A delegation from Sapienza University, headed by Rector Gaudio, is currently on an academic visit to China. During the course of the mission, held in concomitance with the Beijing International Forum for Silk Road participants, including Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, the Wuhan Italian-Chinese Institute was inaugurated on April 26. The institute, which was founded in China by Sapienza and the Wuhan Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (one of the only six Chinese universities assigned a “double excellence”). The institute, which is funded by China, will host the first Sapienza Masters Programme in European Studies in China on Private Comparative Law. All programme courses will be held in English at the Wuhan Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (ZUEL).

Top-level representatives from both universities attended the inauguration ceremony, including the two Rectors, Eugenio Gaudio for Sapienza University and Yang Canming for ZUEL. The Sapienza delegation included Deputy Rector for International Relations, Bruno Botta; Sapienza Delegate for China, Federico Masini; the President of the Chinese Degree Programme, Luca Di Donna; Professor Emeritus of Roman Law and Roma Law Pioneer in China, Sandro Schipani, and Oliviero Diliberto, Professor of Roman Law at Sapienza University  and President of the new Italo-Chinese Institute.

The cultural and scientific initiative is part of the ongoing international cooperation drive between the two countries inaugurated last month with the visit of President Xi Jinping for Italy’s participation in the Silk Road Initiative.

The extraordinarily successful mission of the Sapienza delegation to China was concluded, following the public inauguration ceremony for the new degree programme at the Wuhan Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, with the nomination of Rector Gaudio as honoris causa professor at the Chinese university. This is the first time that an illustrious medicine scholar receives a recognition from a faculty of Law and Economics. This once again confirms the prestige that Sapienza University enjoys in China and the foresight of the Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in extending and reinforcing its collaboration with Sapienza University.