Cuts for more than 500 million euros (513.264.188 euros) nin the latest draft of the Ordinary University Financing Fund (FFO) planned for the year 2024. This is the alarm raised by the Cruithe Conference of Rectors, according to which, the draft of the Ministerial Decree would have “significant critical elements which, if confirmed in the final version of the Ministerial Decree, risk not only halting the virtuous evolution of the national university system but also putting at risk the very survival of the Italian state university”, also because the cuts, the rectors write, “risk making the coverage of personnel costs unsustainable”. The rectors therefore ask to open a discussion with the government and write in a note that “there is concern that an entire generation of young researchers has no prospects”.
The Conference of Rectors recalls that between 2019 and 2023 the fund saw “an increase in the overall resources allocated to the university system (from 7.5 billion in 2019 to 9.2 billion in 2023)” and the structure of the Fund itself also changed with “a constant increase in the bonus quota linked to the quality of recruitment policies and research results and a significant increase in the quota tied, mainly to the hiring of new staff”. The universities have therefore “adapted their recruitment and economic-financial planning strategies, investing (mostly forced by extraordinary plans) in a substantial renewal of the teaching and research staff and trusting in the possibility that these basic directions, responding to precise and shared needs for increasing the quantity of resources but also the quality of their use, would be maintained in the medium term”. Instead, now the provision provides that “the overall allocation would be reduced, compared to the previous year, by an amount equal to approximately 173 million euros with a generalized reduction of all the main components of the FFO compared to 2023 and, in some cases, even a reduction compared to 2022” to which is added that “the allocation includes 300 million from the extraordinary plan”. In the face of inflation, the cuts “risk making it unsustainable to cover personnel costs, including those hired under the various extraordinary plans, and salary adjustments”. For this reason the Crui “proposes the start of a round table with the Ministry of University and Research and with the Ministry of Economy and Finance to discuss some possible reformulations of the budget indicators, no longer current in a global context, and in particular of the indicator relating to personnel expenses, as well as the possibilities for access by the Universities to the measures from time to time directed to the sectors of the State, including in the immediate future the European energy plan Repower EU for green investments”.
The Ministry of University and Research has announced that “with the ordinary financing fund – Ffo still under discussion, it was decided to spread unfounded and alarmist figures on alleged cuts to universities; following the spread of the data – which the Ministry of University and Research defines as “unfounded and alarmist”, And meeting scheduled for today was cancelled July 18th between the Crui and the Ministry: for Anna Maria Bernini “any hypothesis of comparison is unacceptable, on these premises“https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/cultura/2024/07/18/universita-lallarme-dei-rettori-tagli-per-oltre-500-milioni-4345b8c6-1dda-42b1-886c-11de50c96b14/.”I will detail item by item – the minister explained – the funding already disbursed and the funding planned for universities for a necessary transparency operation. What the system is facing, therefore, is not a question of scarcity of resources, but of their optimal management. A question of management capacity for which the rectors are primarily responsible and for which they should be accountable. As far as I am concerned, I am and will remain at the forefront to protect that great national heritage that is the higher education system. And I will continue to implement every initiative in the coming months to make public how resources are spent, what the ministry believes are the inefficiencies and delays. I remind everyone that the funds we have are public, paid for by taxpayers and at the service of students”, concludes Bernini.