(Aug. 13) The New York Times, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the world, recently published an article focusing on the state of Italian universities. Drowning in bureaucracy and struggling to guarantee a decent career to its researchers, both Italian and foreign, Italian universities aren’t doing very well. Yet, the most notable exception to this trend is the Lucca’s IMT – an important center of excellence, and a crucial example of opening up to the world. Indeed, the IMT of Lucca is not only a State Doctoral Institute (under special statute), but it is also considered an Institute of Higher Studies and Institute of Technology. To reinforce its fame, its internationality stands out: half of the students and a high percentage of researchers comes from abroad; while most, if not all, professors have remarkable curricula and interesting working experience abroad (including the new Dean, Alberto Bemporad). Regardless of its impressive characteristics, the Institute suffers from the bureaucratization of the education system, which is also very much inward looking, rather than internationalized. Fabio Pammolli, the first Dean of Lucca’s IMT, and the man who made its internationalization possible, explains, “we are still able to protect our foreign researchers from Italian bureaucracy, we are fairly efficient in selecting TAs, and in remaining competitive at the international level. Yet, our lack of financing and the complexity of formal procedures make it extremely hard for us to ensure clear career prospects to our best students, and to hire foreign senior professors.” To this, Bemporad adds, “we are trying our best to innovate and increase the university’s visibility abroad. Indeed, this step is important for us, and for the Italian system in general”.
