The social functions of the Italian university have changed through a process of intense bureaucratisation and the fragmentation of roles and responsibilities. The essay traces the stages of this process of transformation, setting it within the history of the Italian university. To this end, it critically analyses the evolution of university regulations and legislation; then, it makes some critical considerations about the limits and contradictions of today’s university. In particular, it focuses on the danger of emptying out the content of what is taught (the what), which is placed in second place to the “techniques” of learning (the how), removing the specific features of the discipline. In this way, not only is university teaching impoverished, but the overall drying up of school education is accompanied by an impoverishment of the content of academic teaching, emptying out the content of scientific research.

Italian University; University Legislation; University History; Mass University; University Teaching.

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