Povera università: il governo degli atenei in epoca di tagli

This paper analyzes recent trends in the financing of Italian public universities. Although Italy has the lowest level of public expenditure on higher education as a percentage of Gdp in Europe, and one of the lowest rates of entry to tertiary education, in 2010 the Government decided to cut public funds by 4% and planned further cuts for the next two years. The reduction of funding was simplified by several measures, introduced in the previous few years, intended to limit universities’ autonomy, and by the recent remarkable growth in the retirement rates of academic staff.The paper also critically discusses the policies followed by the Government in allocating funds to public universities in 2009 and 2010. In the attempt to combine declining resources with increasing financial incentives for the improvement of «merit and quality» in universities, the Ministry of education changed the formula-based system each year, with no coherent long-term plan. Even the law reforming the universities, passed in December 2010, does not tackle the problem, so that at present it is not even clear on what basis resources will be allocated to universities in the current year.