The Culture of Accountability in Italian Universities: Strengths and Weaknesses

This research work aims to highlight social reporting and accountability system in Italian universities. After cases analysis and content analysis, we provide an overview of the state-of-the-art of accountability in academic research and education. In this perspective, a brief analysis of the most relevant literature regarding the topic is finalized to address and to compare Italian experiences of social reporting. Effective accountability systems can indeed turn from tools into goals in public administrations, and in doing so reporting takes on a completely different meaning: it is a contribution to the social added value created by the university, an extra obligation to take towards stakeholders, a further service to engage in to strengthen democracy. The culture of accountability should be introduced and guided mainly by law, with legal requirements about deadlines, tools and goals, and supervised by third-party authorities. Further work is still needed to fully grasp measurement complexities and the potential lying in the evaluation of academic performance – especially with relation to sociality and sustainability – that plays an important role in national and international ranking systems.