Student Representation in Italy

Abstract

The analysis begins with a comprehensive overview of legal provisions for student participation in higher education governance over the past few decades. How has the involvement of students in decision-making processes developed? The answer will be provided for the sub-institutional level of faculties and degree programmes; the institutional level, which comprises several decision-making bodies, including student representatives; and the national level, where the role of students in the recently redesigned quality assurance processes is examined in depth. The second part of the article introduces the great variety of Italian student organizations and discusses the question of how these organizations represent students towards other governance actors. The article closes with a discussion of the factors and actors supporting or inhibiting the increase of the involvement of students in the governance of Italian higher education.

Keywords:

• governance
• student experience
• organization structures
• quality

Notes

1. The Italian student population is made up of 1.7 million students enrolled in 89 university institutions. The vast majority of students are enrolled in the 58 state universities; the other institutions are non-state universities legally recognized by the state (17), universities for foreigners (2), higher schools specialized in postgraduate university studies (6) and distance education universities (6).

2. The Collegio di disciplina is the body drafting the opinion of the CUN on disciplinary issues.

3. Examples are Liste di sinistra – Liste democratiche (Centre-left and left-wing youth party groups) and Azione universitaria – Studenti per le libertà (Centre-right youth party groups). The lists of candidates mentioned refer to the most recent election round (2010), but the same could be found in previous election rounds.

4. One example is the regional coalition composed of La Confederazione – Università per gli studenti – Intesa Autonomista SUD – Area Nuova – Progetto Universitas – Orientale 05 – Studenti indipendenti – Asterisko – Insieme per il Sannio.

5. The Ministry press office formally communicated it on 21 January 2010.

6. Monitoring activity conducted in November 2009 by searching institutional websites and statutes of universities.

7. Examples of youth party groups active in student politics are Azione universitaria, Studenti per le libertà, and Giovani Democratici. The only example of a national student union is Unione degli Universitari, but there is another NGO following a similar model, even if it is not present in the whole country, called Coordinamento per il Diritto allo Studio. An example of a thematic student organization is the Erasmus Student Network.