(see related stories) (ANSA) - ROME, NOV 20 - Giulia Cecchettin, the slain 22-year-old biomedical engineering student who had been due to graduate last Thursday, will be awarded her degree, the rector of the University of Padua said on Monday.
    "Giulia was due to graduate last Thursday, she was the first student expected at 8.30 a.m. for an engineering degree," said Daniela Mapelli during a conference at the university that opened with a minute's silence in memory of the young woman whose body was found with many knife wounds to the neck and head, as well as defensive wounds, in a gully near a lake in the northeastern Italian Friuli region.
    Her ex boyfriend, fellow student Filippo Turetta, is suspected of the murder.
    "A degree that will be there, it will be there for sure," continued Mapelli, saying however that "this is the moment to respect the pain of Giulia's family".
    "When the time comes, we will contact the family to arrange a ceremony when and how they want," she added.
    Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Sunday that Cecchettin should be granted an honorary degree from the prestigious Veneto university. "This dramatic affair which has struck all of us for the heinousness and brutality of the murder has come to a tragic end for a girl who was set to graduate," said Tajani.
    "I think we should give her a degree 'honoris causa'," he continued, adding that foreign ministry scholarships would be set up for "for foreigners who want to follow their dreams as Giulia did".
    Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said that there will be a minute's silence in all Italian schools on Tuesday in Giulia's memory. (ANSA).