Italian universities improve their international rankings while “polytechnic culture” strengthens economy and civic life
According to international rankings, the best Italian universities are now performing better in terms of teaching, research and master’s programmes – this goes to show how, even in these times marked by the knowledge economy and radical change, Italy’s culture and education are capable to considerably drive development, social inclusion, stronger civic attitudes and, of course, competitiveness too.
The Financial Times brings us the latest great news. Its global league tables of the best 2023 master’s management programmes see HEC Paris in the lead, followed by the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and the London Business School, and in eight place we find the SDA Bocconi, up several places as compared to 2022 (20th place) and on a par with ESADE, in Spain. The second Italian institution included in the “Top 100 Masters in Management programs” is LUISS University of Rome, which made an extraordinary leap forward to 30th place – a dramatic improvement from its previous rankings (53rd in 2022 and 90th in 2019) – while the third Italian institution in the league is the Polytechnic University of Milan’s School of Management, in 70th place (up seven places from last year).
Other international leagues comprise the Sapienza University of Rome (first amongst the Italian institutions in the “Academic Ranking of World Universities” by the Shanghai Ranking, with Harvard, Stanford and the MIT in Boston in the lead – the Roman university falls within the first 150 rankings, followed at a distance by institutions in Milan, Padua, Pisa, Bologna and the Federico II in Naples), Milan’s Università Cattolica and University of Milano-Bicocca, the Polytechnic University of Turin, etc. According to QS World University Rankings, however, the best Italian institutions are the Polytechnic University of Milan (123rd place in the world, 16 places up), followed by the Sapienza.
Let’s take a moment to consider the Financial Times’s most glaring leap forward, made by LUISS University (associated with entrepreneurial association Confindustria): “We distinguished ourselves not only in the enhancement of education and research, but also in the parameters concerning internationalisation, innovation, interdisciplinarity, alumni career support and care for sustainability,” comments its Rector Andrea Prencipe, adding that 96% of graduates finds employment within one year of graduation.
Indeed, we really should take notice of the fact that the Italian university system is strengthening its impact on the creation of Italy’s social and cultural capital. Of course, all the familiar issues are still there – from insufficient public investment in education (4.1% of the GDP as compared to 4.8% of the EU average), a lack in research funding (only 1.5% of the GDP – Germany invests three times as much – half of which is financed by privates, while the EU recommends investing over 2%), from a lack of facilities (including the severe shortages in student accommodation) to inadequate technical and scientific equipment in research centres, from some institutions’ narrow-minded attitude to the cronyism engendered by old and new elites (it’s worth reading Dario Ferrari’s witty novel La ricreazione è finita (Recess is over), one of this literary season’s best works, to get a good idea of the situation). Yet, despite all this, our universities are improving and can play an increasingly significant role on development – a crucial factor in this times dominated by the so-called environmental and digital twin transition demanding new knowledge and better skills that not only encompass all economic and manufacturing processes but also urban life, health, and the quality of both civic and political engagement. After all, we know full well that knowledge and freedom, critical thinking and responsible civic attitude, market economy, welfare and democracy, all share a very tight bond, as education not only means wealth but also – and above all – freedom.
From an economic standpoint, we are well aware that Italy’s fierce post-Covid financial recovery – the best in Europe – was due precisely to mutually beneficial collaborations between universities and enterprises concerning innovation, technology transfer, and the recent conquest of niches with higher added value in the international markets.
Italy has one strength on which to capitalise: its extraordinary ability to blend humanities and sciences, beautiful aesthetics and unique flexibility in the use of new technologies, the awareness of our roots’ historical significance coupled with a sophisticated inclination towards future innovations. Creativity combined with rigorous topics and methods – this is what “polytechnic culture” is. Our new millennium’s “humanist approach”, which could also be termed “digital humanism” or, by virtue of the competitive quality of Italian top manufacturing, “industrial humanism” even. An attitude that, nowadays, can help us add an essential human touch to the widespread processes introduced by Artificial Intelligence.
Integrated multidisciplinary skills – building a culture that will transcend the traditional dichotomy between “two disciplines” in favour of a dialogic blend of knowledge, regenerating and restoring the spirit of the Renaissance – that extraordinary historical period thriving with artist-cum-scientists, whose teachings still exude a contemporary feel.
Indeed, the appreciation that Italian managers with multidisciplinary skills enjoys in the global employment markets it’s further proof of the validity of this approach.
The PNRR (the Italian recovery and resilience plan) includes indications – which we should swiftly and aptly implement – concerning education as the mainstay for increased development, not only relating to the GDP but, above all, to the BES, the Italian Equitable and Sustainable Well-being Index.
True, our graduate numbers are low, about 200,000 per year – only 20% of the population aged between 25 and 64 years, as compared to over 40% in France and Spain, 31% in Germany, and the 33.4% EU average. Moreover, we are experiencing a genuine “demographic winter” (only 392,000 babies were born in 2022, and the Italian fertility index is one of the lowest in the world), so it’s easy to predict how, over the next 20 years, student and graduate numbers will collapse. A collapse also attributable to the vast number of young graduates that’s already fleeing Italy, looking for better life and work conditions (Italian graduate salaries are amongst the lowest as compared to international competitors). ISTAT data show that in 2021, 40% of young emigrants had a degree and over the 2012 – 2022 decade 337,000 graduates left the country.
It’s a major phenomenon that’s having an impact on economic development and testing the strength the Italian social and political fabric, and thus must be tackled and addressed.
But how? Apart from making the necessary long-term demographic decisions, universities might inspire some ideas.
The vast majority of students are Italian, and universities are competing to attract the best students, but this currently involves only a small internal market – and an increasingly dwindling one at that, not only on account of the demographic degrowth but also of the increased number of young people choosing to study abroad (while most home students leave after graduation, as said above).
Thus, it would be advantageous to emphasise the above-mentioned improved quality of Italian universities and master’s programmes and use it as leverage to expand this market. We could include the Mediterranean areas, above all, and then encourage other countries (Africa at the forefront) to send their young women and men to study in Italian universities, underlining the unique value of our “polytechnic culture” and the creative, adaptable and flexible nature of our “Italian brilliance”.
We should offer programmes inspired by globalism, teach them in different languages, revamp our educational methods, research and infrastructures, and adopt a more welcoming attitude to the world – which after all is what already distinguishes Mediterranean cultures.
We should build bridges, not walls, engender critical and inclusive conversations, spark cultural awareness, and nurture an identity not entrenched in racial and cultural prejudice, but able to withstand comparisons, just as the cultural and civic history of Italy teaches.
This is the kind of approach that would keep on enhancing Italian international university rankings – giving Italy the central position it deserves, in between Europe and the Mediterranean, and on which to build our best future.
(photo Getty Images)
According to international rankings, the best Italian universities are now performing better in terms of teaching, research and master’s programmes – this goes to show how, even in these times marked by the knowledge economy and radical change, Italy’s culture and education are capable to considerably drive development, social inclusion, stronger civic attitudes and, of course, competitiveness too.
The Financial Times brings us the latest great news. Its global league tables of the best 2023 master’s management programmes see HEC Paris in the lead, followed by the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and the London Business School, and in eight place we find the SDA Bocconi, up several places as compared to 2022 (20th place) and on a par with ESADE, in Spain. The second Italian institution included in the “Top 100 Masters in Management programs” is LUISS University of Rome, which made an extraordinary leap forward to 30th place – a dramatic improvement from its previous rankings (53rd in 2022 and 90th in 2019) – while the third Italian institution in the league is the Polytechnic University of Milan’s School of Management, in 70th place (up seven places from last year).
Other international leagues comprise the Sapienza University of Rome (first amongst the Italian institutions in the “Academic Ranking of World Universities” by the Shanghai Ranking, with Harvard, Stanford and the MIT in Boston in the lead – the Roman university falls within the first 150 rankings, followed at a distance by institutions in Milan, Padua, Pisa, Bologna and the Federico II in Naples), Milan’s Università Cattolica and University of Milano-Bicocca, the Polytechnic University of Turin, etc. According to QS World University Rankings, however, the best Italian institutions are the Polytechnic University of Milan (123rd place in the world, 16 places up), followed by the Sapienza.
Let’s take a moment to consider the Financial Times’s most glaring leap forward, made by LUISS University (associated with entrepreneurial association Confindustria): “We distinguished ourselves not only in the enhancement of education and research, but also in the parameters concerning internationalisation, innovation, interdisciplinarity, alumni career support and care for sustainability,” comments its Rector Andrea Prencipe, adding that 96% of graduates finds employment within one year of graduation.
Indeed, we really should take notice of the fact that the Italian university system is strengthening its impact on the creation of Italy’s social and cultural capital. Of course, all the familiar issues are still there – from insufficient public investment in education (4.1% of the GDP as compared to 4.8% of the EU average), a lack in research funding (only 1.5% of the GDP – Germany invests three times as much – half of which is financed by privates, while the EU recommends investing over 2%), from a lack of facilities (including the severe shortages in student accommodation) to inadequate technical and scientific equipment in research centres, from some institutions’ narrow-minded attitude to the cronyism engendered by old and new elites (it’s worth reading Dario Ferrari’s witty novel La ricreazione è finita (Recess is over), one of this literary season’s best works, to get a good idea of the situation). Yet, despite all this, our universities are improving and can play an increasingly significant role on development – a crucial factor in this times dominated by the so-called environmental and digital twin transition demanding new knowledge and better skills that not only encompass all economic and manufacturing processes but also urban life, health, and the quality of both civic and political engagement. After all, we know full well that knowledge and freedom, critical thinking and responsible civic attitude, market economy, welfare and democracy, all share a very tight bond, as education not only means wealth but also – and above all – freedom.
From an economic standpoint, we are well aware that Italy’s fierce post-Covid financial recovery – the best in Europe – was due precisely to mutually beneficial collaborations between universities and enterprises concerning innovation, technology transfer, and the recent conquest of niches with higher added value in the international markets.
Italy has one strength on which to capitalise: its extraordinary ability to blend humanities and sciences, beautiful aesthetics and unique flexibility in the use of new technologies, the awareness of our roots’ historical significance coupled with a sophisticated inclination towards future innovations. Creativity combined with rigorous topics and methods – this is what “polytechnic culture” is. Our new millennium’s “humanist approach”, which could also be termed “digital humanism” or, by virtue of the competitive quality of Italian top manufacturing, “industrial humanism” even. An attitude that, nowadays, can help us add an essential human touch to the widespread processes introduced by Artificial Intelligence.
Integrated multidisciplinary skills – building a culture that will transcend the traditional dichotomy between “two disciplines” in favour of a dialogic blend of knowledge, regenerating and restoring the spirit of the Renaissance – that extraordinary historical period thriving with artist-cum-scientists, whose teachings still exude a contemporary feel.
Indeed, the appreciation that Italian managers with multidisciplinary skills enjoys in the global employment markets it’s further proof of the validity of this approach.
The PNRR (the Italian recovery and resilience plan) includes indications – which we should swiftly and aptly implement – concerning education as the mainstay for increased development, not only relating to the GDP but, above all, to the BES, the Italian Equitable and Sustainable Well-being Index.
True, our graduate numbers are low, about 200,000 per year – only 20% of the population aged between 25 and 64 years, as compared to over 40% in France and Spain, 31% in Germany, and the 33.4% EU average. Moreover, we are experiencing a genuine “demographic winter” (only 392,000 babies were born in 2022, and the Italian fertility index is one of the lowest in the world), so it’s easy to predict how, over the next 20 years, student and graduate numbers will collapse. A collapse also attributable to the vast number of young graduates that’s already fleeing Italy, looking for better life and work conditions (Italian graduate salaries are amongst the lowest as compared to international competitors). ISTAT data show that in 2021, 40% of young emigrants had a degree and over the 2012 – 2022 decade 337,000 graduates left the country.
It’s a major phenomenon that’s having an impact on economic development and testing the strength the Italian social and political fabric, and thus must be tackled and addressed.
But how? Apart from making the necessary long-term demographic decisions, universities might inspire some ideas.
The vast majority of students are Italian, and universities are competing to attract the best students, but this currently involves only a small internal market – and an increasingly dwindling one at that, not only on account of the demographic degrowth but also of the increased number of young people choosing to study abroad (while most home students leave after graduation, as said above).
Thus, it would be advantageous to emphasise the above-mentioned improved quality of Italian universities and master’s programmes and use it as leverage to expand this market. We could include the Mediterranean areas, above all, and then encourage other countries (Africa at the forefront) to send their young women and men to study in Italian universities, underlining the unique value of our “polytechnic culture” and the creative, adaptable and flexible nature of our “Italian brilliance”.
We should offer programmes inspired by globalism, teach them in different languages, revamp our educational methods, research and infrastructures, and adopt a more welcoming attitude to the world – which after all is what already distinguishes Mediterranean cultures.
We should build bridges, not walls, engender critical and inclusive conversations, spark cultural awareness, and nurture an identity not entrenched in racial and cultural prejudice, but able to withstand comparisons, just as the cultural and civic history of Italy teaches.
This is the kind of approach that would keep on enhancing Italian international university rankings – giving Italy the central position it deserves, in between Europe and the Mediterranean, and on which to build our best future.
(photo Getty Images)