VIS is partner of the  Master Cooperation and Development dell’Università di Pavia and has participated in its establishment in 1997 together with IUSS (Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori) and the NGOs CISP and COOPI, with the support of the at the time Direzione Generale Cooperazione allo Sviluppo del Ministero Affari Esteri. The Master di Pavia has been the first in its kind in Italy and is today the most recognized experience by the academic world and by the students looking for quality training combined with a professional outlet.

This result was also achieved thanks to a large international university network which has supported its teaching and fostered its international and multicultural dimension. At the same time as the Master, in fact, the Cooperation and Development Network (CDN) di Pavia was established which has associated several universities in the southern hemisphere in the promotion of Masters in development cooperation: the University of Bethlehem (Palestine), the Universidad de San Buenaventura a Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), the Kenyatta University a Nairobi (Kenya), the Mid Western University at Birendranagar (Nepal). The curricular structure and the contents of the Masters’ offered by these other four universities propose the setting and aims of the Pavia experience, with an adaptation to the cultural and socio-political peculiarities of the different geographical contexts.

A prestigious acknowledgment came from UNESCO, which granted the Masters of Pavia, Bethlehem, and Cartagena de Indias the prestigious brand «UNESCO UNITWIN Chair», the first acknowledgment of this kind granted to an Italian university.

VIS collaborates with the Facoltà di Architettura of the Università di Reggio Calabria in preparing students in the process of graduating who choose to present a thesis on Architecture for Developing Countries. The country most involved in recent years has been Senegal, where students and teachers have been welcomed and followed by VIS staff for an experience in research and field study.

VIS is partner of the Master in Cooperazione Internazionale of the Luiss Business School, a Master at University 1st level which aims to provide participants with the most important methodological and operational, technical and economic tools for planning, monitoring and controlling development cooperation project initiatives and humanitarian interventions. The collaboration with LUISS BS also extends to the possibility of welcoming the trainees of the Masters’ at VIS offices in Italy or abroad.

Since the 2019/2020 academic year, VIS has been responsible for the course in International Cooperation aimed at students of the second cycle of Licenza (Masters’ Degree) and the third cycle of the Dottorato della Facoltà di Scienze Sociali (FASS) of the Pontificia Università San Tommaso D’Aquino of Rome.

Università degli Studi Internazionali di Roma

Università La Sapienza

Università Roma Tre

Università di Bologna

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Università di Firenze, Dipartimento di Economia e Management