The changing role of Universities in Italy: Placement services

The centuries old concept of a university as a self regulating body based onfreedom and a priori trust granted by society as a whole is now in crisis due tothe European reforms initiated in the nineties. Ambivalence and contradictionsin the academic world itself have further accentuated this crisis, a crisis thatnow questions the role of knowledge in society and a university’s very raisond’être. Consequently, while there is recognition of the right for autonomy in thepursuit of knowledge there is a perception that society should be able to turnto universities for assistance in solving its basic problems. From this comes aconcept of a university, and of knowledge, increasingly ready to respond tothe claims of its diverse stakeholders. These external pressures strengthen thelinks between a university and external economic and social developments.Placement services are one of the methods used by universities to organizetheir connections to society and the external environment as a whole and isone that offers added value to the university’s internal or external customers.Therefore, this study investigates the placement services in the Italian universities,with the aim to recognize capacity and limitations to reconceptualisetheir role in regards of Third Mission and manage them towards that.