Higher Education in Italy Between New Public Management and Autonomy

The key object of our critical analyses is the Italian higher education system, a set of 97 universities (69% state and 31% accredited non-state universities) and a few post-secondary vocational programmes. This system has historically been considered centralised and corporative. In this paper, we aim to both outline the main components of the system and critically debate major transformations that have led to a mix of autonomy and internal competition in the last thirty years. Given the elitist nature of its organisation in the past, Italian higher education is still based on a rigid separation between fields of study, making it less effective at promoting educational success (a shortcoming evidenced by high rates of university dropout) and deeply embedded corporative characteristics that are unable offset its structural underfunding. Recent reforms have profoundly redesigned the landscape according to New Public Management principles, promoted greater university autonomy, and fostered a quasi-market regulation approach based on quality assessment, performance-driven careers, and the quantitative evaluation of research. We present and discuss these topics, considering their impact on governance and management as well as on students, research activities, and the academic profession.