Australian Catholic University opens its Rome campus to students from all over the world

Since 2015, the Australian Catholic University (ACU) has had a presence in Rome through the Rome Centre, run in partnership with the Catholic University of America. From Tuesday 22 September, the university is embarking on a new phase: for the first time, the centre is opening its doors to students from all over the world, offering research, executive education and international collaborations throughout the year.

According to ACU, applications from Australian students for the semester in Rome have risen by 590 per cent over four years. This development places it amongst the three Australian universities with a established presence in Europe, alongside Monash (Prato) and RMIT (Barcelona).

There are more than 30 courses, ranging from economics and business to European Union law, from psychology to the history of ancient Rome, with basic and intermediate Italian. The first executive programmes will focus on artificial intelligence and ‘human flourishing’: according to executive Julie Cogin, ‘the most important questions, however, remain the human ones’. These will be followed by courses on leadership, the protection of vulnerable people and the future of work.