Milan State University, a 'demanding' academic freedom at the centre of the inauguration

The inauguration ceremony for the 2025-2026 academic year was held today in the Aula Magna of the Università Statale di Milano. The ceremony was opened by the institutional greetings delivered by the Mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, the Lombardy Region's Councillor for University, Research and Innovation, Alessandro Fermi, and the Vice President of the Senate, Licia Ronzulli. This was followed by speeches by the President of the Student Conference, Giacomo Pangrazzi, the Director General Angelo Casertano and the inaugural address by the Rector Marina Brambilla. This year's Prolusion, entitled "Let us lift our gaze: reflections on forty years of humanitarian work", was entrusted to Filippo Grandi, former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Statale alumnus.
At the close of the ceremony, the musical moment was animated by the String Quartet of the University of Milan, which performed Mozart's "Divertimento in F major K. 138, I. Allegro" and Ennio Morricone's famous "Gabriel's Oboe" from the film Mission.

In the face of the great transformations that are marking the international context as well as the development of the University, which is approaching the historic milestone of Mind, Rector Marina Brambilla chose to put the accent back on the principles and values that have always guided and must continue to guide the University's actions.At the centre of his inaugural speech was a wide-ranging reflection on the meaning and relevance of academic freedom, the ordering principle of Universitas, which is to be understood not only and not so much as "an individual right of lecturers, but also and above all as a collective social guarantee", as "freedom at the service of democracy". A freedom that today is at risk in many countries of the world and which must be monitored, preserved and nurtured. According to the Academic Freedom Index (AFI), compiled by the Universities of Gothenburg and Erlangen-Nürnberg, academic freedom is severely restricted in as many as 34 nations worldwide (almost half the world's population).

A theme in line with what was mentioned by Filippo Grandi in his speech, who, through the prism of more than 40 years of humanitarian work, reflected on the importance of raising our gaze beyond the short-term perspective often imposed by international politics. And on the importance of raising it beyond neighbouring borders, of addressing the complexity of global challenges, of defending international cooperation threatened by the rhetoric of 'first my country', and of not losing the values of solidarity and compassion.
Conceived by the Enlightenment, linked to the idea that knowledge should be free, universal, controlled only by reason, academic freedom is intrinsically linked to the scientific method and the profoundly political value it retains, as the Chancellor continued: 'a free society functions like science, because it allows criticism and the correction of errors; a free society opposes ideologies that present themselves as infallible and unquestionable. Science and the scientific method remain the pillars of modern freedom. "In a complex and fragile world, choosing science means choosing a demanding freedom, choosing the power of doubt, confrontation and respect for facts". Fundamental to this paradigm is the need for a balanced relationship between politics and science, which must be set up on the basis of mutual trust because the great challenges of a complex society 'cannot be met with opinion alone or data alone'. When this trust is lacking, the consequences are very serious. "If politics ignores science, decisions become arbitrary, ineffective or dangerous. If science claims to dictate the political agenda, it loses its public credibility. And so citizens' distrust grows, a breeding ground for populism and anti-science'.

A significant passage was dedicated by the rector to the value of secularism understood as autonomy from any religious, ideological or political dogma: "In a secular academic context, such as that of the Statale, research is not oriented by aims of spiritual edification or ideological legitimisation, but by responsibility towards the truth and towards the scientific community. This guarantees not only the reliability of the results, but also their universality'.
And it is always freedom that is the fundamental constructive element of any growth path, the necessary condition for young people to imagine their future with full confidence in their resources. Faced with the complexity of the present, the chancellor recalled the university's duty to "exercise empathy" to "nurture their hope and trust" in their self-determination, "countering first of all what President Mattarella called the toxins of indifference".
Although university autonomy is today amply guaranteed in Italy, also thanks to the very articulate formulation that this finds in the constitutional dictate, and despite the fact that Europe also continues to represent one of the most advanced contexts in the world for its protection and promotion, academic freedom, given the global geo-political context, today faces challenges that require the utmost vigilance.

The rector went on to mention 'the growing dependence on digital platforms and the spread of artificial intelligence, which raise questions about the ownership and control of data', but also internationalisation, which, while promoting scientific openness and thus consolidating increasingly rich interdisciplinary collaborations, 'can expose universities to transnational political and economic pressures'. And she also recalled the centrality of adequate public investment, without which every principle of freedom is sterile because "the dependence of funding on market logic runs the risk of orienting scientific agendas towards immediately productive themes, relegating to the background the humanities or basic research", which continues to be for the Statale "an essential element of identity", remarked the Rector. Much more protected in the past, when universities were elitist enclaves, academic freedom is made more vulnerable today by the centrality that universities have assumed as engines of social, economic, as well as technological transformation, and therefore more exposed to public pressure.