Erasmus 5

[28-4-1997]

Caro Emilio:

sempre a proposito della polemica su ERASMUS ti invio altri articoli apparsi sul "Chronicle" dedicati all'universita' italiana ed in particolare al problema del sovraffollamento che mi pare sia la vera causa delle lamentele degli studenti stranieri, che ne fossero coscienti o meno.

Vorrei anche segnalare gli articoli sulla godot-iana riforma universitaria apparsi su <www.golem.iol.it/golem10/default.htm> a firma di Giovanni Bachelet, Maurizio Bettini e Aldo Schiavone (ringrazio Paolo Possiedi per la segnalazione).

Una considerazione personale: capisco, ma non giustifico, la reazione alle critiche provenienti dall'estero sullo stato miserando dell'universita' italiana. La capisco, dicevo: appartiene alla categoria di quelle contemplate dal detto: "Only I can kick my dog."

Fabio Girelli-Carasi

The Chronicle of Higher Education Date: October 25, 1996 Section: International Page: A50

Italy May Split Up Universities to Cope With Overcrowding

By Andrew Gumbel

Rome -- The Italian government, no longer willing to tolerate chronic overcrowding in its universities, has vowed to break up the country's largest higher-education institutions into smaller, more-manageable units.

The government's proposal was tucked into the budget that it submitted to the parliament at the end of last month. It began to attract attention only recently, as opposition to the plan started forming.

Education Minister Luigi Berlinguer, who took office in May, insists it is time to enforce the law, which sets an enrollment cap of 40,000 students at any single institution.

First on his list is the University of Rome I "La Sapienza," which is said to be the most crowded higher-education institution in Europe. Last year it enrolled more than 200,000 students, 40,000 in its law school alone. Mr. Berlinguer said the overcrowding had put the university "on a par with Bombay, Calcutta, and Mexico City."

The minister has proposed splitting La Sapienza into six or seven units that would be spread out across greater Rome, offering students an opportunity to choose an institution by location as well as academic preference. Classes at La Sapienza are now held in overcrowded lecture halls and even in rented movie theaters. "There comes a point when the government must put its foot down and prevent the obesity in the system from growing any further," said Mr. Berlinguer.

Rome has two new public universities -- both established in the past 15 years -- but they are regarded as second-class because they have not been able to attract top-rated academics or the best students.

Attending the university of one's choice is a right enshrined in the Italian constitution, so enrollment has never been controlled by a rigorous admissions system. Mr. Berlinguer is now fighting to cap admissions in certain disciplines, especially medicine. But to pass even that modest reform, he has had to make clear that he does not intend to introduce a national system of university entrance examinations.

Opposition to his plan to split up the larger universities is being led by Giorgio Tecce, rector of La Sapienza. He says the proposal would put at risk all of his university's assets, including its prestigious name, with no guarantee of any improvement.

Even if the government's proposal were to win legislative approval, experts say, it would not be put into effect for seven or eight years.

Copyright (c) 1996 by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc. http://chronicle.com Title: Italy May Split Up Universities to Cope With Overcrowding Published: 96/10/25

The Chronicle of Higher Education Date: February 7, 1997 Section: International Page: A46

Related story: Italian Official Urges Breakup of Overcrowded Universities

180,000 Students Jostle for Room at the U. of Rome

By Burton Bollag

Rome -- Cinzia Chiari and two classmates, all second-year law students at the University of Rome, take turns arriving three hours before the start of their lectures -- to stake out seats. At Europe's largest university, this is the only way they can be assured of a place to sit. "Those who arrive later stand or go home," says Ms. Chiari.

Even with a seat, she adds, it is not easy to learn much in lecture halls that are packed with as many as 1,000 students, scores of them sprawled out on the floor. "You have students talking all around you," she says. "It's very hard to hear the lecture."

Despite a law limiting its enrollment to 40,000, the University of Rome ("La Sapienza") now has more than 180,000 students, the result of an uncontrolled explosion in higher-education enrollment in Italy over the past three decades. Only three universities in the world are larger, and those institutions -- in Buenos Aires, Calcutta, and Mexico City -- are all in less well-developed countries.

La Sapienza represents the best and the worst in Italian higher education. A significant number of the country's most prominent scholars teach and do research on its cramped, urban campus. (The collection of imposing red-brick and white-travertine buildings, called University City, was constructed by Italy's Fascist regime in the 1930s.)

For most of its students, however, attending La Sapienza is an ordeal. Because of a chronic lack of space, some lectures are held off-campus in rented movie theaters. A shortage of funds has forced several individual faculties, or schools, to close their libraries on most weekday afternoons. Because many professors also hold jobs outside the university, they are not available for individual consultations with students. And many students simply don't bother to attend classes. They show up only to take examinations.

"The research there is still good," says Luigi Berlinguer, Italy's Minister of Public Education and acting Minister of Universities and Research. "But in terms of teaching, you can't consider it a proper university."

The minister's proposed solution to the problem -- breaking the university into four to six smaller institutions -- is opposed by La Sapienza's powerful rector, Giorgio Tecce. The measure, which is supported by the Italian Rectors' Conference, was approved by Italy's parliament in December. However, the legislation says the breakup must be decided in coordination with the university's two highest elected bodies, the Senate and the Administration Council, both of which are chaired by the rector.

Dr. Tecce, a molecular biologist, agrees that La Sapienza is severely overcrowded. But far from solving the problem, he says, the minister's proposal would serve only to weaken the prestigious institution.

"The solution is simple," he says. "We need more buildings, professors, and money." The minister's proposal is nothing more than an attempt to "divide and conquer" an institution whose strength and prestige irk the government, Dr. Tecce says. Established in 1303, La Sapienza is one of Europe's oldest universities.

Some say the real issue is the tremendous authority and influence wielded by the rector of the giant institution. "La Sapienza is like a feudal kingdom," says Mauro Merosi, spokesman for the University of Rome III, one of two new, state-supported institutions established in the capital in the past decade to alleviate overcrowding at La Sapienza. "The rector is its king and the deans its barons, ruling over their domains. If La Sapienza is broken up, they risk losing their power."

Armando Gnisci, an associate professor of literature at La Sapienza, agrees: "The debate over the breakup is not a question of educational policy. It is a question of power."

There are no clear indicators of how academics at La Sapienza feel about the proposed breakup. But Carlo Finocchietti, the head of research at Foundazione Rui, an independent think tank, believes the majority of faculty members support it. "The move will open up new possibilities for them to become department heads or deans," he says.

The Faculty of Law alone has 42,000 students this year. Yet it is run more like a medieval guild than a modern law school. It has only 80 full professors and no associate or assistant professors. The only opportunity that students have for discussion is in seminars run by young teaching assistants.

Students complain that many professors, preoccupied with their outside law practices, have little interest in teaching and often arrive late for their lectures. The students have coined a term for the professorial tardiness: "the academic quarter-hour."

There is little sense of community on the University City campus. The teaching staff tends to be divided along political lines, by party. There is no universitywide student association, only "youth groups" linked to Italy's various political factions.

Stretched beyond capacity, the university has adopted measures to limit the growth of its student body. These, combined with a falloff in Italy's college-age population, have stabilized enrollment in recent years. This year the university administered an aptitude test to incoming students who registered for law studies. Although the results were non-binding, officials say poor test scores persuaded 2,000 applicants, about a third of the total, to withdraw.

As many as one-third of those now enrolled at the university are not actively pursuing studies, but critics say the institution appears happy to continue collecting their fees, which run from $400 to $850 per year, depending on the faculty in which they are enrolled, as well as on family income.

The problem remains, however, that, for many students, the University of Rome is much more attractive than the often under-equipped regional universities that have opened in the past 15 years. Although La Sapienza has put a cap on enrollment in engineering, medicine, and a few other fields, such limits are being challenged in the courts. Under the Italian constitution, La Sapienza is required to accept all high-school graduates who wish to enroll.

Dr. Berlinguer, the education minister, has promised to attack the problem with various measures designed to "re-orient" students to smaller institutions and to offer more alternatives to the basic university degree.

The education ministry says it will make more money available to La Sapienza, but only after the institution agrees on a plan to divide it into more-manageable units.

Copyright (c) 1997 by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc. http://chronicle.com Title: 180,000 Students Jostle for Room at the U. of Rome Published: 97/02/07

The Chronicle of Higher Education Date: February 7, 1997 Section: International Page: A45

Related story: 180,000 Students Jostle for Room at the U. of Rome

Italian Official Urges Breakup of Overcrowded Universities

The Education Minister also has controversial proposals on faculty promotion, admissions, and the curriculum

By Burton Bollag

Rome -- Italy's higher-education system is the most crowded in Western Europe. And, its critics say, it is badly in need of reform.

Luigi Berlinguer is determined to do something about the problems besetting the system. As Italy's Minister of Public Education and acting Minister of Universities and Research, the historian and legal scholar has proposed changes that would pare down some of the country's largest institutions to a more manageable size, a move that he says would improve the quality of instruction and increase graduation rates.

That his proposals have touched off a storm of controversy does not bother him. Change is needed, he says, and it will come.

"We want to decide the reforms in concert with the universities," he says. "However, they can't decide not to change."

A member of Italy's Democratic Party of the Left, the successor to the Italian Communist Party, Dr. Berlinguer is part of the first center-left government since the end of World War II. Although he became minister only last May, his efforts are already bearing fruit. In December, the parliament passed legislation, which he had proposed, calling for the breakup of the half-dozen or so largest state universities within five years.

Those universities are commonly referred to as the "mega-Atenei," after Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. Their students, however, derisively call them "exam factories," where individual contact with professors is all but impossible in many schools.

Officials of Dr. Berlinguer's ministry say they intend to start by dismantling the three largest institutions. Two of them -- the University of Milan and the Technical University of Milan -- support the move. But Italy's oldest and, at 180,000 students, largest institution, the University of Rome ("La Sapienza") remains vehemently opposed.

In negotiations expected to start soon, the ministry is prepared to agree to provide La Sapienza -- the name means wisdom -- with funds for more facilities and teaching positions to help alleviate some of its problems, but only if the institution cooperates in its own dismemberment.

Over the next few months, the parliament is expected to adopt other major reforms proposed by Dr. Berlinguer, who is a former rector of the University of Siena.

Among the proposed changes:

* Revamping the faculty-promotion system. National commissions in various disciplines are responsible for all promotions to full professor, but reports of many cases where the panels rejected the most qualified candidates and picked their own relatives or friends have led to criminal investigations and several convictions. Under Dr. Berlinguer's plan, which is aimed at reducing nepotism and abuse, national commissions would only compile lists of qualified candidates, from which the universities would fill their vacancies. Under the plan's most controversial provision, an associate professor could be promoted to full professor only at an institution other than the one at which he or she was already employed.

* Increasing campus autonomy in curricular decisions. Institutions are now required to offer only those courses that are specified in ministry-issued curricula. The proposal would give them the authority to develop their own courses and programs.

* Expanding the institutions' control over admissions. Although, in the face of student protests, Dr. Berlinguer dropped a proposal to allow overcrowded institutions to limit enrollment, he has proposed legalizing the de facto limits that many universities have set in architecture, engineering, medicine, and a few other fields. The new plan also would support new measures to "redirect" first-year students to institutions and disciplines that could accommodate them and to develop and promote shorter programs leading to degrees, diplomas, and other credentials.

It is too early to predict how successful Dr. Berlinguer's plans will be in modernizing Italy's antiquated university system. But there is general agreement that he has been energetic in tackling its problems.

"He is surely succeeding in shaking things up and getting people to talk about educational problems," says Carlo Finocchietti, the head of research at Foundazione Rui, an independent think tank involved in higher-education policy studies. "He's very good about communicating his ideas in the media."

Italy has had a particularly hard time managing the explosion in university attendance that began in Europe after World War II and has never let up. During that time, the number of universities in Italy grew to 66 from 20, most of them supported by the state.

Education authorities have tried to decentralize the system, frequently placing an institution's faculties in two or three different localities. But critics say that university faculties often were dispersed as a form of political patronage, without provisions for financial support. Assorted university faculties are now scattered among 150 cities and towns, but many lack libraries, laboratories, or other facilities.

As a result, students have continued to flock to the large universities in the major cities. Under Italy's constitution, state-supported universities are obliged to accept all high-school graduates who wish to enroll.

The overcrowding has been compounded by high unemployment. "Often a university is just a parking place for people who don't want to make decisions," says Isabella Lanciotti, a senior counselor at Italy's Fulbright commission.

This, and the fact that there are still few alternatives to the basic university degree, called the Laurea, which students take an average of 7.1 years to earn, has led to one of Europe's highest dropout rates. Only one in three entering students ever completes a degree. Most drop out after the first year.

In 1991, new three-year diploma programs were introduced to provide more-practical training in a wide range of disciplines, including business, engineering, law, and medicine. Graduates of such programs qualify for jobs as para-professionals in their fields.

While such programs have provided places for only 5 per cent of the entering students, they have a lower dropout rate than do the degree programs. They now account for 10 per cent of all Italian university graduates. Dr. Berlinguer wants to expand the highly successful shorter programs and develop more non-university institutions providing technically oriented courses of study. He also plans to establish student-counseling programs and what he calls a "zero course" for all new students. Running for a month or so before the academic year began, it would help incoming students decide whether the program in which they have enrolled was right for them.

"We want to reorient students to shorter courses rather than lose them entirely, as we do now," says Dr. Berlinguer.

Some of Italy's newer universities offer positive alternatives. The University of Rome III opened in 1992 in the formerly industrial suburb of Ostiense and now enrolls 18,000 students. The campus comprises factories that are being renovated to meet the future needs of the growing institution.

Unlike La Sapienza, Rome III is not crowded. Taking advantage of its power to limit enrollment, a right denied the older universities, the university also has a much lower student-faculty ratio than La Sapienza.

In November, the University of Rome III adopted a modern set of statutes that were approved by Dr. Berlinguer's Ministry. The statutes strengthen individual departments, allowing them to propose new courses and develop cooperative projects with other institutions. Younger members of the faculty and staff as well as students are given more voice in university decision making.

The institution's rector, Biancamaria Bosco Tedeschini Lalli, Italy's first female university head, now wants the right to solicit funds from private sources. Up to now, the university has been entirely state-supported.

"Funds are limited," she says. "We need more autonomy so that we can look for our own funding. We must become more market-oriented."

Paolo Blasi, rector of the University of Florence and president of the Italian Rectors' Conference, stresses that the county's higher-education crisis must be tackled on a "systemic" basis. A breakup of the giant institutions, he says, should be combined with more support for the smaller ones and more "coordination on a regional level," to achieve a better distribution of students.

Dr. Blasi says that, despite the objections of La Sapienza's administration to the proposed breakup of that institution, most university rectors support Dr. Berlinguer's reforms. "But we ask for close consultation," he adds.

The rectors and the minister agree that while enrollment in some overcrowded faculties must be limited, their goal is actually to increase the rate of participation in postsecondary education. Because of demographic changes, Italy's university population peaked at 1.6 million students in 1994 and has decreased slightly since.

After a 1980 higher-education law failed to bring about any substantial changes, business and industry began to apply pressure for university reform. "By the 1980s," says Dr. Finocchietti of Foundazione Rui, "industry realized that a higher quality of students would help economic growth."

The modernization drive began only at the end of the decade, when Antonio Ruberti, then the education minister, replaced centralized control with university autonomy, introduced three-year diplomas and more-structured doctoral studies, and established the separate Ministry of Universities and Research.

As minister, Dr. Berlinguer is trying to push the reforms farther in the same direction. He has also organized a national system of higher-education quality assessment, overseen by an independent board.

Francesco Pierri, national coordinator of the Union of University Students, Italy's only independent student organization, is wary of any moves that could limit access to the traditional Laurea degree programs. He also worries that rising fees may turn the country's institutions into "upper-class universities" that disadvantaged students and even those of modest means could not afford.

Yet he remains generally positive about the moves by the left-leaning education minister, and he offers a reason why. "Minister Berlinguer," he says, "is the first minister who always consults with students."

Copyright (c) 1997 by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc. http://chronicle.com Title: Italian Official Urges Breakup of Overcrowded Universities Published: 97/02/07

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