Universities: an engine for Italy’s development. Meritocracy and competition

Discussion focused on Italy’s system of higher education, in a search for new strategies and proposals to relaunch the nation’s universities’ competitiveness. Participation by the deans of important schools in Italy and abroad as well as Italian researchers with experience in the US rendered the debate particularly fruitful. Issues discussed included the public and private financing of higher learning and how best to make use of the limited funds available. Participants also touched on the question of attracting talent to Italian schools and of competing thus with American and other European universities, claiming the system’s governance needs to re-evaluated and rendered more streamlined.