April 29, 2012

In Italy, a Dysfunctional University System Sinks Deeper Into Decay

Italy's Dysfunctional System Sinks Into Deeper Decay 1

Chris Warde-Jones for The Chronicle

Andrea Bordi, an architect, taught for years for no pay, hoping to become a professor. He thought he would "be one of the lucky ones. And I wasn't."

By Megan Williams

Rome

At an outdoor cafe in a small, quaint piazza in historic Rome, Andrea Bordi, a slightly rumpled 45-year-old, gazes yearningly across the square at the University of Rome La Sapienza's Faculty of Architecture, a rundown Baroque-era palazzo where he has spent much of his adult life. Since receiving his Ph.D. from the faculty 15 years ago, Mr. Bordi, an architect, worked first as an unpaid assistant and researcher until, five years ago, taking on a series of short-term professor contracts,