On university reform in Italy: Contradictions and power relations in structure and function

Minerva

Volumn 41, Issue 4, 2003, Pages 347-363

  Woolf, Stuart ^a,b  

^a CA' FOSCARI UNIVERSITY OF VENICE   (Italy)

^b NONE   (Italy)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 4143099313     PISSN: 00264695     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/B:MINE.0000005156.56860.06     Document Type: Review

References (34)

1. Pierre Bourdieu, Homo academicus (Paris: Minuit, 1984).
2. This also goes some way towards explaining the failure, so far, of attempts to write a 'Eurocentric' history textbook. Stuart Woolf, 'Europe and its Historians', Contemporary European History, 12 (3), (2003), 323-328.
3. At least in some respects, government policies have led to analogous consequences in countries with a very high and genuine degree of university autonomy, such as Great Britain and Australia.
4. Chris Shore, Building Europe: The Cultural Politics of European Integration (London and New York: Routledge, 2000).
5. This was preceded by the 'Sorbonne Declaration' in 1998, signed by the Ministers of Education of France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, on the harmonization of structures of higher education systems.
6. Unlike many Continental countries, some doctoral theses, once presented, are actually failed in Britain.
7. 1969, Liberalization of Access to University, Law no. 910; 1972 Reform of Universities, Law no. 612. For a useful discussion of these reforms, see Giuseppe Ricuperati, 'La politica scolastica', in Francesco Barbagallo et al. (eds.), Storia dell'Italia repubblicana (Turin: Einaudi, 1995), vol. 2, 747-752, 759-765; and M. Miozzi, Lo sviluppo storico dell'università italiana (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1993).
8. 1969, Liberalization of Access to University, Law no. 910; 1972 Reform of Universities, Law no. 612. For a useful discussion of these reforms, see Giuseppe Ricuperati, 'La politica scolastica', in Francesco Barbagallo et al. (eds.), Storia dell'Italia repubblicana (Turin: Einaudi, 1995), vol. 2, 747-752, 759-765; and M. Miozzi, Lo sviluppo storico dell'università italiana (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1993).
9. 1969, Liberalization of Access to University, Law no. 910; 1972 Reform of Universities, Law no. 612. For a useful discussion of these reforms, see Giuseppe Ricuperati, 'La politica scolastica', in Francesco Barbagallo et al. (eds.), Storia dell'Italia repubblicana (Turin: Einaudi, 1995), vol. 2, 747-752, 759-765; and M. Miozzi, Lo sviluppo storico dell'università italiana (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1993).
10. 1969, Liberalization of Access to University, Law no. 910; 1972 Reform of Universities, Law no. 612. For a useful discussion of these reforms, see Giuseppe Ricuperati, 'La politica scolastica', in Francesco Barbagallo et al. (eds.), Storia dell'Italia repubblicana (Turin: Einaudi, 1995), vol. 2, 747-752, 759-765; and M. Miozzi, Lo sviluppo storico dell'università italiana (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1993).
11. 1980, Reform of Universities, Law no. 382.
12. The procedure of direct chair appointments to persons 'of clear fame' (di chiara fama) had been discredited during the fascist regime by the appointment of political ras (leaders), such as Roberto Farinacci, who by no criterion was noted for his intellectual qualities.
13. For example, the department is responsible for allocating research funds among staff, in proportion to their publication records.
14. 1999, D.M. (Ministerial Decree) on University Degrees and Curricula, no. 509, following parliamentary authorization of government reform of university teaching: 1997, Law no. 127. The 1997 law delegated the reforms to the ministry, without an obligation to report to parliament - a widely-used practice in Italy.
15. The final version of the commission's report, chaired by the experienced and outward-looking sociologist, Guido Martinotti, can be found in: MURST (Ministry for Universities, Research, Science and Technology), Gruppo di lavoro, Autonomia didattica e innovazione dei corsi di studio di livello universitario e post-universitario (final version, 3 October 1997), http://www.murst.it/ progprop/autonomi/auton.htm. For the current debate, encompassing different positions but with substantial common ground on the limitations of the reform, see the articles by Giliberto Capano, 'La riforma universitaria: L'anarchica attuazione di un sistema autocratico'; Giunio Luzzatto, 'La "nuova" università: Contesto e contenuti della riforma'; and Tommaso Detti and Gianni Guastella, 'La riforma fenice: La didattica universitaria nel settore umanistico', all in Il Mulino, LI (6), (2002), 1154-1181.
16. The final version of the commission's report, chaired by the experienced and outward-looking sociologist, Guido Martinotti, can be found in: MURST (Ministry for Universities, Research, Science and Technology), Gruppo di lavoro, Autonomia didattica e innovazione dei corsi di studio di livello universitario e post-universitario (final version, 3 October 1997), http://www.murst.it/ progprop/autonomi/auton.htm. For the current debate, encompassing different positions but with substantial common ground on the limitations of the reform, see the articles by Giliberto Capano, 'La riforma universitaria: L'anarchica attuazione di un sistema autocratico'; Giunio Luzzatto, 'La "nuova" università: Contesto e contenuti della riforma'; and Tommaso Detti and Gianni Guastella, 'La riforma fenice: La didattica universitaria nel settore umanistico', all in Il Mulino, LI (6), (2002), 1154-1181.
17. The final version of the commission's report, chaired by the experienced and outward-looking sociologist, Guido Martinotti, can be found in: MURST (Ministry for Universities, Research, Science and Technology), Gruppo di lavoro, Autonomia didattica e innovazione dei corsi di studio di livello universitario e post-universitario (final version, 3 October 1997), http://www.murst.it/ progprop/autonomi/auton.htm. For the current debate, encompassing different positions but with substantial common ground on the limitations of the reform, see the articles by Giliberto Capano, 'La riforma universitaria: L'anarchica attuazione di un sistema autocratico'; Giunio Luzzatto, 'La "nuova" università: Contesto e contenuti della riforma'; and Tommaso Detti and Gianni Guastella, 'La riforma fenice: La didattica universitaria nel settore umanistico', all in Il Mulino, LI (6), (2002), 1154-1181.
18. The final version of the commission's report, chaired by the experienced and outward-looking sociologist, Guido Martinotti, can be found in: MURST (Ministry for Universities, Research, Science and Technology), Gruppo di lavoro, Autonomia didattica e innovazione dei corsi di studio di livello universitario e post-universitario (final version, 3 October 1997), http://www.murst.it/ progprop/autonomi/auton.htm. For the current debate, encompassing different positions but with substantial common ground on the limitations of the reform, see the articles by Giliberto Capano, 'La riforma universitaria: L'anarchica attuazione di un sistema autocratico'; Giunio Luzzatto, 'La "nuova" università: Contesto e contenuti della riforma'; and Tommaso Detti and Gianni Guastella, 'La riforma fenice: La didattica universitaria nel settore umanistico', all in Il Mulino, LI (6), (2002), 1154-1181.
19. The PhD was not part of the reform law, hence it remained under individual university responsibility. But there are now ominous signs of ministerial interest.
20. David Hine, Governing Italy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).
21. Stuart Woolf, 'Risorgimento e Fascismo: il senso della continuità nella storiografia italiana', Belfagor, XX (1), (1965), 71-91.
22. Those with the right to vote and be elected must be of the same or higher rank as the post advertised (ricercatore, equivalent to lecturer, associate or full professor). For an excellent comparative analysis of recruitment systems, see Mario Mirri (ed.), La professione universitario: Una discussione sul reclutamento dei docenti (Milan: Angeli, 1990).
23. 1979, Recruitment to University Posts, Law no. 31; 1980, Law no. 382. The procedures for appointing commissions for associate and for full professors varied slightly, but the principle of election and drawing lots was identical.
24. Italian universities (and not just the ancient ones) are very deep sources of local pride and identity, more than in any comparable national setting. So such self-reproduction may even have seemed an appropriate tribute to the local area, particularly in a moment, and country, where identity questions are excessively current currency.
25. The introduction, a decade earlier, of separate two-year diplomas for professional training failed to attract more than fifteen per cent of students; a full degree is evidently more attractive for students, not least because it serves as a condition of subsequent promotion.
26. For example, Capano, 'La riforma universitaria'; Luzzatto, 'La "nuova" università; and Detti and Guastella, 'La riforma fenice', all in Il Mulino, LI (6), (2002), 1154-1181, cited in note 12.
27. For example, Capano, 'La riforma universitaria'; Luzzatto, 'La "nuova" università; and Detti and Guastella, 'La riforma fenice', all in Il Mulino, LI (6), (2002), 1154-1181, cited in note 12.
28. For example, Capano, 'La riforma universitaria'; Luzzatto, 'La "nuova" università; and Detti and Guastella, 'La riforma fenice', all in Il Mulino, LI (6), (2002), 1154-1181, cited in note 12.
29. See above, note 12.
30. The 180 credits acquired in the three years of the first degree are an integral part of the 300 credits of the second level; and each faculty can insist on the particular course mix followed for the first degree.
31. Luzzatto ('La nuova università, p. 1173, n.7) maintains that the title of Master was not adopted for the two-year specialized degree because Master's degrees had already been introduced before the reform, and have now been classified as one-year, 60-credit, courses as professional training, over which universities, surprisingly, have full freedom.
32. In the indicative quantification of the overall number of pages that students can be expected to prepare for an examination, all texts are treated as if they are equal (from Hegel to chapters in a textbook).
33. Detti and Guastella, 'La riforma fenice', 1179.
34. Even though the detailed titles of posts had been juridically abolished by a ministerial decree (4 October 2000), complementary to the teaching reform.