the spiritual mother of Erasmus, the European student exchange programme, or, in the words of Umberto Eco, “that thing where a Catalan boy goes to study in Belgium, meets a Flemish girl, falls in love with her, marries her, and starts a European family.”
Sustrik points out that none of the glowing obituaries for her mention the sheer scale of Erasmus. The Fulbright in the US is the 2nd largest comparable program, but it’s a very distant second:
So far, approximately sixteen million people have taken part in the exchanges. That amounts to roughly 3% or the European population. And with the ever growing participation rates the ratio is going to get even gradually even higher.
Is short, this thing is HUGE.
Sustrik argues that the Erasmus programme is gargantuan-scale social engineering done right:
Substantial portion of students actually does want to spend some time abroad. It’s no different from the Western European marriage pattern, where young people left their parental homes to work as servants, farmhands, or apprentices before they married and set up their own households.
The much-maligned idea of social engineering, in this case, doesn’t mean forcing people to do something they don’t want to do. It means removing the obstacles that prevent them from doing what they already want.
Before Erasmus, studying abroad was seen as having fun rather than as serious academic work, something to be punished rather than rewarded. Universities were reluctant to recognize studies completed elsewhere. Erasmus, with its credit transfer system, changed that and thus unleashed a massive wave of student exchanges.
The backstory to how Sofia came to focus on Erasmus is touching:
In 1957, in her fourth year of studies, she received the opportunity to study in the United States thanks to a Fulbright scholarship. She spent a year at Columbia University where she attended a master’s course in comparative university legislation.[3][4] Upon her return to Rome in 1958, however, her degree was not recognised by the Italian educational system.[4][5] She recalled how she felt humiliated in front of other students as her time in the US was dismissed as a “vacation”, and how a functionary had told her “Columbia, you say? I’ve never heard of that before”.[5][6] She had to spend an extra year to obtain her Italian degree.[5] The experience led her to the idea of creating a system of recognition of courses taken abroad and the promotion of university exchanges.[5][7]
Such ideas had already been put forward in Italy, but without any concrete results.[7] After graduating Corradi pursued research on the right to education at the United Nations and became a scientific consultant for the Association of Rectors of Italian Universities at the age of 30.[5][6] It was a post she gained in part to her diploma from Columbia, and she used her position to lobby intensively for her idea of a university exchange programme and mutual recognition. … (more on Wikipedia)
I’ve previously wondered what a shortlist of people who’ve beneficially impacted the world at the scale of ~100 milliBorlaugs might look like, and suggested Melinda & Bill Gates and Tom Frieden. (A “Borlaug” is a unit of impact I made up, it means a billion lives saved.) If you buy Corradi’s argument that the Erasmus programme is at heart really a peace programme and that it deserves some credit for the long period of relative peace we’ve experienced globally post-WWII, then Sofia Corradi seems eminently deserving of inclusion.
Gemini 3 Pro’s attempt to visualise Sofia Corradi’s beneficial impact in Shapley value terms:
Let’s define our terms:
Y-Axis: “Level of European Youth-Driven Integration” (0-100%)
This is not economic integration (like the Euro) or political integration (like the Parliament).
It specifically measures the socio-cultural intermingling, mutual understanding, and reduction of nationalistic stereotypes among young Europeans. This is the “peace program” aspect.
It starts at a low baseline post-WWII, as even with the EEC, borders remained strong culturally.
X-Axis: Time (1950 − 2025)
Key Event 1: Treaty of Rome (1957) - Establishes the EEC. A step towards economic integration, but limited youth movement.
Key Event 2: Erasmus Program Launch (1987) - The crucial inflection point.
Key Event 3: Schengen Agreement (1995) - Eliminates internal border checks. Facilitates Erasmus, but Erasmus already laid the cultural groundwork.
Key Event 4: Euro Adoption (1999/2002) - Further economic integration, making cross-border life easier.
Now, let’s plot two scenarios:
“Actual Timeline: With Corradi & Erasmus” (Solid Blue Line): Represents the observed trajectory of youth integration.
“Counterfactual Timeline: Without Corradi & Delayed Erasmus” (Dashed Red Line): This is where we attribute Corradi’s Shapley value.
Delayed Launch: As argued, without her tireless 30-year lobbying, a pan-European student exchange might have emerged, but likely much later (e.g., 2002).
Fragmented Design: Even if it launched, it would likely have been a collection of bilateral agreements, lacking the standardized credit transfer (her key design contribution). This means a slower, less efficient ramp-up of integration.
The “Area Between the Curves” will visually represent Sofia Corradi’s Shapley Value, showing the accelerated and enhanced integration due to her efforts.
Thanks for sharing this. I did an Erasmus exchange year in Italy in 2010-11 that was very important for my personal growth, although it was not particularly beneficial professionally or academically.
I just learned via Martin Sustrik about the late Sofia Corradi,
Sustrik points out that none of the glowing obituaries for her mention the sheer scale of Erasmus. The Fulbright in the US is the 2nd largest comparable program, but it’s a very distant second:
Sustrik argues that the Erasmus programme is gargantuan-scale social engineering done right:
The backstory to how Sofia came to focus on Erasmus is touching:
I’ve previously wondered what a shortlist of people who’ve beneficially impacted the world at the scale of ~100 milliBorlaugs might look like, and suggested Melinda & Bill Gates and Tom Frieden. (A “Borlaug” is a unit of impact I made up, it means a billion lives saved.) If you buy Corradi’s argument that the Erasmus programme is at heart really a peace programme and that it deserves some credit for the long period of relative peace we’ve experienced globally post-WWII, then Sofia Corradi seems eminently deserving of inclusion.
Gemini 3 Pro’s attempt to visualise Sofia Corradi’s beneficial impact in Shapley value terms:
Thanks for sharing this. I did an Erasmus exchange year in Italy in 2010-11 that was very important for my personal growth, although it was not particularly beneficial professionally or academically.
Quite interesting!