University-Hiring Law Passes in Italy.

EDUCATIONAL law & legislation; PUBLIC demonstrations; ITALIAN politics & government; EDUCATIONAL change; MORATTI, Letizia; TOSI, Piero; COLLEGE teachers

The article reports that Italy's parliament passed a controversial law last month regulating the hiring and legal status of university instructors, amid large protests in the country. As many as 150,000 people took part in demonstrations against the Moratti Reform, so called after Letizia Moratti, the minister of education. A group led by Piero Tosi, president of the Conference of Italian University Rectors, staged a sit-in outside the palace housing the Chamber of Deputies. Inside the parliament building, lawmakers from the center-left opposition walked out after they failed to prolong debate on the bill, which finally passed by a vote of 259 to 0. The new law eliminates the job category of permanent researcher, long considered a kind of second-class professorship, and introduces a new form of short-term research contract.