The Italian university system is currently characterized by lack of institutional diversity, enrollment contraction, an increasing dropout rate and part-time student population, tenured-in faculty at all levels, and declining faculty productivity. Although both students and faculty recognize these problems, neither is moving to solve them. (MSE)

Italy's Universities Act of 1981, designed to establish new hiring and working conditions for faculty, also initiates reform of university organization and teaching. Uniformity of faculty rank and terms of service, curtailment of anarchic growth, experimentation with new organizational and governance structures, and innovations in scientific…