Sofia Corradi

Sofia Corradi (5 September 1934 – 17 October 2025) was an Italian pedagogist. She was born in Rome and studied law, becoming a researcher in the field of the right to education as a human right. After experiencing that a course she studied at Columbia University in the United States was not recognized by the Italian education system, she dedicated much of her life in promoting and developing what would become the Erasmus Programme, an exchange programme of students between European universities. She was nicknamed Mamma Erasmus or Mother Erasmus because of her role in promoting the programme.

Life and career Sofia Corradi was born in Rome on 5 September 1934. Her father worked for the Italian national railway company as an engineer. Her parents had an international outlook.

She studied law at the Sapienza University of Rome. Upon her return to Rome in 1958, however, her degree was not recognised by the Italian educational system. 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". She had to spend an extra year to obtain her Italian degree.

Such ideas had already been put forward in Italy, but without any concrete results. She later recalled that critics asked her what the point was of sending students to Germany "to chase blonde girls", to which she replied that if someone didn't want to study, they wouldn't take exams anyway. Sofia Corradi was later nicknamed "Mamma Erasmus" or "Mother Erasmus". She taught Lifelong learning at the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the Roma Tre University from 1980 to 2004.

Honours and awards 2016 – Charles V European Award. 2016 – Commander, Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. 2016 – Capo Circeo European Award, Press Release Adn KroGos 2018 – Grand Cross, Civil Order of King Alfonso X the Wise 2018 – Alcide De Gasperi, Builders of Europe Award, Presidency of the Province of Trento and Bolzano 2019 – 2023 – Premio Elena Cornaro