Text for the publication “Bending the rules”
15.12.2008
In a strict-regulated Europe, Italy is one of those places where people still speak out against the decisions imposed from the politicians and create open discussions to reflect critically on this set conditions.
The text focuses in particular on the education system situation and on the reactions among students as consequence of the new reform undertaken from the authorities on the future of universities. The text is developed as a self-reflection on this theme and explains through my experiences these changes.
In this period of deep economic crisis, one of the choices that the Italian government has carried out to restrain its effects is directly connected with the educational system. The minister of education, Maria Stella Gelmini, has in fact reduced university funding to an amount of 1.441 million euro in five years (Art 66/L133/2008). This decision was the spark that has induced a new radical mobilization among thousands of students in the last months. After many years – in which students have seen the transformation of universities into private foundations; substantial raises of tuition fees and the introduction of new costs; the transformation of the university into a “knowledge factory“ characterized by disqualification and homogenization of education, studies, research; the surge of precarious jobs – students felt the necessity to say in a clear and strong way what they stand for, that they must be heard and that they want to be part of the decisions which concern their future.
Q: Question
A: Answer
Q: The Education ministers of 29 countries and European university heads issued the Bologna Declaration in 1999, with the goal of achieving a European Higher Education Area by 2010. How have the mass media and the universities discussed and informed the students about the changes that are implemented in the new university structure?
A: Well, I think there has not been enough information about it. I never heard on television or from my university that the implementation – in the academic year 2001/2002 – of the new university structure (BA/MA), more widely known as 3+2, was part of a European project, the so-called Bologna process. After having studied three years in Bologna I only discovered these facts when I studied abroad. That means that even if the 3+2 has a European dimension, in Italy this plan has been hidden and nationalised, i.e. shaped to the interests of the country. For example, after almost ten years we still don’t have enough courses in English that would invite foreign students to study in Italy or to prepare the Italian students to go abroad. I think that at least the university, as an institution, had the duty to provide better information to the students about these processes.
Q: As I mentioned, beginning with the academic year 2001/2002, the Italian universities have started to adopt the Bachelor/Master model, more known as 3+2. How did the new educational structure influence the learning process and the qualifications of students?
A: I have to say that there has been a radical change in how education is distributed and produced since the new structure was adopted. First of all we have to choose the field of study where we would like to specialise after the second year. This means that we have to accept a “ready-made” curriculum; the possibility to choose courses is very limited. The quantity of courses to follow during the year has increased. The method of dealing with the subjects is superficial. The intensity of knowledge production entails the impossibility to reflect and go deeper into a topic. We know a bit of many things. If you want or need to be in time with your study, you have to be fast, not think too much but produce something. I felt often like a machine, which needs to produce a certain amount of knowledge every month. The university started to become a factory of exams. The quantity of credits you get is more important than the quality of knowledge you have.
Q: What are the costs of the education after the introduction of the BA/MA structure?
A: Costs have excessively increased. Usually, the cost for one-year master study is double the amount of the bachelor. In many universities the price is much higher. New kinds of costs appeared as well. For example in most of the universities you have to pay for the entry exam. When I decided to study at the university I had to pay the fee in advance and because I didn’t know if and where I would be taken, I paid the fee at four different universities to have more choices. Five years ago the price was around 50 to 60 euro. Now it reaches up to 100 euro. If you want to move from one class to another, as well as for the final exam of every level (BA/MA), you have to pay. Those who don’t have adequate financial resources are practically excluded from the university, especially on the higher levels that are more expensive. If you need to work to pay for your studies, as well as a rent, food, books and so on, this becomes counterproductive for your career because it will not be possible to finish in time, to make experiences abroad, to train your English or to learn a new language. To be precise this means that you will not be competitive in the labour market and the possibility to get a job will diminish.
Q: Another important point in the Bologna declaration concerns private funding for universities. How can private companies influence the curricula of the university?
A: No one offers something without the intention to get something in return, especially when it’s about money. This means that the production and distribution of knowledge will be under the influence of certain private interests. These investors will push to give certain knowledge to the students, which once ready for the labour market will have the skills to maybe get a job in the same company which sponsored the university self. The transformation of universities into privately funded institutions threatens the public character of the education, a fundamental right that is necessary for the functioning of a democracy. One of the consequences of the privatization process is also the increase in tuition fees, that can be paid through the introduction of the so called “prestito d’onore”, a bank loan that is handed out without any particular kind of guarantee. This shows similarities with the problematic debt system that developed in the U.S. American and Anglo-Saxon world, which is responsible for the global financial crisis.
Q: Which is the relation between the education system and the labour market? How do they influence each other at present?
A: As I just said, the labour market can easily influence the educational system once private companies get access to the control of student’s knowledge. In the new university structure, the bachelor period has been conceived as a combination between theoretical and technical notions. These last are achieved through three/six months of internship in private agencies/companies that have special contracts with the university. The compulsory character of this structure brought undergraduate students to accept any kind of condition, with the goal to get the credits required to finish their studies. Students are not paid at all during this period and they don’t even get the knowledge they are supposed to get. Often they are just asked to make photocopies, some calls or even to bring coffee from one office to another. In these companies there is a continuous turnover of students, which are simply exploited.
Q: The students-movement, which is present throughout Italy, calls itself “Onda anomala/ Anomalous wave”. Why anomalous? How does this movement differ from those of previous years?
A: This is a new movement of a young generation that wants to regain the future, which has been stolen. The students weren’t that organised for many years. Many on-line platforms have been created in order to spread information and to communicate with people from different cities and countries. In this way we could be better prepared, organise simultaneous actions all over Italy and propagate the effect of the wave in more different directions. It’s anomalous because the movement is a heterogeneous grouping of people -students, workers, researchers, teachers, parents- who share the dissent towards the government’s choices to sustain the banking system to the detriment of the younger, the precarious workers, the whole society, after years of neo-liberal politics,. Furthermore, the wave has been driven beyond the nation borders. In all of Europe there have been solidarity demonstrations with the Italian movement. This marks the transnational dimension of the problems we are facing and makes the movement much stronger in a globalised space.
Q: What is the criticism of the education system and which alternatives are suggested?
A: Well, as I already mentioned before throughout the interview, the critics of the educational system highlight some of the effects of the bachelor-master structure: the parameters of evaluation pushed by productivity and not by quality; the compulsory attendance of courses as a tool of control over the student’s lifes; privatization that is set against the public nature of the university; the fragmentation of the courses that leads to the disqualification of knowledge; the diminished student autonomy regarding decisions of the study plan. The challenge of the movement is an auto-reform as open-process that implements the production of knowledge and a critical analysis of the university system, but also the frailty of labour and the welfare system. Auto-reform as grassroots participation means to cross the university with our desires and proposals that we want to build up starting from the comprehension of the crisis and the relation with wider parts of society. We want to construct a public, open, free university for every one.
Q: One of the slogans, which appeal to students, is: “We don’t pay the crisis”. What do the movement mean with that?
A: The Italian government decided to cut the investment into the educational system (L133/L137) in order to aid the bank system. With this slogan we clarify that we do not want to pay the costs of the global financial crisis. It also clarifies how important the political reflection and the discussion about labour and welfare is for us students. We believe that the way out of this crisis will only be possible by creating a new model that is able to invest more in schools, universities and free research.
Q: In the last weeks and months, students from all around Europe have struggled and fought for better conditions in the educational system. How are the European students interconnected in this rebellion?
A: Students from all over Europe feel more than ever the pressure of the capitalist system in universities, cities and social relations. In the next months thousand of people will be losing jobs, the cost of living will rise, education will be privatized and impoverished. In Italy, Greece, Spain, France and the United States, students are protesting, occupying and rioting. With our denunciations and demands we are critical of the global system. We say no to the financial cut in public education, no to the impoverishment of learning, no to the privatization of education, no to the precarious conditions of work, no to the police violence, no to the discrimination against immigrants, no to the authoritarian oppression and no to any kind of exploitation. We say no, we don’t pay the crisis.