From research to business, the new face of universities

The economic resources are there, but some skills, structures and a system that allow the University to become competitive at European level are missing.

The picture that emerged at the Botanical Garden of Padua, during the 19th annual national conference of the CoDau, the Conference of the general directors of public, private and telematic university administrations, is an evolving picture.

The meeting was attended by the Minister of University and Research, Maria Cristina Messa, who underlined the importance of the reforms and investments carried out to date with the Pnrr, from the "mobility of teachers between universities and research institutions. , and therefore between public and private "to" teaching ", up to the" bases for reviewing the system of classification of knowledge, giving universities more autonomy ".

In the face of what has been done, for the minister there are two reforms that are missing: "the one that makes it possible to make the possibility of spending less constrained and the revision of the methods of recruitment, and therefore of university competitions".

Taking stock of the situation, the minister stressed that the current one "is a very important moment for the Italian academic world, because we have managed, in this year and a half, to distribute resources for 11 billion euros of the NRP, which see the leading universities. They become the center of a series of collaborations that are necessary to move from research to business, which is the main theme, and to ensure that this then falls on young people ".

In the university field, the reforms related to the resources of the NRP arrived quickly, even under the radar, "but implemented in a system of previous rules that did not change", explained Alberto Scuttari, president of the CoDau, who explained how the transformation into being is "a challenge, but we are only at the 'kick off', at the starting point".

For Scuttari it is important that in this context "the university system has understood that to be successful it must have a strong organizational and managerial structure, which believes in purpose and business. Doing research means measuring oneself with processes that are not standard, and flexibility is needed, responsiveness, and administrative rules that we have ".

A qualitative leap, therefore, which must necessarily go through a strengthening of the top teams.

"There are 500 managers of Italian universities, and not many - he said -. If we want to have universities that compete with European ones, we must increase this capacity and these numbers".

In any case, this is not just a quantitative problem.

"One of the obligations we have, - found Scuttari - is to be able to find an effective system to be able to recruit the skills we do not have and keep those we already have. It is a demanding mission, because there are so many rules and we have a shortage, among others, of competition commissioners ".

The university of the future must have the ability to transform research into a product, and that is why "

In collaboration with:

Codau