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The Gelmini reform implemented in Italy in 2010 was designed to ensure greater efficiency and effectiveness within the higher education (HE) sector. The reform was implemented in a climate of general austerity, which caused severe cuts in public funds for the university system. This paper documents the unintended consequences of the reform in terms of a dramatic reduction in the number of job positions, career speed, and remunerations for academic staff -- which we describe as the 3Ls, i.e. Less staff, Later careers, Lower salaries. While the loss of wages cumulated is approximately equal to the average mortgage value for buying a house, the cost savings of the government are negligible, especially when compared to the adverse effects generated by the austerity reform. The profound inequality in the application, at the expense of younger and qualified faculties, mostly women, may lead to a long-lasting and irreversible consequences such as a loss of qualification and competitiveness for the whole HE system, as shown by the increasing phenomenon of brain drain.

Modern societies regularly face crises that have major disruptive effects. Learning from past crises can inform better choices and policies when facing a new one. Following the 2008 global financial crisis, higher education scholars explored its effects on students' tuition fees through cuts in public funding. This article instead investigates how universities' decisions on tuition fees have been affected by other factors, beyond the decrease in public funds. As such, it explores the role of competition and reputation in affecting universities' decisions on tuition fees when facing a crisis. Using data from 59 public Italian universities in the period between 2003 and 2014, we found that universities increased tuition fee by an average of 27% per student in response to the crisis. At the same time, high competition mitigated the increase of tuition fees, except for the case of highly reputed universities, which charged even higher tuition. These findings highlight the importance of monitoring fees in times of crises, as well as the complex role of competition and reputation in containing or inflating university tuition fees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gelmini reform implemented in Italy in 2010 was designed to ensure greater efficiency and effectiveness within the higher education (HE) sector. The reform was implemented in a climate of general austerity, which caused severe cuts in public funds for the university system. This paper documents the unintended consequences of the reform in terms of a dramatic reduction in the number of job positions, career speed, and remunerations for academic staff – which we describe as the 3Ls, i.e. Less staff, Later careers, Lower salaries. While the loss of wages cumulated is approximately equal to the average mortgage value for buying a house, the cost savings of the government are negligible, especially when compared to the adverse effects generated by the austerity reform. The profound inequality in the application, at the expense of younger and qualified faculties, mostly women, may lead to a long-lasting and irreversible consequences such as a loss of qualification and competitiveness for the whole HE system, as shown by the increasing phenomenon of brain drain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]