The General Assembly of CoDAU, the Association of General Directors of Italian universities, was held in Rome at the Conference Hall of the Marco Besso Foundation. The President of CoDAU, Alberto Scuttari, introduced the works by reaffirming the role of CoDAU as “professional network” dedicated to discussing the many operational and management issues affected by the challenges that the university world is facing: the declining birth rate, the mobility of students and researchers between territories and nations, technological innovation”. “
The CoDAU mission
” – declared Scuttari – “
is to intercept these relationships, coordinating them with a view to providing service to the universities and the country
”.
Guest of honor the prof. Giovanna Iannantuoni, newly elected President of the Conference of Rectors of Italian Universities (CRUI) who focused his speech on the mission of universities as crucial institutions for the growth of the country, in the research that becomes innovation and development and in the training of young people through education in critical thinking, an essential factor for their growth, freedom, possibility of entering the world of work, to be aware citizens. For this reason it is important that the point of view of the universities is represented to those responsible for political decisions. “A current example“- stated Iannantuoni “it is the serious situation of medical entrance tests and the debate on the scheduled number. These are issues with respect to which the CRUI must provide the political decision maker with all the elements necessary to make decisions that consider all the elements at play. For this reason, the comparison with the perspective of university management is important
“. Another issue addressed by the CRUI President is that of the birth rate decline, in fact from 2027-28 a significant number of students will be missing, distributed differently between northern and southern Italy and for this reason “it is important to increase the percentage of young people who choose university studies, looking for example at students who are children of second generation immigrants who often do not choose university studies, through a targeted orientation action, also as a theme of social cohesion, as well as encouraging internationalization of universities. There is a need to simplify the rules and approval times for courses to create a training offer that is in step with the times, through multidisciplinary and innovative courses and programs instituted in collaboration between national and international universities” concluded Iannantuoni.
After thanking the CRUI President Iannnatuoni for the speech, the President of CoDAU Scuttari illustrated the organization of the new Working Groups of the Associationgrouped into the following themes: personnel, managerial development, research, teaching, programming and finance, internal processes and digital transformation, evaluation of universities, internationalization and innovation, construction and environmental sustainability. The Assembly then approved the Budget Plan Document for 2024 and the appointment of the Board of Auditors.
In closing, the calendar of events scheduled for the first semester of 2024 was shared: a seminar on Artificial Intelligence will be held in Rome on 2 February, at Palazzo Baleani of La Sapienza University, while the next CoDAU Assembly is scheduled for April/May 2024 and will see the presentation of the results of the report on “The European comparison of technical-administrative activities in universities: perimeter, allocation, organization and rules of engagement”. Finally, the next location of the CoDAU National Conference was announced, which this year will be held at the University of Florence between the second half of September and the beginning of October.
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