According to the Italian national law regulating tuition fees, students are required to pay Universities an amount of money decided autonomously by the different institutions. On that regard, the Ministry of Education has established that such amounts cannot be higher than 20% of the FFO (Ordinary Funding Service). Universities are also required to set different fee contribution levels on the basis of students’ economic conditions, which are calculated taking into account the Equivalent Economic Situation Indicator (ISEE).
The reality, however, is quite different. Many Universities have exceeded the limit of 20% mentioned above, and such a situation is expected to worsen in the future because of the general reduction imposed on the FFO. Furtherly, Universities evaluate students’ economic condition in different ways. Sometimes, indeed, they consider the whole income without deducting IRPEF (the Italian individual income tax), sometimes they do deduct it. And the specification of fee contribution levels is arbitrary as well. Undoubtedly, the system needs to be changed. At the same time, this change needs to be carefully evaluated.
In May 2001, during a parliamentary question session, a number of political parties asked the Minister of the Economy and the Minister of Education to modify the Italian University contribution system, following the British example. The parties proposed to allow Universities to raise tuition fees up to a certain level (in the UK the limit is 9000£ per year) and give the students with particular requirements the possibility of paying such amounts of money through a loan provided by the State. The loan will then be paid down by graduates when their income will exceed a certain threshold (21000£ in the UK).
According to those who proposed the transformation, this innovative system might “contribute to increasing the number of people going to University and create a positive competition among the different institutions which, consequently, would improve their training supply. In this way, Universities would obtain more financial resources, without bureaucratic and administrative problems and the poorest would not be penalised”. Unfortunately the direct relation “more resources” = “better training supply” has never been proved. According to the OECD[1] data, on average, an Italian student pays every year 827€ for tuition fees. In Spain students pay around 590€ per year, in France 480€ and in Germany fees range from a minimum of 500€ to a maximum of 1000€, according to a reform recently introduced in some areas of the country. In many other countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden) University education is free, and this does not mean that the quality of these systems is lower than ours.
And are we really sure that the perspective of raising fees and getting into debt may convince people to go to University? On that regard, even in the UK some doubts arise. As a result of the 2004 reform, establishing a top-up fee of 3.000£[2], the number of students pursuing higher education studies has remained quite stable. But data show that students coming from low income families – whose debt aversion is much stronger – generally choose less expensive Universities[3].
From some other surveys carried out in the UK, there emerge alarming data concerning the will of students to go to University because of the recent reform tripling tuition fees in 2012[4] .
- 1 student out of 4 says he or she wants to postpone University enrollment. They want to work full time for a while, save money and enroll later. Many parents support this choice, because in 51% percent of cases, they cannot afford so expensive fees.
- Among the parents who want to give their children an economic support, 24% say they will use all their savings, 10% say they will change their housing loans or sell their house for buying a smaller one.
- In order to reduce the debt, many students say they will be obliged to live with their parents and 1 student out of 4 declares that he or she will choose University studies able to guarantee better paid jobs, giving up his or her personal interests. 8% of parents will try to convince their children to choose studies giving them the opportunity to enter soon into the labour market.
Privileged students, therefore, will choose the best Universities, pay very high fees and obtain prestigious certifications and well paid jobs, maybe. We cannot ignore, indeed, the current situation of the Italian labour market where, a year after the graduation, a graduate earns on average 1100€ per month, an amount of money which, five years after the graduation, remains lower than 1400€[5]. In this context, how can people pay down the debt? On the contrary, students coming from poorer families will choose less expensive faculties, obtain less prestigious certifications and find low-wage jobs, through which they will have to pay down a debt which, probably, is higher than that of their wealthier fellow students. According to the data on the British system, students living in low income families are much more indebted than the others[6] (+ 43%). The most serious risk of such a system is that of making the access to University education an élite condition. University might transform, therefore, into a place of social exclusion with no space for cultural exchange. It is quite clear that this is far from the equity principle.
[1] OECD Indicators, Education at a Glance 2010.
[2] The previous reform of the contribution system in the UK allowed Universities to raise fees up to 3000£. Before, students paid an amount of around 1200£.
[3] Brenda Little, Centre for Higher Education Research and Information, The Open University, presented at EUROSTUDENT IV final Conference, Copenhagen, Giugno 2011.
[4] AIC - Association of Investment Companies, UK, Giugno 2011.
[5] 13th Survey on the Employment Situation of Graduates, Almalaurea, 2011.
[6] C. Callender, Access to Higher Education in Britain, in Cost-sharing and Accessibility in Higher Education: A Fairer Deal?, Springer, 2008.
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