Diritto Pubblico Comparato ed Europeo

Sommario

1. Premessa breve. – 2. Caratteri e articolazioni generali. – 3. Le “Ancient Universities” fra tradizione e innovazione. – 4. Le “Red Brick Universities”, creature dell’industrialismo liberale. – 5. Le “Plate Glass Universities” nel contesto del welfare State. – 6. Istruzione superiore e interventismo thatcheriano: l’Education Reform Act 1988. – 7. Il Further and Higher Education Act 1992 e l’ultima ondata: le “New (o ‘post-1992’) Universities”. – 8. Alcune coordinate interpretative: geo-sociologia ed elementi costitutivi della realtà universitaria. – 9. Le organizzazioni della competizione e della concertazione interuniversitaria. – 10. La politica universitaria del New Labour, l’Higher Education Act 2004 e la controversia sui tuition fees. – 11. Estrarre elementi di diritto costituzionale dal sistema universitario del Regno Unito.

Abstract

Lacking a single constitutional background, the present university system in the United Kingdom is the multilevel product both of the historical heritage of some ancient prototypes in England and in Scotland, and of a course of governmental reforms that in different ages reflected a keen interest of the British statesmanship in the enlargement of higher education opportunities. Since the Middle Age and the Renaissance period, and then the earlier liberal age and the welfare state and over, the “Ancient”, “Red Bricks”, “Plate Glass”, “New” and “Post-1992” are the different denominations reflecting the main waves of the remarkable growth of the university system in Britain; and they are also the basic keys to this essay’s approach to the multiform dimensions in the universities’historical development, organizational standards, asymmetrical features, pressure associations and relationships with central or devolved governments, and even to some constitutional issues affecting the whole system.