ROME (ITALPRESS) – “We have put a lot of funds on the Italian university, this is the record year, we have put 9.4 billion resources, 336 million more than last year, we have unblocked research contracts and funded them with 38 million, we are continuing to fund research in a powerful way, because we believe in it.” University and Research Minister Anna Maria Bernini said this while speaking at a conference on Italian universities. “We want to improve, we want to do better and better. The university,” she added, “is doing well: enrollments are increasing, full and associate professors are increasing, we are at a record level – 3,500 more in recent years -, but we want to do better. The real result is more money, more opportunities, more staff, more students.” The minister recalled that “from the government and the ministry more money has been given to the university because we believe in young people and research. More opportunities have been given with scholarships. The data presented today are very good.” For Stefano Paleari, adviser to the Minister of Universities and Research, “support for the university is not ex officio funding, but is a political act.” “Unprecedented, rapid actions are needed that require a change in approach, a discontinuity. A new organization, a new governance does not mean a weaker and less free university, but exactly the opposite. “In a message, Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council, Alfredo Mantovano, stressed that “despite the shocks suffered in recent years, from the financial crisis, to the euro crisis, to the pandemic, Italy has maintained the ability to generate innovation. The growth in demand for new patents is higher than the European average, plus 1.4 percent. In the global geopolitical and economic context, our research and innovation system requires a reaction toward two directions: on the one hand, to further enhance the potential of the university, and on the other hand, to protect the system from undue infiltration by foreign governments.” Which university is to be realized? Ernesto Galli della Loggia, professor emeritus of the Scuola Normale di Pisa, suggests “a university as an institution inseparable from the public interest that cannot but have as its reference points the Republic and its Constitution.”-photo xc3/Italpress -(ITALPRESS).
