How to intervene on the erosion of our demographic heritage? «In addition to containing the negative items linked to survival levels and emigration flows – said Blangiardo – it is necessary to know how to act on the positive ones, that is to say to operate on the immigration front and, above all, on the annual frequency of births. In other words, it is a question of acting on the two components that are directly associated with the concept of “demographic GDP”, a somewhat provocative invention arising from the idea of being able to attribute to every demographic event capable of generating life-years of the future meaning of producer of a “good” whose value, precisely, is expressed and measured in terms of the years created (the demographic GDP) ».
Good and bad practices from the lockdown
“The lockdown unleashed a sort of tsunami on the traditional relationship system, operational fatigue and psychological distress included in the package” underlined the rector Federico Visconti. «Hot reinterpreted, it was a period that leaves a legacy of“ good practices ”. Tension towards innovation, teamwork, continuous learning, have effectively supported the migration of didactic activity from the four walls of a classroom to a virtual context ». However, there were also the so-called “bad practices”: «For example, having lost the formal, aesthetic, symbolic dimension of what was being done. A lecture in a classroom is one thing, in front of a computer is another. Ditto an exam and a graduation session. The message is clear and strong: after three semesters conditioned by the pandemic, we need to go back to “doing university” ».
Growing enrollments
Visconti then recalled «that registrations grew by about 10% in the period 2019-21 and by over 45% in the period 2017-21. Also for the 2021-22 academic year, the achievement of the enrollment ceiling approved by the Board of Directors is taking shape well in advance of the past. Currently, the student population is about 2,900 students ».
“The Liuc – recalled the president of the University Carlo Cattaneo, Riccardo Comerio – represents the only Italian University wanted, founded and directly managed by an entrepreneurial association, created to offer training that is as close as possible to the demands of the business world. Thirty years ago, it was a completely courageous and visionary initiative, aimed at filling a void then present in the Italian educational panorama. For this we have to thank the will of over 300 entrepreneurs from Univa and the Alto Milanese area ».
Just 26 months after the start of the project, in October 1991, «the academic activities began – Comerio underlines -. On 3 September 1999, thanks to a project financing operation for a restructuring and functional adaptation, the new University Residence was also ready, within the same Campus. Now, after 30 years, Liuc remains a meeting point between universities, businesses and the local area. We started with just over 200 freshmen in 1991 and now we have over 1,000 new registrations ».