Premier Giuseppe Conte, in announcing the many measures contained in the Relaunch Decree during last Wednesday's press conference, he finally focused on the provisions relating to the world of university and research. The funds promised to this crucial sector for the future of Italy amount to 1,4 billion for the next two years, a figure never seen before as long as the promises are actually followed by the facts. This undoubtedly substantial aid for the strengthening of the university system will constitute the first step for the launch of a multi-year investment project in the education system of our country (last in Europe for total public expenditure on education) or will there be only occasional support linked to the emergency period?
Finally, the public debate is no longer just about the measures aimed at saving the (sacrosanct) summer holidays, one of the hottest topics these days on the main national media, but also about youth policies and in particular how to shore up the education and research system.
“We invest in the future”. With these encouraging words Giuseppe Conte opened the topic of aid to doctoral students and faculties during last Wednesday's press conference, during which the DL relaunch was presented. The provisions contained in the decree in favor of universities and researchers allocate 1,4 billion, broken down as follows: 300 million for the right to study, 600 for research and 500 for universities. A significant aid for a world that was in danger of collapse. Also, the Prime Minister announced the hiring of 4.000 new researchers, hoping that these measures will encourage the return home of many brilliant young people who have gone abroad.
In fact, although the Italian school and university system is qualitatively one of the best in the world, it has never been fully exploited. A stagnant world, characterized by too slow transitions, bureaucracy, structures and digital media that are often inadequate.
Over the years, all of this has prompted many students to go knocking on the doors of foreign universities. As Professor Guido Fabiani wrote about it on FIRST online: “It is a world that has long been neglected, if not forgotten, by public policies. While there are many precarious workers waiting and, often, in humiliating conditions, there are few researchers, doctoral students and research fellows and they do not have sufficient and adequate structures to best express their potential. They choose abroad to do it and there they are well received and pampered, because they are generally very good”.
A student, a doctoral student in Paris, who was interviewed in this regard, emphasized how the first gap between the Italian and French academic systems is of a purely economic nature: “Here in France, an average PhD student receives around 1400 euros a month while in Italy they are paid just over 1100”. Other physics colleagues of his, compatriots who also emigrated from beyond the Alps, explain: “Access to expensive machinery is essential for doing research in our field. In addition to lower wages, Italy lacks the most advanced equipment due to the limited funds available. As regards superconducting circuits, for example, there is almost nothing in our country because there is a lack of money, while France has various important financing plans in this regard”. France's attention to university and PhD student residences can also be seen in the capillary network of university residences made available to students at advantageous prices, a system unimaginable for the thousands of Italian non-resident students (only 3% of our university students live in public against 18% in the rest of Europe).
The subsidies for Italian doctoral students provided for by the DL relaunch could bode well for colleagues who remained at home, even if there are criticisms. A doctoral student interviewed, in her first year at a university in Rome, vents her disappointment with the measures contained in the new decree: "The needs of doctoral students in the first and second year of the course have been ignored, without considering the consequences of prolonged closure of archives, libraries and laboratories, essential in the first two years in which research is in full swing. The lockdown will certainly have serious repercussions on delivery deadlines. In this regard, not only was the possibility of a paid extension of the activities not considered, but not even that of a possibly unpaid extension".
The decree could not, of course, address all the shortcomings of academia, however it would be necessary to think now about the strategy for the next few years. It would be equally urgent, for example, to think of a ten-year project aimed at strengthening the link between business and research, two sectors that in Italy have too often looked at each other with mutual distrust, as if they had nothing to do with each other. other. A first step could be to strengthen the traineeship system. It is not a question of supporting the thesis according to which the academic world should place itself completely at the service of individuals and industry, but greater interaction and cooperation would be beneficial to both, with positive repercussions on society, youth unemployment and the economy of the whole Village.
Furthermore, the long-term strategy should also concern the school, prelude to any university or work career, as well as an important period of inner formation for any teenager. Just in these days, after 8 long years, the call for school teachers has come out. Added to the serious delay are the few places available: just over 60.000 in total to teach in kindergarten, primary and lower secondary schools. Few, if we think that in Lazio there are only 30 places to become a professor of history and philosophy in high school.
Finally, the role of the media. Will the extraordinary provisions that have just been passed for universities mark a turning point such as to make politics and public opinion understand the crucial importance of investing in education? At stake is not only the future of the new generations, but also the well-being of society as a whole. Raising citizens' awareness of the urgency of investing in a development and reform plan for the education sector could directly influence political parties and public policies.
MTV Italia recently conducted a study on young people, underlining this very aspect: “Our role as Media is also that of being a sounding board and amplifier of their requests. Young people ask to be recognized as a resource to invest in, in the long journey towards the relaunch of our economy, to no longer be considered as 'a burden on the system'”.
In conclusion, the political class in power and the one that will succeed it in the coming years will have the great responsibility of deciding the future of thousands of young people, who between the crisis of 2008 and the pandemic, find it difficult to look to the future with confidence (in the graph below low, Italy is second among OECD countries, after Turkey, for the highest number of children who do not study and do not work). A survey published by Oxford-Padova highlights an alarming fact: 85% of young Italians are subject to anxiety, boredom and depression. We therefore hope that these new steps forward in favor of research and universities will not remain funding One-off, but transform themselves into a multi-year project that goes beyond the colors of the governments that will succeed one another in the next decade. The game is the future of the country.
