Who will save italian university?
Ξ October 17th, 2008 | → | ∇ Senza categoria |
High education, research and innovation are pivotal elements to sustain the growth and development of a country in a knowledge-based global society. While Western and developing countries with which Italy is supposed to compete are investing vast amounts of resources the funds invested in Italy, traditionally very low, have been reduced further and the recent bill L 133/08 by the Minister of Economy Tremonti and the Minister of Education Gelmini exacerbates the situation. Specific articles impose indiscriminate and heavy cuts that will have devastating effects on the public research and higher education system, and hence on the scientific and technological development of this country. Researchers in Italian public universities and research institutions have had to work for years under a chronic lack of funds.
The L. 133/08 goes beyond all limits. Some of the proposed measures, e.g. the cut to the ordinary maintenance funds, as well as a substantial block in staff recruitment and turnover, will rapidly paralyse the system, preventing its growth and renewal, and cancelling all hopes for an independent career for thousands of young researchers who will be growingly forced to go working abroad. Article16 of the D.L. 110/08 supposedly offers the ‘liberty’ for Universities to convert into private Foundations; yet, as presented, it is difficult to see how this remedy might be made technically effective; on the contrary, it does mark a dramatic cultural regression in this country by underscoring the Government’s unwillingness to invest in the public research system. There is a serious risk that, under these conditions, Italian universities will gradually turn into high school-like structures, containers of poor and minimal teaching and exam-making industries from which all scientific research will be expelled.