(ANSA) - Tens of thousands of university students took to the streets of Rome on Tuesday to protest against higher education reforms planned by the government. Degree students from across the country converged on the capital with organisers saying their numbers exceeded 50,000.
At the same time, hundreds of university professors, lecturers and researchers staged a protest in front of the House, where lawmakers were voting on the controversial reform bill.
There were moments of tension when groups of students wearing dark glasses and scarves to hide their faces tried to break through police ranks and join the protests before the House.
Some 50 succeeded in reaching the parliamentary square where they began shouting slogans against Premier Silvio Berlusconi and Education Minister Letizia Moratti and threw two smoke bombs at the building. At one point, dozens of opposition lawmakers intervened to mediate, placing themselves between crowd control police and the students. One Green MP told reporters that "it would be all too convenient (for the government) if this protest turned into a public order problem."
Italian universities are in uproar over the reform bill, which they say will undermine the quality of public university education and increase job precariousness. Researchers in particular are alarmed, saying that it will increase rather than stem the tide of Italians forced to pursue their research studies abroad. Under the reforms, PhD graduates interested in continuing research will be offered five-year contracts with universities which can then be renewed for another five years.
After that, they will be entitled to compete for posts as professors, with universities being able to take their pick from the exam winners who would then be offered a three-year contract. This contract would be renewable for another three years, after which universities would have to decide whether to offer the temporary professors a permanent post.
Critics argue that researchers would face up to 16 years on precarious contracts with no guarantees of a job at the end of it since universities could decide to save money by relying on temporary professors and researchers only. The average researcher's salary is little more than 1,100 euros a month and there is little prospect of this improving in the near future.
This could also increase the number of those with temporary positions having to resort to other work to get by, critics say, given that the reform allows professors to do other paid activities. There is also the risk that university teaching will be turned into a secondary job for professionals with outside careers, critics say, since the bill includes plans to open temporary professorships and research posts to members of outside businesses or institutes.
The private sector will also be encouraged to invest in the university system, which is currently funded by public money. Moratti has firmly defended her reforms, saying they will create a more flexible, modern and meritocratic system. She argues that university hiring systems will be made more transparent, with national exams replacing exams held by individual universities.
The introduction of research posts based on temporary contracts will increase the number of reasearchers in the university system and provide them with ample opportunities for a full-time job, she says. But the leader of Italy's researchers' association, Marco Merafina, said on Tuesday that the law was "scandalous" and would "ruin the university system".
Meanwhile, the union of university students (UDU) said the bill contained no measures to improve the situation of degree students. It said there were no funds for student grants or increasing public housing for students to enable them to leave home to study if necessary. The union also protested that the government's 2006 budget contained further cuts to public spending on the university system.
"They are trying to create a system in which only those people who can afford to take a degree will be able to do so," it said.
