Other than stopping immigration: the challenge, if anything, is to intercept the "quality" one. In 2100, according to the research "Italy and its reputation: the university", presented by Intesa Sanpaolo and carried out by the Federico II University of Naples, the world population with post-secondary education (therefore post-diploma) will reach 3 billion, and already in 2040 it will be significantly more numerous than the current 800 million.
For this reason, according to Domenico Asprone, professor and coordinator of the research, "Italy would have every interest in improving its reputation and aim to intercept this training question, which will come above all from developing countries, in particular from the Far East, Africa and Latin America”.
How? “First with the most obvious solution: increase resources. Then internationalising student recruitment, in collaboration with the Government but also with businesses. Countries like the UK and the USA already have an advantage because they have numerous campuses in the countries with the most demand. And finally by taking advantage of the Italy brand, which despite everything remains the first in the world as a cultural attraction".
But how are we today? Despite having a lower tertiary education rate than our European partners (in Italy in 2016 there were 1,8 million university students, less than Spain with 1,9 million, the UK and France with 2,4 million and the Germany with over 3 million), the level of our universities does not seem so bad: if it is true that the research must come to consider the 1.000 best universities in the world (therefore the top 5%, out of an estimate of 20.000 institutions in the world ), Why there is no Italian university in the top 100, it is also true that 40% of the "generalist" universities in our country (therefore excluding single-disciplinary ones such as Bocconi, Luiss, Polytechnic, which are included in specialty rankings) are included among the 1.000 best worldwide.
And considering the Top 1.000, Italy turns out to be even in first place as a percentage of universities present, ahead of the United Kingdom and also the United States (40% against 8%). This despite the fact that universities in Italy are also numerically few, compared to the inhabitants: less than half compared to France, Germany, the United Kingdom and about a third (always in proportion) compared to the United States.
A gap that arises from the absence of resources: according to the research, Italy allocates less than 1% of its GDP to the university system, almost bringing up the rear in the world. Only worse than us, among the countries mentioned, are Luxembourg, Indonesia, Ireland and Hungary, while Greece does better, Spain invests almost 1,3%, France almost 1,5%, around 2,5. XNUMX% Canada, Chile and the USA.
“Research – he commented the president of Intesa Sanpaolo, Gian Maria Gros-Pietro – presents a situation that really doesn't surprise us, given that as a bank we work with over 100 universities throughout the country and we know their qualities. Almost one out of two Italian universities is among the best thousand in the world: this shows that the potential is high and we need to invest in it to increase our country's competitiveness”.
