A Smart University for a Smart City

The use of technological devices has changed the way individuals interact with their university environment. This paper examines the use of a smart context as a link between individuals and their university environment through an exemplification of the urgent problems deriving from different domains and technological systems, as well as of information and communication devices employed in university teaching-learning contexts, to improve the quality of higher education and individuals’ cultural life. When does the university become “smart”? It is not sufficient that universities define themselves as smart places to underline the main challenges they must face in their efforts to become and remain smart. The article recognizes a university as a “smart” institution when it has its roots in the understanding and critical awareness of the basic knowledge, in the identification of the more realistic competencies and the search for the meanings of a “smart university community” that pursues high quality. The paper concludes with an account of the experience of the ICT Centre of the University of Ferrara, who try to achieve these goals, implies the adoption of innovative perspectives, and discusses the building of a new culture putting in the middle a “smart university” and its cultural principles.