The future of USI and the strategic vision for the region

Thirty years after the founding of USI, Remigio Ratti, a former member of the coordinating committee that founded the Faculty of Economics, reflects on the University's role in its relationship with the region, balancing international recognition, governance challenges, and responsibility towards the country. It is a call to renew vision, dialogue, and cohesion between academia, politics, and society.

In a commentary published by L'Osservatore, Remigio Ratti offers a reflection on the path and prospects of Università della Svizzera italiana on its thirtieth anniversary. In his piece, Ratti first acknowledges the University's growth, describing it as the result of a journey that has transformed USI into "a node, albeit of modest size, within the Swiss and international academic network". Recalling the development of the Faculties, the increase in student numbers, and the growth in competitive research funding, he also emphasises that the University has achieved "significant positions in international rankings, especially in relation to its age and size".

According to Ratti, USI and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) represent for Ticino "that essential leap in quality for the growth of its social and economic capital", helping to strengthen the region's role in an area between the north and south of the Alps. Alongside the successes achieved, the commentary also addresses some open challenges. Indeed, Ratti points to the recent transitions at the helm of the University and the financial cuts announced by the Confederation and the Canton, observing how these elements have fuelled "a certain disillusionment, a symptom of a latent structural tension: high expectations on one hand, limited instruments on the other".

At the heart of his reflection is, above all, the relationship between the University and the region. "The issue is not so much the University itself," Ratti writes, "but the way it fits into and dialogues—or fails to dialogue—with the community that supports it." For the economist, the future of USI also depends on the political, economic, and social environment's ability to value the resources invested in education and research fully. The text also highlights the growing role of the USI Alumni network, now present in dozens of cities and countries, as a key link between the University, the region, and international professional communities. In particular, Ratti highlights the invitation, which emerged during the recent Dies academicus, to "renew the initial vision, momentum, and cohesion". Among the virtuous examples of collaboration between academia and the region, the commentary cites USI's Master in Finance and the Institute of Finance's work, highlighting the importance of education built "in a network" and in dialogue with the professional and banking worlds.

In the concluding section, Ratti recalls what he terms the University's "third mandate": service to the country. Alongside teaching and research, he observes, the academic institution is called upon to contribute actively to public debate and societal development. "The professor or senior researcher must feel an ethical responsibility towards the future of their field of study and the society within which they operate," he writes, warning against the risk of "dangerous signs of mutual alienation between politics and the university world".

The full article by Remigio Ratti is available in L'Osservatore here.