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Thursday, December 07, 2006
Francis Visits a Bordello Francis X. Rocca, intrepid reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education, walks into the Italian higher education system with a flashlight and describes what he sees. Characterized by the country's minister of higher education himself as governed along the lines of a "big bordello," the Italian university system has gone from worse to worser by introducing quickie online options for schools, same thing as our own credits-for-experience bullshit... Just how much credit students would receive for experience was supposed to be based on evaluations of individual résumés. Competition has been introduced in the form of growing numbers of universities willing to waive more credits than the next guy ("We will not be underwaived!"), and in the form of spectacular facilities: The southern region of Calabria, a largely rural area with a population of two million, now boasts no fewer than four universities, not including a small private institution whose accreditation the education ministry rescinded last May, following news reports that it was holding its rare classes in a seaside luxury hotel. |