The social role of peripheral universities and tax exemptions, the Italian case

In the dynamic center-periphery, the universities located in the peripheral areas, characterized by income, employment and infrastructural gaps, as well as increasing rates of skilled migration, have experienced increasing difficulties in recent years in terms of enrolment, recruitment and the ability to intercept sources of funding. This dynamic is particularly present in the Italian system, characterized by structural weaknesses that persist for at least a decade. In Italy, this marginalization phenomenon is impoverishing peripherical Universities jeopardising their role as civic actors for the most peripheral territories. This paper addresses the case of Italian universities in which we are witnessing the gradual decline of universities in the more peripheral areas and a constant growth of universities located in the most dynamic center of the country, as emerged within a working group operating between 2020 and 2021 on behalf of the Ministry of University. In this scenario by 2040, in line with demographic estimates, some universities in peripheral areas may need to close, resulting in a social and economic impoverishment of their home territories. This paper aims to evaluate the introduction of tax exemptions measures introduced in 2017 and extended by the government in 2021 in the aim of stemming this decline. The results of our analysis indicate that tax exemptions and more generous bursaries positively affect the retention rate of central universities and the attraction rate of the peripheral ones. Hence, it represents a significant policy factor capable of increasing the presence of universities in peripheral regions and, consequently, their capacity to generate societal impact within them.