Organized by The Steering Committee of the MEHEM Project
Local Convenor: Prof. Angelo Riccaboni

Under the patronage of the Confederation of the Presidents of the

Associations of the Deans of all Italian Faculties

University systems have been in transition for the last 15 years throughout Europe .

Drives towards cuts in State budgets, pressures towards tightening university – firm links and efforts to create a more homogeneous higher education space - constituted the rationale for several reform waves in many EU countries.

The Bologna Accord in 1999 provided the reforms overall framework and long term vision.

This reform wave has created reform tension within the Italian university system. Critiques of university contribution to and the role within society, expectations of the role of the university in boosting local and country-wide competitiveness, claim for transparency, efficiency measurement and comparability, have largely questioned the definition of university mission and increased public opinion scrutiny on internal practices.

As a result, the Italian university system is now under careful scrutiny of stakeholders, media and society at large.
Many strategies have been formulated; competing models presented and claims for implementing broad solutions are raised by several stakeholders inside and outside the university system.

Within this large debate, increasingly hosted by the mass media after many years of complete silence in the destiny of the university system, it is evident that many contributions as well as legislative efforts seem to focus on themes such as governance, funding / performance metrics and transparency of internal processes (namely recruiting).

Under the auspices of EU, a group of universities – Sabanci University (Istanbul), Uppsala University, Università di Siena, Oxford University, also in collaboration with Instituto de Empresa Foundation (Madrid), UPMF (Grenoble) and DHV (Speyer) – is studying university reforms and practices within the MEHEM (Mapping European Higher Education Models) project.

The first results of the project show that, also because of the “mediatization” of the debate, many university reform proposals are framed along the lines of comprehensive models (privatization, competition,…) shaping how universities should conduct research and teaching, allocate financial resources, and accomplish their goals.

However, comprehensive models are enacted through concrete practices and these are the determinants of success. Consistently , the discussion should not aim to focus on the search of the optimal model as derived from samples of each country's experiences. Oxford and Cambridge are not the unique UK university systems as Harvard, Wharton and Columbia are not the “American MBA model”.

Instead, the aim of the Mehem project is to trace specific practices (of governance, funding and recruiting) within specific university contexts in order to understand a) how they affect the overall performance of each single university and b) how they circulate and spread within the university systems of the country (determining their appropriateness).

The key factors are the drivers of the implementation of such practices, i.e. motivation, incentive systems, resident skills, organizational solutions. Their analyses enable us to learn from an international experience and a valid comparison, without creating dangerous generalizations out of inadequate samples. At the same time, it helps show how much variance is hidden inside apparently very homogeneous models.

This workshop represents the opportunity to discuss changes in governance in Italian Universities from an international perspective.

We hope this may enrich the current debate in Italy and we look forward to hosting an interesting discussion.