What Bernini says and doesn’t say to the Democratic Party about online universities
For the Democratic Party, online universities have "a lower teacher-student ratio than traditional universities, a total absence of research structures and there is a very serious issue of quality standards" but for Minister Bernini "they are not the wild west" and cites the control of Anvur (which however is very critical of telematics). Back and forth in the Senate
The political skirmishes continue and not only over online universities. A topic which, in truth, is divisive within the government forces themselves (the agreement signed by the Minister of Public Administration, the Forza Italia supporter Paolo Zangrillo , with the online universities to train state managers had raised the doubts of another minister, party partner Anna Maria Bernini of the University) although virtual universities enjoy several allies in Parliament . A bipartisan mix if we consider that the largest group, Multiversity, is chaired by Luciano Violante , historic exponent of the PCI-Pds-Ds-Pd and the former Lettian minister Maria Grazia has always shown particular attention to digital universities Carrozza, former president of the Cnr.
IN THE SENATE THERE IS A DEBATE ON TELEMATIC UNIVERSITIES
In the last few hours, Senator Cecilia D'Elia illustrated question 3-01082 on the qualitative evaluation process of online universities. For the Dem representative "there is a real boom in enrollments in online universities: we went from 44,977 enrollments in 2011 to 186,536 in 2021 and in 2023, just two years later, they became 236,245. In ten years, there was therefore an increase of 293.9 percent. The age of the people who enroll in online universities is also changing: more and more of them are very young, under twenty-three years old, so they write directly from high school diploma. Online universities respond less and less to the needs of university students or to recover years for people who may have dropped out of school."
So far so good (for telematics) but the Democratic Party points out that "all this happens in universities that have a limited number of permanent staff, a teacher-student ratio that is much lower than that existing in traditional universities, sometimes a total absence of research structures, things that jeopardize the possibility of following the training activity correctly"..
In particular for the Democratic Party "there is a very serious issue of accreditation, of quality standards, in terms of self-assessment, evaluation, initial and periodic accreditation, of locations and courses of study and this is what the data tells us". Therefore the appeal to Anna Maria Bernini, Minister of University and Research: "What we ask you is how the monitoring of the adaptation of these universities to the standards required by the 2023 decree is done".
WHAT BERNINI SAYS ABOUT TELEMATIC UNIVERSITIES
How did Bernini respond? “Telematic universities are not a piece of the university world that moves in a wild west of absence of rules and controls”, specified the government representative . “The study paths of online universities – added the minister – are definitely controlled and accredited by the Ministry which I am honored to represent.”
“And they are above all subject, like other universities, like in-person universities, to the evaluation of Anvur, which is the national agency for the evaluation of the university and research system”, recalled Bernini, forgetting however that precisely the Anvur proved to be very critical of virtual universities.
BUT WHAT DOES ANVUR REALLY SAY
In fact, according to what we read in the latest report from Anvur , the National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research System, a public body supervised by the Ministry of University and Research, which highlighted how during the 2022 courses the traditional universities had made one teacher available for every 28.5 students while in telematics the ratio rose to 384.8 students per teacher.
In fact, we read in the report: "The combined effect of the reduction in the teaching requirements required for the accreditation of study courses, in any case in the face of an increase in the number of teachers at the same time as the explosion in the number of students enrolled, has determined the significant increase in the student/teacher ratio, which went from 152.2 in 2012 to 384.8 in 2022 (an indicator approximately thirteen times higher than traditional universities)".
Anvur's conclusions are not at all rosy: "To think that a training offer can be supported by outsourcing all teaching outside the university is considered an element of little attention to the quality of teaching and the centrality of the student".
THE TABLE AT THE DICASTERY FOR TELEMATICS
Then Bernini entered into the merits of the issue: "The in-person universities and the online universities must have the same regulation method, taking into account the specific context".
“Presence teaching – underlined the head of the ministry – is not like distance learning: for this very reason we strongly wanted and created, at the Ministry of University and Research, a working group that includes telematic universities the President of the Conference of Rectors of Italian Universities, the National University Council and Anvur, in which we are giving common rules to all universities in order to do the only thing that the Ministry absolutely must do: guarantee the quality of the offer training to all, for all, with every method of delivery of the educational offer".
“The Ministry of the University is not the Antitrust – added the head of the ministry, underlining that “it must not regulate relations between online universities or between online universities and in-person universities; must do something fundamental, which is what we are committed to doing with all our strength: guaranteeing, for the benefit of students, the quality of the educational offer".
“The outcomes of this table – Bernini's promise – will include both in-person universities and distance universities, calculating that the model we are moving towards is a blended model, where, due to needs that evidently arise for the numbers that you rightly highlighted, even universities in attendance must respond to this area of request."
TELEMATIC UNIVERSITIES OR CAPITAL COMPANIES?
An answer which, however, does not seem to satisfy the opposition, judging by the reply of the dem senator D'Elia: “With due differences, we need the rules to be truly applied. Too many critical issues have emerged regarding online universities. I was mentioning the case of exams, which should always be done in person."
“These universities – the controversial comment – have become joint-stock companies, they have been purchased by foreign investment funds . There is an issue regarding profit, which can conflict with the quality of teaching, and we must absolutely be vigilant about this."
In short, the parliamentary game on online universities is only just beginning.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/cosa-dice-e-non-dice-bernini-al-pd-sulle-universita-telematiche/ on Fri, 19 Apr 2024 12:08:15 +0000.