Telematic universities, here is the sword of Damocles on Pegasus, Mercatorum and beyond
All the details on the regulatory risk for the activities of online universities, starting with Pegaso, Mercatorum, San Raffaele and more
There is a sword of Damocles hanging over the 11 telematic universities existing in Italy and therefore also over those of the Multiversity group. ( here the accounts of the group ). It is called ministerial decree 1154/2021 and imposes requirements on all universities regarding both the number of teachers and that of students (85% of whom attend public universities and 15% the current 31 private universities).
THE RISKS INDICATED IN THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF THE MULTIVERSITY GROUP
Due to this situation, says the 2022 financial statements , "since the scenario is still open and unpredictable, it was not objectively predictable, as it still is, to predict if and what impacts the DM1154 will produce".
THE CASE OF TELEMATIC UNIVERSITIES
After all, it has been known for years that telematic universities were the object of particular attention. Already the policy act on the 2017 update to the National Anti-Corruption Plan – University section, when Valeria Fedeli was Minister of Education and University, provided – also in light of the critical issues indicated in the Report drawn up by the Commission set up ad hoc at the department – some specific measures. Starting from the fact that the applicable discipline had to be "made homogenized" with respect to that of traditional universities and that Anvur (National University Evaluation and Research Agency) had to subject the processes relating to exams and the degree.
THE DM 1154/2021 ON EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS
On 14 October 2021, when Maria Cristina Messa was in Viale Trastevere, ministerial decree 1154/2021 was issued which modified the educational requirements for universities in terms of the type of teachers to be guaranteed and the methods for calculating the number of students, without distinction between telematic and non-telematic universities. A directorial decree arrived later, 2711/2021 which set November 30, 2024 as the date for verifying the requirements.
THE ANVUR ALARM
As Il Messaggero informs , pending the verification as of November 30, 2024, the National Evaluation Agency is dishing up all too clear numbers. According to the latest document on the Higher Education and Research System, published last June, during the courses held in 2022, traditional universities made available on average one professor for every 28.5 students, while telematic ones one for every 384.8 students . From these figures alone it is easy to understand the difference in costs/revenues and quality standards offered.
APPEALS TO THE TAR AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC, THE TABLE AT THE MINISTRY
In the meantime, the telematic universities have responded to the decrees by presenting appeals to the Lazio Regional Administrative Court, with a request for precautionary measures, all with substantially similar content and all rejected.
Finally, in February 2022, the last attempt: an extraordinary appeal to the President of the Republic. The aim was to annul the provisions of the ministerial decree and in particular the planned increase in the number of teachers. A move that however was rejected: the Third Section of the Administrative Court of Lazio with short sentence n. 17236 of 21 December 2022 rejected the appeal of the Pegaso Telematic University and Universitas Mercatorum and the universities of the Multiversity group approved and presented the plan for reaching the number of teachers to be hired in the light of Ministerial Decree 1154/2021.
The financial statements show that Pegaso and Mercatorum in their appeal "contested further profiles of legitimacy to the DM compared to those presented by the other appellants and on which there has not yet been a decision".
Following all this legal controversy, the ministry – with ministerial decree 294/2021 – established the Table of telematic universities to activate a discussion on specific issues especially in relation to the definition of the training offer, on the guarantee of quality and sustainability of training , on the use of e-learning technologies. During the meetings of the Table, the review of the necessary requirements set forth in Ministerial Decree 1154/2021 was also discussed.
TELEMATIC UNIVERSITIES, THE DM 930/2022 ON DOUBLE DEGREE ENROLLMENT
Another ministerial decree that impacts the Multiversity group is 930 of 29 July 2022 on the start of enrollment in a double degree for the year 2022/2023. The DM specifies that each student can enroll at the same time in two different degree courses, master's or master's degrees, research doctorates or specialization courses (with the exception of the medical one) even at several Italian and foreign universities. This is a provision that can clearly benefit telematic universities and in fact the Multiversity report reads: “Simultaneous enrollment makes it possible to achieve learning objectives and training targets that are more consistent with the standards of European countries. In fact, students will be able to be more competitive thanks to the numerous and transversal skills acquired; it will be possible to speed up access to the world of work for those in training; greater freedom of choice is offered both with regard to the demand and supply of work; students will be able to obtain a better and more varied specialization; in this way the consolidation of differentiated skills will be achieved”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/universita-telematiche-ecco-la-spada-di-damocle-su-pegaso-mercatorum-e-non-solo/ on Sun, 20 Aug 2023 05:04:26 +0000.