Recent Personnel Reforms of Public Universities in China and in Italy: A Comparison

Abstract

Purpose of the present research is an investigation of the most recent personnel reforms of higher education institutions in China and in Italy. A one-to-one comparison between the two realities would have been unrealistic, given the enormous differences between the two Countries in size and historical development. We focused our analysis on some basic issues common to both higher education institutions, such as the degree of the academic autonomy from the political power in the academic governance and the quality of the knowledge production and transfer to the society. The Sun Yat-Sen and the Guangzhou Universities in the Guangdong Province of China, and the Universities of Padua and Ca' Foscari in the Venetian Region of Italy, have been chosen as case studies. In China the personnel reforms introduced by the central government in the period 1995-2014, were accompanied by a relevant financial support by the central and regional authorities, which helped the national universities to attain high standards of excellence in the technological domain. Those remarkable financial investments by the central and regional authorities are paying off, contributing to the technological advancement of the Country. As for the Italian public universities, a very innovative reform law was introduced by the 'Ministry of Education, University and Research' in December 2010, which granted a high level of governance autonomy to those institutions. Unfortunately, the great financial crisis that hit the Country in the same period of time caused a strong reduction of the public funds to universities and a consequent brain drain of young post graduates toward Northern Europe and North America. In spite of this temporary shortage of funds, Italian public universities have maintained their high level of excellence in science, technology and humanities, as evidenced by the increasing number of their bilateral cooperation agreements, concerning student mobility and joint research activities with foreign universities all over the world, China included.

Diversity Management and Work Engagement of Academic Staff of Kyambogo University, Uganda

“…Approximately 20 per cent of academics in USA public universities exhibit low dedication by leaving their positions annually (Albaqami, 2016). This trend is reflected in European countries such as Italy where, also, 20 per cent of academic staff left public universities between 2008 and 2015 (Ha, 2018). In Africa, especially in sub-Saharan countries, work engagement of academic staff is also low.…”

Analysis on the Higher Education Sustainability in China Based on the Comparison between Universities in China and America

“…Remarkable financial investments from the central and regional authorities in China have paid off, contributing to the technological advancement of the country. Unfortunately, the great financial crisis in Italy caused a strong reduction of public funds to universities and a consequent brain drain of young post graduates in northern Europe and North America [10]. Kivinen O et al introduced a relational input-output model for the productivity analysis of university research.…”

Continuing Education in Italy: A Case Study

“…As for the Primary and Secondary Continuing Education, the adopted methodology consisted of examining the laws and the official reports from the Italian Ministry of Education and the official reports of the European Commission (such as EUROSTAT and the yearly edition of the Education and Training Monitor from 2012 to 2018) as well as books and research papers by educationalists, such as the volume entitled 'Adult Education Policy and the European Union', edited in 2014 by Milana F. and Holford J. As for the Tertiary Education, the Author adopted as a case study the University of Padua (UP), one of the Italian higher education institutions of excellence (Ha, 2018a). The extremely kind cooperation by the academic staff and the Statistical Office allowed the Author to obtain an updated information about the educational system of UP university, what constitutes the added value of the present research.…”