Bernini: 20,867 places available in 2024 for the Medicine test

With 72 hours to go before the first session of the Medicine tests, Minister Anna Maria Bernini lifts the veil on the places available for aspiring white coats: there are 20,867 places available for admission to the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. The announcement was made by the Minister for Universities herself, Anna Maria Bernini, interviewed during the Trento Festival of Economics by Il Sole 24 Ore. In an all-round conversation that started from the internationalisation of education and research and arrived at the latest news stories with the protests of university students against the war in Israel

The first window for the new paper and national test is scheduled for Tuesday 28 May (the second will be held on 30 July. In total there are 67,000 enrolled students (71,000 including Veterinary Medicine, which will be held on 29 May and 31 July) "I have just signed the decree," said the minister. Last year there were 19,636, so we have increased the number of places and we will do it again because it is a must. Always avoiding the medical plethora and respecting the needs,' she specified. 'We are not inconsiderate and we do not do demagogy, but it is important to expand.

In Trento, Bernini also returned to the Turin affair and the presence of the imam in the occupied UniTo building in Palazzo Nuovo. Having made the twofold premise that "students have the right to study, which does not only mean grants and housing, but also being able to use universities for the purposes for which they are intended, and that it is necessary to be "respectful of protests as long as they do not lead to violence and do not interfere in the universities' functions", the minister was clear. "We cannot turn them into occupied places or, above all, into improper mosques". Closely adding: 'In universities you cannot do what you want. I therefore told the rectors Stefano Geuna and Stefano Corgnati that I would support any action that did not allow, especially on the second day, prayer in an occupied lecture hall.

The member of the Forzista party then spoke about the NRP, which allocates some 11 billion to university and research. In her opinion, it is already time to look to the post-Pnrr Plan for recovery and resilience. "Do not forget the European funds," was her advice to the rectors. "I am already working on the Cohesion Funds post 2026 but it has to be a work done together. I would not give up Horizon Europe funds now, because if we don't take them someone else will. So the appeal is make Horizon Calls because that is the best way to use Europe'.

In more than one passage, the minister emphasised that students must always be at the centre of the university system. For this to be the case, the issue of the right to study is fundamental. And, with regard to the Sole 24 ore article of Monday 20 May on university fees, Bernini recalled that "40 per cent of students attend university for free". He concluded: 'This is welfare'.