THE EVALUATION OF THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM FROM THE BOLOGNA PROCESS (1999) TO TODAY: SOME REFLECTIONS ON IMPROVEMENT APPLICABLE TO THE ITALIAN MODEL

The Bologna Process was born in 1999 as an intergovernmental collaboration agreement in the Higher Education sector. The initiative was launched with the Bologna Conference at the conference of European Higher Education Ministers, signed in Bologna in June 1999 and inspired by the previous meeting of the Ministers of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom in 1998 (Sorbonne Declaration 1998). The objective was precisely to build a European Higher Education Area that was based on principles and criteria shared between the participating countries. Subsequently, the inspiring principles of the reform were implemented by the various countries adhering to the reform. At a European level, both specific agencies operating in the field of evaluation of Higher Education and research systems (e.g. ANVUR, ARACIS, etc.), as well as regulatory bodies (e.g. ENQA, EQAR. etc.), have been created. In Italy, the reform was started by Law 30/12/2010, n. 240, “Regulations regarding the organization of universities, academic staff and recruitment, as well as delegation to the Government to encourage the quality and efficiency of the university system”: Law no. 240/2010 therefore represents the starting point of the reform launched in Italy. The objective of the paper is to offer an overview of the state of the art of the application of the reform in Italy 25 years after the start of the Bologna Process.