Lombardy, Italy 2011

256 Pages·2011·2.393 MB·English

by  OECD

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Higher Education in Regional and City Development e
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 E Higher Education in Regional and City 
Lombardy, Italy du
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Lombardy is the most prosperous region in Italy. Thanks to its economic diversity, it n
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has demonstrated unusual resilience in the face of the global recession. But the  R
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region faces long-term challenges emerging from an ageing population, immigration g
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and slow adaptation of practices and technologies that could enhance productivity. n
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How can Lombardy face stronger global competition? How can it attract and retain d
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talent? How can Lombardy raise educational attainment and unleash the potential of it
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its large university sector for local and regional development?  D
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This publication is part of the series of OECD reviews of Higher Education in lo
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Regional and City Development. These reviews help mobilise higher education
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institutions for economic, social and cultural development of cities and regions. They t
analyse how the higher education system impacts upon regional and local
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development and bring together universities, other higher education institutions and o
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public and private agencies to identify strategic goals and to work towards them. b
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89 2010 151   E
www.oecd.org/publishing
Higher Education
in Regional
and City Development:
Lombardy,
Italy
2011
This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD.
The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect
the official views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries.
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boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
ISBN 978-92-64-08946-4 (PDF)
Series: Higher Education in Regional and City Development
ISSN 2218-3140 (online)
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Design: © Francisco Esquer Mares.
Photo: © Foto PromoBellagio.
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FOREWORD –

Foreword
Universities and other tertiary education institutions can play a key role
in human capital development and innovation systems in their cities and
regions. Reviews of Higher Education in Regional and City Development
are the OECD’s tool to mobilise higher education for economic, social and
cultural development of cities and regions. They analyse how the higher
education system impacts local and regional development and help improve
this impact. They examine higher education institution’s contribution to
human capital and skills development; technology transfer and business
innovation; social, cultural and environmental development; and regional
capacity building. The review process facilitates partnership building in
regions by drawing together higher education institutions and public and
private agencies to identify strategic goals and work together towards them.
More information is available about the OECD review process and
requirements on the Higher Education and Regions’ website:
www.oecd.org/edu/imhe/regionaldevelopment.
These reviews are part of a wider multi-annum work of higher education
in cities and regions co-ordinated by the OECD Programme on Institutional
Management of Higher Education (IMHE). In 2004-07, the OECD/IMHE
conducted an extensive study with 14 regional reviews across 12 countries.
This resulted in the OECD flagship publication Higher Education and
Regions: Globally Competitive, Locally Engaged (OECD, 2007) with
recommendation to benefit both higher education institutions and national
and regional governments. In 2008, the OECD/IMHE launched a second
series of OECD reviews of Higher Education in Regional and City
Development to address the demand by national and regional governments
for more responsive and active higher education institutions and to support
the OECD strategies on innovation and green growth. As a result, 14 regions
in 11 countries, including the Lombardy region in Italy, underwent the
OECD review process in 2008-11. The reviews were carried out by the
OECD/IMHE in collaboration with international organisations and
associations, and other OECD programmes and directorates.
Lombardy was the first Italian region to participate in the series of
reviews of higher education in regional and city development. The review
HIGHER EDUCATION IN REGIONAL AND CITY DEVELOPMENT, LOMBARDY, ITALY © OECD 2011
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– FOREWORD

was undertaken during the time when the university sector was in flux due
to the launch of the new university law. The Regional Government of
Lombardy had also requested greater competencies from the State in terms
of universities, research and innovation.
HIGHER EDUCATION IN REGIONAL AND CITY DEVELOPMENT, LOMBARDY, ITALY © OECD 2011
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS –

Acknowledgements
Numerous national and regional stakeholders, and representatives of
higher education institutions provided valuable insights during the review
visit and in the form of comments. The OECD would like to thank the
Regional Government of Lombardy, the Rectors of the Lombardy
universities, other representatives of higher education institutions, as well as
numerous regional stakeholders who provided valuable insights during the
pre-visit and the review visit.
The OECD would like to thank: Alberto Brugnoli (Director General,
IReR – Lombardy Regional Institute for Research)1, the Regional Co-
ordinator; Carlo Secchi (Professor of European Economic Policy, Bocconi
University) and Paolo Trivellato (Professor of Sociology, University of
Milan-Bicocca), President and Vice-President, and all members of the
Regional Steering Committee, Giuseppe Catalano (Professor of Public
Economics, Politecnico di Milano), Cristiana Cattaneo (Associate Professor
of Business Administration, University of Bergamo), Manuela De Carlo
(Associate Professor of Business Administration, IULM), Gioacchino
Garofoli (Professor of Economic Policy, University of Insubria), Enrico
Marelli (Professor of Economic Policy, University of Brescia), Alberto
Martinelli (Professor of Political Science and Sociology, University of
Milan), Vito Moramarco (Professor of Economic Policy, Università
Cattolica del Sacro Cuore), Antonio Emilio Scala, (Professor of
Biochemistry, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University) Andrea Taroni (Rector
of Carlo Cattaneo University – LIUC), Antonella Zucchella (Professor of
Marketing and of Innovation Management, University of Pavia), Ignazio
Gadaleta, (Professor of Painting, Brera Academy of Fine Arts), Nadia Nigris
(Vice-Director General, Teatro alla Scala Academy), Pietro Paraboni

1 In January 2011 IReR merged with IReF (Istituto Regionale Lombardo di Formazione per
l’amministrazione pubblica) to form a new organisation: Éupolis Lombardia - Istituto
superiore per la ricerca, la statistica e la formazione (Éupolis Lombardia - Institute for
Research, Statistics and Training).

HIGHER EDUCATION IN REGIONAL AND CITY DEVELOPMENT, LOMBARDY, ITALY © OECD 2011
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– ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

(President, Compagnia delle Opere Monza e Brianza), Fabio Ramaioli
(Regional Secretary, APIlombarda), Roberto Albonetti (Director General,
Social Welfare and Family Affairs Department), Marco Carabelli (Deputy
Secretary General, Program Implementation), Ferruccio Ceccarelli
(Executive, Planning Department), Armando De Crinito (Director of
University and Research Unit) and Ada Fiore (Executive, Education
Training and Labour Department).
Our appreciation goes also to the co-ordinators of the Working Group,
Sabrina Bandera and Alessandro Sala, both researchers at the IReR
(Lombardy Regional Institute for Research).
This publication draws on interviews carried out during a week-long
review visit that took place on 27 June – 2 July 2010, on the findings of
Self-evaluation Report of Lombardy (IReR, 2010), additional information
provided to the review team as well as other OECD work, especially the
reviews of the 14 regions involved in the second series of OECD reviews of
higher education in regional and city development. The OECD review team
had a full and intensive programme and were received openly by a wide
range of stakeholders for review visit agenda, see Annex II. The team were
also able to rely on a range of other reports, including OECD Reviews of
Regional Innovation: Piedmont, Italy (OECD, 2009), OECD Territorial
Reviews: Venice, Italy (OECD, 2010), OECD Economic Surveys: Italy
(OECD, 2011) and tested their conclusions and recommendations within the
higher education sector in Lombardy.
This publication was co-ordinated by Jaana Puukka (OECD/IMHE),
assisted by Austin Delaney (OECD/IMHE) and Òscar Valiente
(OECD/IMHE). Jaana Puukka led the expert team who participated in the
review visit and contributed to this report: Susan Christopherson (Cornell
University, United States), Patrick Dubarle (former OECD Secretariat,
France), Helena Nazaré (Portugal) and Giuseppe Ronsisvalle (University of
Catania, Italy). In addition, Andrea Hofer (OECD/LEED) participated in the
review visit. Further details about the review team can be found in Annex 1
of this report. Rachel Linden supervised the publication process and Freya
Damrell provided valuable assistance in the final editing phase.
HIGHER EDUCATION IN REGIONAL AND CITY DEVELOPMENT, LOMBARDY, ITALY © OECD 2011
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TABLE OF CONTENTS –

Table of contents
Acronyms ............................................................................................................ 12
Assessment and recommendations .................................................................... 17
Chapter 1. Lombardy in context ...................................................................... 47
Lombardy: governance and demography ........................................................ 48
Regional economy ........................................................................................... 54
Higher education in Italy ................................................................................. 57
Higher education in Lombardy ....................................................................... 67
Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 73
Annex 1.A.1. New University Law ................................................................. 80
Annex 1.A.2. Higher education in Lombardy ................................................. 82
Annex 1.A.3. Research in Lombardy .............................................................. 84
Annex 1.A.4. European regional innovation ................................................... 85
Chapter 2. Human capital, labour market and skills ..................................... 87
Lombardy: an SME-based economy ............................................................... 90
Lombardy higher education: performance ...................................................... 95
Relevance of education ................................................................................... 98
Aligning skills and competencies development with regional needs ............ 105
Conclusions and recommendations ............................................................... 124
Annex 2.A.2. Widening access to and improving success in higher education:
Victoria University ........................................................................................ 137
Annex 2.A.4. Creative and cultural industries .............................................. 142
Chapter 3. Research, development and innovation ...................................... 145
Introduction ................................................................................................... 146
Innovation and higher education potential in the region ............................... 148
Challenges ..................................................................................................... 158
Conclusions and recommendations ............................................................... 185
Chapter 4. Social, cultural and environmental development ....................... 195
Introduction ................................................................................................... 196
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Demographic transition ................................................................................. 197
Universities and the regional health system .................................................. 200
Lombardy higher education institutions and the creative economy .............. 203
Universities and environmental sustainability .............................................. 206
Conclusions and recommendations ............................................................... 214
Chapter 5. Capacity building for regional development .............................. 221
Introduction ................................................................................................... 222
Higher education system: need for system diversity ..................................... 222
HE governance, funding and quality assurance ............................................ 224
Strategies and capacity building at the regional level ................................... 233
Conclusions and recommendations ............................................................... 239
Annex A OECD review team members ......................................................... 245
Annex B Review visit agenda ......................................................................... 248

Tables

Table 1.1. The governance structure of Italy: The region of Lombardy ......... 50
Table 1.2. Population - sub-regional disparities, 2009 .................................... 53
Table 1.3. Foreign residents: countries of origin (%), 2009 ............................ 53
Table 1.4. Foreigners in Lombardy (%) among population aged 18-25 years
old, 2003, 2009, 2020, 2030 ............................................................................ 54
Table 1.5. Value added by economic sector .................................................... 56
Table 1.6. Enterprises in terms of the number of employees (%), 1999-2007 57
Table 1.7. Sources of funding, 1990 and 2007 ................................................ 68
Table 1.8. MIUR rankings for re-allocation of 7% of FFO, 2009 ................... 68
Table 1.9. Institutions involved in the Poli formativi ...................................... 69
Table 1.10. Industry sectors of Poli formativi ................................................. 70
Table 1.11. Technology transfer output indicators per 1 000 professors, 2007
......................................................................................................................... 72
Table 1.A.2.1 Lombardy’s universities, 2009 ................................................. 82
Table 1.A.2.2. Academies and conservatories of art, music and dance .......... 83
Table 1.A.4.1. European regional innovation scoreboard and Lombardy ....... 85
Table 2.1. 30+ population participating in lifelong education ...................... 101
Table 2.2. Europe’s Top 25 regions for creative and cultural industries:
employment ................................................................................................... 117
Table 2.A.3.1. Types of entrepreneurship teaching approaches .................... 140
Table 2.A.4.1. Top 15 regions in the creative and cultural industries ........... 142
Table 3.1. Lombardy universities and research centres ................................ 149
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Table 3.2. Higher Education and business R&D in Lombardy and selected
other Italian regions ....................................................................................... 150
Table 3.3. Lombardy universities in Scimago classification ......................... 153
Table 3.4. English language provision in Italian and Lombardy universities165
Table 3.5. Science parks in Lombardy .......................................................... 173
Table 3.6. Number of venture capital deals ................................................... 185
Table 4.1. Selected galleries, auction houses and publishers in Milan ......... 203
Table 5.1. Typology of tertiary education quality frameworks ..................... 232
Table 5.2. The Lombardy’s competitiveness framework and HE’s role ....... 238

Figures

Figure 1.1. Map of Italy and Lombardy .......................................................... 49
Figure 1.2. Demographic growth .................................................................... 51
Figure 1.3. Trend of immigrant population ..................................................... 52
Figure 1.4. Contribution to GDP growth by main economic branches, 2000-07
......................................................................................................................... 55
Figure 1.5. Population that has attained at least tertiary education, 2008 ....... 59
Figure 1.6. Completion rates in type A tertiary education programmes ......... 60
Figure 1.7. Unemployment rates of higher education graduates in the age
group from 25 to 29 years for selected OECD countries, 2006 ...................... 61
Figure 1.8. HERD as a percentage of GDP in selected countries, 2008.......... 62
Figure 1.9. HERD financed by industry (%) ................................................... 62
Figure 1.10. Public expenditure on tertiary education as a percentage of GDP,
2007 ................................................................................................................. 64
Figure 1.11. Annual expenditure by educational institutions in tertiary
education (including R&D activities) per student for all services, 2007) ....... 65
Figure 1.12. Patents registered, 2007 .............................................................. 71
Figure 1.13. R&D intensity in Italy across four sectors .................................. 71
Figure A.1.3. Research structures by sector, 2010 .......................................... 84
Figure 2.A.1. Average PISA score in the Italian regions, 2009 .................... 133
Figure 2.A.2. Average PISA score in the OECD Countries and Lombardy,
2009 ............................................................................................................... 135

Boxes

Box 1.1. State funding of universities in Italy ................................................. 66
Box 2.1. SME succession planning in Finland ................................................ 94
Box 2.2. How to reduce dropout ..................................................................... 98
Box 2.3. VULCANO service ........................................................................ 100
HIGHER EDUCATION IN REGIONAL AND CITY DEVELOPMENT, LOMBARDY, ITALY © OECD 2011