Quale università dopo il PNRR?

Universities are playing a key role in the growth of advanced economies. In fact, their functions to train highly-skilled human capital and to produce and disseminate new knowledge are regarded as crucial in innovation-based knowledge economies. Moreover, European universities have long been assigned the task to foster social mobility and to produce public goods aimed at social inclusion. However, the Italian higher education system has shown both a low efficiency and equity in providing the human capital needed for a “high road” to development and a research performance that, while qualitatively good, has proved unable to trigger massive processes of innovation.

Clearly, the first step to help Italian universities to increase efficiency and equity would be to clearly diagnose the causes of their unsatisfactory performance. This is what the writers of the PNRR (the National Recovery Plan) tried to do, starting from a vision of the university as a potential engine of innovation and economic growth. How can we assess, within such a vision, the measures included in the PNRR Mission 4 “Education and research”? Are the expected reforms and investments well-suited to address the causes of the inefficiencies and inequities of our higher education system?

This book offers a few answers to such questions. The Introduction and Part One of the volume analyse the main shortcomings of Italian universities in playing a role as engine of development, the reasons for such shortcomings, as well as some measures included in the PNRR Mission 4. Part Two and the Conclusions, on the other hand, critically discuss the impact that these measures may have on some aspects of the higher education system, as well as a few challenges that the PNRR has not faced and will therefore be left unmet.