Abstract
The reforms of the Italian universities implemented during this period were characterized by two unique features that were to condition their outcome. On the one hand, a favourable policy window made it possible to reform the university curricula, following the Bologna Declaration, of which Italy had been one of the promoters. On the other hand, the implementation of that reform suffered significant shortcomings and raised the perception of ineffectiveness and inefficiency. Consequently, governments started to include a number of restrictions on the universities’ autonomy, and to establish standards which the universities were called upon to conform to, while reintroducing a logic of centralized bureaucratic control. Moreover, the universities’ behaviour contributed towards creating mistrust in the academic world, which was to be of key importance as a basis for subsequent legislative measures.
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Notes
- 1.
Law no. 59/1997 and Law no. 127/1997.
- 2.
The commission was to take the name of its coordinator, Martinotti.
- 3.
The parliamentary majority remained exactly the same, and political ‘continuity’ was guaranteed by the permanence of the Under Secretary who followed the implementation of the measure.
- 4.
Many of the aforementioned guidelines are not contained in the Bologna Declaration, which goes no further than setting forth certain key points. Said guidelines were added later, within the context of the Bologna Process which, through a series of biennial meetings of ministers, addressed the harmonization of the architecture of Europe’s HE systems.
- 5.
A provision of 2003 permitted the creation of 11 private online universities (authorized exclusively to provide e-learning services).
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Capano, G., Regini, M., Turri, M. (2016). Leading the Change in Europe: Early Implementation of the ‘Bologna Process’. In: Changing Governance in Universities. Palgrave Studies in Global Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54817-7_6
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