Abstract

The Italian higher education system has entered a phase of deep institutional change. The reform, undertook by the former center-left government, is changing the whole system structure, its tasks and the means to achieve them. Notwithstanding the government has changed in 2001 with the victory of center-right coalition and its attempts and tempations to modify some reform's structure arrangements, the process of change has not stopped. The article focuses the organizational changes that such a process entails, using the conceptual category of post-fordism, by which to address the issue about how the Italian University is changing. The main question is therefore, whether the University is going toward a post-fordist model, and thus marking a transformation of its institutional form, or it is adapting at the wider structural trends and pressures, combining them with its traditional institutional arrangements and repertoires.