to convey the enthusiasm we have to our students and we hope that in the future our students will also be able to travel here, to meet here students and then to encourage Greek students to come to Alabama.”

According to Ms. Poloski, the goal is to formalize the agreements within the next year with the signing of memorandums of cooperation and to focus the discussions on one or two more specific actions, which will proceed to completion.

“Most likely they are related to the field of research”, he noted and added that the formalization and start of an international program of this nature will be possible after a year and a half.

It is worth noting that the University of Alabama is based in Tuskaloosa, has 38,000 students, treats 11 different academic fields and has 2,000 departments.

The rector of the Ionian University characterized the initiative as a “very positive move” and he seemed optimistic that in the future other universities from the USA will visit Corfu to explore possible partnerships.

“The operation of our office in New York has also played an important role in recent times”, he underlined.