¿Cuánto queda de la noche? El retorno a la renta y las aventuras de la universidad (italiana)

What about the night? The raise of the return on capital and the (Italian) university’s adventures. In the last few decades, many tensions have developed around the university as an institution. Once a flywheel for climbing the social ladder, the academic institution seems to have lost its relevance as a vehicle for social and economic mobility. So far, no reform has succeeded in solving the fundamental problems that prevent the university from functioning as a “transmission belt”, as Louis Althusser would put it. Tensions have grown around every aspect of the functions, operations and “structure” of the university: the organization, the recruitment of both faculty and staff, governance, curriculum, teaching practices, and institutional goals and priorities. Today, everyone calls for a meritocratic system in higher education while at the same time they complain about the current state of affairs. This article tries to re-construct – etsi Marx non daretur – the connections between the current form of capital and its superstructural effects, particularly in Italy. Here we enquire whether the recent rise in the return on capital in today’s economy is connected with the social erosion of the university’s place in society.