“Young Europeans say thank you”: Sofia Corradi, creator of the Erasmus program, dies at 91

The Italian Sofia Corradi, creator of the European Erasmus program that allowed millions of young people to study in other European countries, died in Rome at the age of 91, local media reported this Saturday, October 18.

Her family, who announced her death according to media reports, described the academic as a woman “of great energy and great intellectual and emotional generosity.”

“Mother Erasmus”

A professor of education at the University of Rome 3, Corradi – nicknamed “Erasmus Mom” ​​- obtained a prestigious American Fulbright scholarship during her studies that took her to Columbia University in New York, where she obtained a master’s degree in law. When his American degree was not recognized by the Italian education system upon his return, he proposed an exchange program, which he eventually launched in the European Union in 1987.

Since then, some 16 million students have participated in the program, according to the Erasmus website. The programme, managed by the EU, promotes closer cooperation between universities and higher education centers across Europe. Sofia Corradi said in 2018 that the idea of ​​the program, born during the Cold War, was her “personal pacifist mission.”

“She had dreamed of a youth meeting”

The Rome-born academic conducted research on the right to education for the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the Hague Academy of International Law and the London School of Economics (LSE). For the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, who attributes to her “the birth of Generation Europe”, she “inspired the lives of millions of young people who traveled, studied and embraced different cultures.”

“I had dreamed of a European youth that meets and is enriched by its differences. Millions of students owe it a piece of life and a horizon,” reacted French President Emmanuel Macron in X. “Generations of young Europeans thank it,” added French Minister Delegate for European Affairs, Benjamin Haddad.

Her funeral will take place this Monday, October 20, in Rome, in the parish of Santa Giovanna Antida Thouret, the family indicates, in a site dedicated to Sofia Corradi.