European University Institute's renaissance thinking

By Jack Grove. Entering the European University Institute has echoes of stepping back in time to one of the early monastic seats of higher education.
Its hub, housed in a Medici-era church and monastery, sits high in the hills above Florence in San Domenico di Fiesole. Today the ancient cloisters are paced by serious-minded young scholars deep in thought or the occasional visiting Dominican priest.
With few distractions in this secluded academic outpost, the life of the scholar appears to have changed little since Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron in a nearby villa in the 14th century.
However, despite its similarities to the early centres of learning that would evolve into Europe's oldest universities, the EUI could justifiably claim to be one of the continent's most dynamic, modern centres of higher education.
Established in 1976 by the European Union, the non-denominational institution is one of just a handful of genuinely "international" universities not linked to the academic traditions or governmental demands of a single country.
That is partly down to the institute's "denationalised" funding model, in which about 20 EU member states finance a number of social science PhD students each year, with the EU picking up the bill for administration costs and the rent of premises. Read more...