Establishing the American University of Sicily as a Laboratory for Innovation. I have been leading an effort to establish the American University of Sicily out of scratch. What can be differently? AUSI is not a commercial enterprise. It is first and foremost, an institution of higher learning and research. As a private nonprofit university association, it shares the same objectives and characteristics as many sister universities in the US.

AUSI is dedicated to effective teaching, student learning achievement, research that broadens knowledge and service that benefits our communities and one another.

I have been 20 years in higher education in the region, part of it in Italy, part of it in Palestine and in other countries. I am very well experience both in higher education and well-grounded in international accreditation not just in one country, and I have worked extensively throughout the region and I concluded that there was a need that was not met, I had the opportunity to see the niche that is unfilled. AUSI IS DESIGNED TO FILL that niche that’s missing from the Mediterranean area.

We are still in the early stages OF DEVELOPMENT and we still have much more to do, but we believe and work to create educative networks that PROVIDE REAL BENEFITS (enough thinking about one of our activities during COVID-19 where we got more than 80 international universities involved with high profile academics to produce Siracusa Document (which you can find in 4 languages)… It was historic event…)

Sami Basha – Fulbright to Italy 2014