Recovery Plan in Italian Public Universities: the Siena case

Italian universities are currently facing tough changes and financial difficulties and, in some cases, action to restore (turn around) economic and financial balance has been needed. Ex-ternal and internal factors have contributed to this state of affairs. Global crisis, an overall reduction in public funding, radical organizational reforms, on one hand, and inadequate in-ternal management and control system, on the other, are the main challenges which Italian universities are currently coping with. This chapter focuses on the University of Siena, a medium-sized, centuries-old institution founded in 1240 with an excellent reputation. By the 1990s this University had been growing and expanding for many years (new faculties, more courses, increases in student numbers). But, its 2008 budget was significantly in the nega-tive and, after a long phase of growth, the whole University community experienced serious financial and organizational difficulties. The aim of this chapter is to examine how this situa-tion - already problematic and exasperated by an increasingly difficult external environment, in an academic context committed to change and facing internal financial difficulties com-bined with administrative issues – has been overcome. Financial difficulties were accompa-nied by significant organizational dysfunction and a worrying lack of appropriate manage-ment and control systems and tools.