University and research, too little is said in party programs

On university and research the proposals of the parties that will compete on 25 September are often sparse and are limited to the exposition of fairly generic concepts. What is evident is that for the parties of the center-right alignment and for the Action – Italia Viva cartel, the university is not the place to pay and specialize knowledge, but a place that prepares for entry into the company.

Let’s see the positions of the various parties:

1. + Europe
2. Center-right coalition
3. Brothers of Italy
4. Come on Italy
5. Italexit
6. Italia Viva – Action
7. League
8. 5 Star Movement
9. Democratic party
10. Possible
11. People’s Union
12. Green Europe – Italian Left

From high school of made in Italy to less years of study: the parties’ proposals on school

On the school, many differences emerge between the alignments in the field, but almost all converge on the idea of ​​bringing forward the end of studies by a year

+ Europa puts forward proposals that take into account both the peculiarities of education, avoiding reducing it to an empty economic concept, and the importance of management that comes out of baronage. Emma Bonino’s party proposes to train university staff so that the public management acquires important managerial skills. Furthermore, it opens up to the management of the cultural and artistic heritage to the private sector but without it being the master: the control of the work by the public service would take place through the results obtained. To conclude, he not only proposes a incentive for Stem subjectsbut proposes it especially for women, who while representing 55% of those enrolled in universities, only 37% choose a technical and scientific subject.

Sport for the center right is a central point. Even in universities, in the form of scholarships for sporting merits and a strengthening of the facilities dedicated to physical activity. At the same time it is their intention encourage Stem professions and give support to students who need it.

The Fratelli d’Italia program on universities and research brings together many phrases, small disconnected slogans that aim to touch on as many topics as possible. Without, however, structuring any real path. No increase in expenditure is highlighted or simply of allocation of resources. A relaunching the figure of the researcher and an undefined ten-year financing plan, in addition to the umpteenth reform of the infamous 3 + 2.

A meager program also that of Forza Italia, where they propose themselves “scholarships for sporting merit“ and policies aimed at getting our brains back on the run. What is offered to these brains to return, with what guarantees or funds, is not known here. Still with an entrepreneurial base, Silvio Berlusconi’s party proposes to streamline the bureaucracy in favor of a greater interdisciplinarity. One wonders, however, if a university education and therefore by definition highly specialized, finds real benefit from an interdisciplinary approach, or if this risks dispersing knowledge.

Three lines, this is Italexit’s complete program for university and research. Although they propose themselves as the new enlightened minds, those who see us long and know things unknown to the sleeping masses, one might think badly that the university topic is not treated because it is little known.

What parties promise young people

Employment benefits, investment in training, lowering of the age to vote: many ideas, little concreteness. Here’s what the programs say

The vision that the Italia viva-Action cartel has of the University is completely at the service of the company. The funds and programs dedicated to them are mainly from a corporate perspective. By way of example, in Matteo Renzi and Carlo Calenda’s program words such as company and the like are repeated more often than the word university. The aim is therefore to provide the funds so that universities are at the service of companies and give them the necessary figures to be competitive.

The Lega program suggests that the parties in via Bellerio do not really know the subject. We talk about calls and deductions for SMEs, degree courses for employees, but the university it is not a company and the research does not involve events. The very idea of ​​university and research is missing from Matteo Salvini’s party program. It is therefore impossible to highlight the points of a program that does not exist: the League has literally gone off topic.

The party led by Giuseppe Conte completely overturns the assumption from which Italia viva-Action starts: it is not the university that is at the service of the company, but it is the company that supports and makes itself available to university education. The basic idea is in fact that Italy will not be able to return to having a strong entrepreneurial and social fabric without investing heavily in culture. The 5 Star Movement proposes the concept of lifelong learning: a life path characterized by continuous training and updating that today’s professions require and to which the university can fully respond. The pentastellati also recall the commitments of Horizon 2020: A decidedly utopian perspective according to which, within the next three years, the country should have 40% of the population in possession of a university degree. To be clear, Italy is currently second to last, followed only by Romania.

The University is hardly mentioned in the program of the Democratic Party. There is a vague reference to the rejuvenation of university teachers and to a confused student welfare. The dem would like finance young journalists through a fund and create startups for digital information in order to counter the widespread phenomenon of disinformation. But one wonders where the university is in all this. What is up to research in addition to the phantom “tax incentives”?

Possible’s program talks about numbers, investments, of increase in GDP dedicated to research. It is clearly stated that, despite having to create a bridge between the world of work and the University, the latter must remain a training body and certainly not a factory for the supply of labor to companies. Alongside all this, the party founded by Giuseppe Civati ​​reaffirms the importance of creating mobility programs as a necessary diffuser of culture, but also as a vehicle capable of providing tools that can be spent in the world of work in the future.

Popular Union aims at to increase the funds to the University by 500 million and include in the staff 40,000 places for teachers and researchers. Who wants to know more, wait for the elections.

For the Green Europe – Italian Left alliance, today’s University is a factory for companies that churns out superficially professional figures to pay little and this also by virtue of the 3 + 2 reform. According to the electoral cartel that unites the parties of Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli, when it comes to the faculties, professionalization and specialization must be the masters, under penalty of professional decay of the highly specialized figures. Declared objective, the achievement of the objectives of the European Treaty of Lisbon which commits Italy to reach the 3% investment in training and research.