When in Rome, reform

Abstract

It was a hot autumn in Italy last year, and things show little sign of cooling down over the winter, at least, not politically. The final months of 2008 saw a wave of protests throughout Italy that were triggered by a government decree altering the procedures used to select academic staff. The decree, issued by Mariastella Gelmini, Italy's Minister for Education, University and Research, is only a small part of a larger programme of reform—which is widely unpopular among Italian students and academics—that has now been approved by parliament. The reforms are intended to modernize Italy's higher education system and to cut costs. The financial side of the plan would gradually decrease the financial fund for universities and research (FFO), which is currently €7 billion per year, by a total of €1.5 billion by 2013. The protesters were enraged about the proposed cut in funding for research and education, but were even angrier because another decree by Silvio Berlusconi's government would severely threaten the jobs of thousands of temporary research staff. > “Concorsi should disappear for good and departments should be independent and free—and, in turn, responsible—to recruit whoever they think is the best candidate for a certain position” Yet, Gelmini's decree was itself a compromise of sorts. The government's initial intention was to decree the entirety of the proposed bill without any consultation, rather than to follow the usual legislative procedure. Only after the streets of Italian cities were flooded with protesting undergraduates, PhD students, researchers and rectors, was Gelmini forced to backtrack. The result is that the main part of the bill will follow the usual legislative procedure and be debated in parliament. The focus of Gelmini's decree itself is the academic personnel selection process; the ‘concorsi’ system of nationwide exams that evaluate applicants for professorial and research positions. …