Chapter L’Ateneo negli anni dell’università di massa e dei movimenti studenteschi

Abstract

Between the 1950’s and the 1970’s, Italian university students’ population grew up to mass levels, and passed from less than 250,000 to over one million. The University of Florence even faced higher growth rates, and problems related to students’ welfare and services rapidly arose. Local university institutions, and even the educational culture of faculty members, still focused on the traditional model of elite university studies of the early Twentieth century, were barely suitable to face the new social dimension of higher education, while Italian national government failed in implementing a convincing overall educational reform. Tensions finally exploded with students’ movements of Sessantotto and Settantasette.