ROME -- The president of the Italian anti-corruption authority ANAC, Raffaele Cantone’s announcement that nepotism in the Bel Paese’s universities is a big contributor to the ongoing brain drain in Italy, sparks much discussion on the topic, Monday.

 This phenomenon in Italian universities was first flagged up in an international journal in 2011, with statistics from a project conducted by the University of Chicago Medical Centre, signed, ironically, by the Italian researcher living and working in this foreign university, Stefano Allesina.

 His analysis of the frequency of the recurrence of the same surnames in a group of over 61,000 university professors of medicine, engineering, law and other departments found unusually high results -- not just a few isolated cases. “It is not a question of a few bad eggs, it is a truly bad situation,” said Allesina.

 Raffaele Cantone stated that ANAC receives multiple warnings about the constant exchange of favours occurring in Italian universities, which ultimately leads to the ongoing brain drain. “There is a big connection, a huge one, between the brain drain and corruption,” he said Saturday in Florence, talking about what leads so many of Italy’s most brilliant researchers to leave the country and work abroad.

 This comes as no surprise for many Italian students and academics. Marta Fana who is 31 and completing a doctorate in Economics in Paris’ Sciences Po University -- after having studied for her undergraduate degree at Rome’s Tor Vergata University, and then going on to study for two masters in Toulouse and Turin -- agrees with Cantone, writes ‘Il Corriere della Sera.’

 “But I will also say to Cantone -- if you get so many statements of corruption, announce them in court, and as happens for Mafia witnesses in Italy, protect whoever makes these statements. Help those who have the courage to speak out and reward them,” continued Marta.

 nkd