Statement by Vincenzo Giannico at the Senate-BoD session on the appeal to the Council of State on the LM in English

Magnificent Rector,
Fellow Senators,
Dear Members of the Board of Directors

with regard to the question of the judgment of the TAR of Lombardy no. 01348/2013 annulling the resolution of the Academic Senate of 21 May 2012 in the specific point concerning the exclusive adoption of the English language for Master's Degree courses and for research doctorates,

Allotted

• whereas on 21 May 2012 the resolution of the Academic Senate in question was voted in favour and in a unified manner by all the student representation within the various lists, the result of a long reflection shared with the students of the Politecnico di Milano, aware of the opportunities that this choice would have entailed for each student, in terms of greater possibilities for cultural training, teaching and international work in the medium to long term.
• whereas the same choice was made on the basis of the conviction that internationalisation is an undisputed objective thanks to which the university can continue to guarantee in the future a level of education competitively adapted to the needs of a now globalised academic and work landscape; it follows, therefore, that the same educational internationalization, to be valid, must be accompanied by a linguistic internationalization, recognizing in a transversal way, that English is the most used language among people of different cultural and geographical origins and the most commonly used means for the expression of the concepts of scientific knowledge.

Emphasizing also,

• that the university has the right to direct Teaching and Research in the way deemed best through its collegial bodies such as the Academic Senate as written in art. 33 of the Italian Constitution: "Institutions of high culture, universities and academies, have the right to give themselves autonomous systems within the limits established by the laws of the State.", thus reaffirming their autonomy in following their own strategic lines of the University.
• that the action, limited to the courses of the master's degrees does not represent in itself a violation of the right to study, indeed it must be understood as an opportunity to undertake a two-year period that differs from the three-year period not only for the contents but also for the international openness already desired by the Bologna process.
• that the still favourable opinion of the students, which has emerged in generalized opinions in recent months and in the recent electoral campaign, moves towards the complete acceptance of the strategic lines already discussed here.
• that the contingent cultural and social context has radically changed compared to the academic context within which the r.d. 271 of 1933 was drawn up, to which the applicants appealed to invalidate the aforementioned resolution.
• that the adoption of the English language can be an impulse to attract students from every nation and not only from "similar" speaking countries. In addition, the interest is also to be able to have a greater exchange of teachers between universities (and potential creation of a Wunder-team of various nationalities), which allows in principle the raising of the level of research and the increase of university know-how.

Finally, we hope,

• That the process of internationalization remains a firm objective to be pursued whatever the choice in resorting or not to the Council of State, continuing where processes have already been undertaken in line with the strategy of the atheist and starting immediately, starting from the individual courses of study, to move actions that will lead, in the best way, to the objectives set and approved on May 21, 2012, with the commitment to combine this first phase of transition with a monitoring of the modalities so as to preserve the quality of the teaching provided by our university. That this turns out to be an opportunity to even improve its level.

For these reasons,

In continuity with the choice of the student representatives who jointly accepted the strategic lines towards the internationalization of the University and in particular voted for the adoption of the English language in the master's degrees and for the research doctorates and for what was expressed previously,

Declare

my willingness to vote in favour of the appeal to the Council of State.

Signed,
Antonio Vincenzo Giannico, member of the Academic Senate within the SvoltaStudenti list