Prato stands out not just as manufacturing district but also as a training and educational centre. It is the ideal place for hosting foreign universities, because it has an urban centre within the city walls that is completely closed to traffic, it combines the tradition of a great historical legacy with a propensity towards innovation and modernity in its cultural and entrepreneurial life, and it is a multicultural city with a lively social life.
Only here can we find, all within the space of a few kilometres inside a metropolitan area, institutions of educational and manufacturing excellence that represent the real added value of our district, making it stand out as an "evolved cultural district" (P. Sacco). Prato provides a unique opportunity, particularly for foreign fashion designers and operators, to study and work in an area with extraordinary relationships and synergies between the academic world and the entrepreneurial system.
The PRATO CAMPUS project aims to promote the Prato area as a place designed to accommodate training centres and university campuses from all over the world, particularly from areas with strong growth, such as China, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Russia and South America.
Prato already hosts foreign universities: Melbourne's MONASH University, which has its European base here, and the University of New Haven (UNH), USA, have made a significant contribution to the local community not just from the economic point of view but above all from a cultural, social and relational perspective.