Other side of Aliaga story required

A letter from Antonio Brencich, Genoa

Dear Editor,

David Aliaga's "battle for justice and democracy" [Doctoral torture: an interview with David Aliaga , JUST Response, Dec 21 2002] would appear in a different light if you were also to interview the Italian officials concerned. The national universities council (CUN) recently investigated the problem seriously and found that things were not exactly as Mr Aliaga claims. CUN is Italy’s highest academic authority, is independent of the higher education ministry and consists of elected professors from all fields of learning. It appears that Aliaga's personal position had in fact been taken into consideration and that he had been given concessions which Italian students do not normally receive. 

In this specific case, Aliaga is carrying out a personal battle which places the Italian academic system in a poor light. I do not of course think that everything is proceeding perfectly well in Italian academia. There are many problems, but things are not as dramatically corrupt as Aliaga suggests. He is being unfair on all those academics in Italy who work hard and struggle each day to overcome the difficulties, inefficiency and other problems that you can easily imagine. I suggest that you also publish comments which tell the other side of the story.

If the officials involved wish to give their own account of the facts, they may contact us at letters@justresponse.net and we shall be happy to publish their comments in full [Ed].

Note: This letter was published by JUST Response on December 30 2002.

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