Country promotion: Uni-italia (Italy).

The peculiarity about the Italian HigherED promotion system is that it deploys a twofold organisation.

On the one side, there exists an agency, Uni-italia, which is a private association and as such legally detached by the government, although its operative site is placed within the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation (MAECI). Its legal site, though, is placed in Milan, c/o the premises of the preeminent Italian think-tank on foreign affairs, ISPI.

On the other, there is the ‘Study in Italy’ portal, which is co-ordinated by MAECI itself, its website being embedded within the ministry’s (Study in Italy: 2020). Study in Italy is a classic institutional portal, designed to provide information about courses, grants, fees, and enrollment procedures. Unlike other similar portals, apparently behind the Study in Italy initiative, there is not an operational organisation structured to actively market the country’s tertiary education abroad, this role is left to Uni-italia (see below).

Uni-italia

Though the meagre dedicated page of the Foreign Ministry reports link to Uni-italia and other stakeholders (MAECI: 2017), this is not the case for the Study in Italy initiative, that therefore looks somehow detached from the others. Parallel, MAECI fully recognises the importance of the international promotion of the country’s tertiary education: “The promotion abroad of the Italian higher education system is, by all means, a driving force for Italy’s economic development, due to the direct and indirect impact that a higher level of internationalisation of Italy’s higher education institutions would have on ‘Brand Italy as a whole” (MAECI: 2017).

Uni-italia was founded in 2010 “jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Education, University and Research, the Ministry of Interior [with] the aim of promoting Italian Higher Education and the mobility of foreign students and researchers towards Italian universities as well as encouraging academic cooperation between Italy and other foreign countries” (Uni-italia: 2020). The Association maintains branch offices in several countries, including China, India, Indonesia, Iran and Vietnam: its operative bureaus are located within the embassies compounds abroad. Uni-italia’s agenda is defined by its Council, which is composed of 7 members, 3 of which nominated one each by MAECI, the Interior Ministry, and the Ministry of Education.

From a procedural viewpoint, the nomination of the President and the Secretary-General is not accounted for on the website, nor is Uni-italia entrenched within any of the three quoted ministries’ organigrams.

The ministry of Education

The official document “Strategy for the international promotion of higher education 2017 / 2020”, jointly released in 2017 by MAECI and the minister for the University (MAECI-MIUR: 2017), represents a clear enunciation of what the Italian higher education ‘foreign policy’ should be, including a shortlist of main geographical targets (China, India, US, Mexico, Israel, Argentina, Iran, Ethiopia) and a further list of another 26 countries. Though not providing a clear objective in terms of how many students should the system recruit per year, the same document states that “it is time for Italy to strengthen its support structure for the promotion abroad of their higher education system, following the example of other countries (such as Germany with the DAAD, the United Kingdom with the British Council, etc.) thought strategic decisions must remain in the hands of […] MAECI and the ministry of education (MAECI-MIUR: 2017). This support structure, named “Uni-italia 2.0”, should be self-funded as much as possible, and capable to apply for, and score, EU funds where available.

The Società Dante Alighieri

A truly internationalisation engine of the Italian culture as a whole, and hence of the higher education sector as well, is the ‘Società Dante Alighieri’, established in 1893 with the purpose to foster the knowledge of the Italian culture and language in the world. Today, the association educates annually more than 120,000 learners, via a network of 401 committees, and 300 libraries, scattered around the globe (Società Dante Alighieri: 2020). Dante Alighieri is independent of Uni-italia, and from MAECI, to which is nonetheless linked via an operational agreement. There is scarce evidence of Dante Alighieri’s vision as a soft power instrument, though mention to ‘national identity’ is made on her website. The Italian model, where the rectors’ association (the CRUI) also plays a key role, especially as a think-tank, can be described as one of “bargained pluralism”, as on the one hand it clearly describes the nation’s interest in the internationalisation of its HE system, and the promotion of its universities abroad, on the other, fails to identify which ministry has the lead, and most importantly to grant Uni-italia (or Uni-italia 2.0) the necessary funds to “follow the example of other countries”.

Last, there is no clear evidence of a national debate upon soft power, and even less upon the ties between soft power and the internationalisation of the university system. That said, the Country scores remarkably well in the softpower30 index (in 2019, it was in 11th position globally), though one of the indicators that may need worth investing on appears, exactly, the higher education one (14th globally).