The Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering started its activity in 1870 as 'Royal School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering' with the aim to increase the scientific knowledge of ship designers and ship engineers for both the Italian Navy and the Italian merchant marine. Since that time the teaching and research activities grew up in close relationship with the regional economic maritime sector. Recently the topics related to small ships and pleasure crafts were added to the traditional courses in the new University campus in La Spezia. At the moment the University of Genova offers two degrees of 3 years (BSc), two of 2 years (MSc) and one PhD course in topics related to Marine Technology. The number of students per year is about 550 in Genoa and 150 in La Spezia. The Department has close relationships with Italian and foreign industries, universities, research centres and we believe that the increase of teaching and research partnerships will produce great benefits for the students and also for the organisation. We think that the crucial point to increase relationships is a better knowledge of the education systems of the other EU countries and countries all over the world. This is the motivation of this paper for the RINA Conference on Higher Education in Marine Technology. © 2006: Royal Institution of Naval Architects.