Guido Tabellini Named Bocconi Rector for Second Term
In today's meeting of the Università Bocconi Board, upon President Mario Monti's proposal, a unanimous decision was made to renew Rector Guido Tabellini's mandate for a second two-year term, which will take place from 1 November 2010 to 31 October 2012.
A Full Professor in Economics, Guido Tabellini, 54, completed a PhD in Economics at UCLA (USA). After teaching at Stanford University, UCLA and the Universities of Cagliari and Brescia, he has been at Bocconi since 1994. Until 2002 he was Director of IGIER (the Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), and was then President of the institute until 2008. President of the European Economic Association in 2007, Tabellini is an honorary international member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been called upon as a consultant and expert of Italian governmental bodies and international organizations several times. He has been Rector at Università Bocconi since 1 November 2008.
During Tabellini's first term, the University noticeably grew in two directions: increasing its research and internationalizing the student body and faculty, with 70% of new faculty members either from outside Italy or with a PhD completed abroad.
In 2009-2010 the number of admissions applications to Bachelor programs was more than 6,200, breaking the University record. The last academic year was characterized by a progressive improvement in the University's visibility in the research community (applications to PhD programs last year increased by 42% over the previous year), a further migration of teaching from Italian language to English (which made up 35% of the University's educational offer in 2009-2010) and a continuing increase of international students (12% of first-year students in Bachelor programs and 10% of first-year students in Master of Science programs) and the opportunities to study and work abroad offered to students (numbering 2,800 in 2008-2009).
"We're used to thinking that technological progress and the accumulation of knowledge in the natural sciences is the main source of humanity's well-being and progress," explained Tabellini, speaking about the relevance of research in the field of economics. "But the ability to live together socially, organize ourselves as a free and democratic society, respect individual economic and civic rights, and make the free market economy and its businesses work is even more fundamental." This ability, adds Tabellini, "is the result of knowledge and values accumulated over time thanks to ideas from scholars in the social sciences broadly speaking, and communicated to society through the institution offered by universities which are free from political or economic power."
"I would like to give Guido Tabellini the University Board's warm gratitude, as well as my own personal gratitude," asserted Monti, "for having accepted to ensure his energies and well-renowned academic leadership to Bocconi for another two-year period, during this phase of important commitment to the development of the University."