ROME – Students at Italian universities are less than happy with the fact that their professors will be striking over the summer period.

 In recent weeks the youngsters have launched a petition in a bid to ensure that their exams and the possibility of them receiving a grant by 10 August won't be jeopardised by their teachers. So far they’ve collected over 45,000 signatures.

 Although the strikes were formally approved by authorities on 16 February and announced by over 6,800 teachers, the students have decided to classify this decision as “non substantial”.

 Andrea Torti, National Coordinator at Link University, said: “We can’t allow thousands of students to lose their scholarships or have their taxes tripled because they’ve failed an exam."

 The students at Link have asked the Ministry of Education to start discussing their right to study and begin talks with the State-Region Conference to prevent students from being penalised.

 Ms. Torti recognises that: “The possibility to strike means the right to be protected”, however, she also highlights that “we don’t want this attitude to further shatter an academic community that’s already been heavily attacked and divided by the policies of the previous governments."

 This increasing divide between students and professors dates back to September 2017, when the latter declared their first exams strike in order to have their salary increases restored after they were halted from 2011-2015.

 fct