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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.

In practice, however, Italian universities have routinely waived a standard number of course requirements for students according to their occupations, on terms set forth in general agreements with their employers, labor unions, or professional associations.

Accountants, surveyors, and journalists are among the many professionals who have qualified for such credits, which have proved especially popular with civil servants and police officers, for whom the acquisition of a laurea typically means an automatic pay raise and promotion.

In May a popular investigative news program on national television raised a stir with an exposé of the practice, revealing, for example, that employees of the Interior Ministry could earn a bachelor's in political science in just one year, because they are exempt from the first two years of courses.


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no fewer than four universities, not including a small private institution whose accreditation the education ministry rescinded last May, following news reports that it was holding its rare classes in a seaside luxury hotel.