There are mainly three major criticalities that are tearing apart the Italian university. The number of Italian graduates is clearly lower than that of competitor countries, the value of the degree suffers from a low consideration, education does not function as a social elevator.
In the face of these and other evils, at least ten and all feasible are the proposals identified and presented by Giliberto Capano and Marco Meloni, editors of the “Cost of Ignorance. The Italian university and the Europe 2020 challenge ”research published by“ Il Mulino ”and conducted for AREL, the research and legislation agency founded by Nino Andreatta and led by Enrico Letta until the day he became premier. Among the proposals are the creation of a national agency for the right to study that coordinates and rationalizes the hitherto fragmented initiatives, a redefinition of the tasks of ANVUR, the agency for the evaluation, rationalization and reorganization of funding and reward systems, the introduction of research reports at least every five years.
In Rome, in the beautiful Ministerial Hall in viale Trastevere, yesterday, June 10, the book was discussed by an exceptional panel made up of the Minister of Education Maria Chiara Carrozza, the President of the Treccani Institute of the Italian Encyclopaedia and former premier Giuliano Amato and the professor of Political Science and Vice President of AREL Filippo Andreatta. The rich discussion was moderated by Antonio Polito, editorialist of the Corriere della Sera.
Under the severe gaze of the portraits of all ministers of public education from the unification of Italy onwards, not only the cahier de sorrows, but also the framework of resolution opportunities and strategies.
Trap of ignorance is the metaphor used by Filippo Andreatta who, illustrating OECD and Eurostat data, explained how only 9% of university students come from families whose parents are not university graduates, with the consequence that at the highest levels high levels of education access only those who already belong to a selected class while the others suffer a trap of the social condition of origin. In this regard, Giuliano Amato remarked on the terrifying gravity of the problem but also mentioned the only experience conducted so far to remove such social inequity, within the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa. This is a prestigious laboratory, from which the largest part of the Italian ruling class comes, which has implemented a protocol of actions aimed at setting the social elevator in motion.
Another great difficulty of our country compared to competitor countries is that of investment in education which has undergone drastic cuts, especially in the current crisis, while OECD data demonstrate the strong correlation between investment in education and economic growth. In the extensive report by Giuliano Amato, it emerged in this regard how universities give themselves the ability to find funding that is not necessarily public. Europe has significant resources but we are alien to the European research program which establishes where to allocate the funds and universities must be made responsible, acting on evaluation as a tool for improvement and governance.
The proposals identified in the book all go in the direction of solving the critical issues raised and in this regard Minister Carrozza expressed his sharing of the spirit and of many of the proposals themselves. Let's hope that now the facts follow.
