Vqr 2020-24

Research quality, Padua first among state universities ahead of Trento

Among non-state universities, Bocconi prevails instead, ahead of Luiss. In 80% of cases, new researchers are more productive than permanent ones

by Eugenio Bruno

18 April 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Differences from the previous cycle
The 'new' more productive than the 'old'
Public universities
Private universities

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Among state universities, the first for average research quality is Padua ahead of Trento. Among private universities, Milan Bocconi comes out on top, ahead of Luiss Guido Carli. This is confirmed by the first VQR 2020-2024 surveys for each university, which examined 199,000 scientific publications (articles, monographs, contributions in volumes, etc.) and which will be included in the Anvur Agency's complete report scheduled for 28 May. There, it will also be possible to access the rankings by disciplinary areas and thus to know who is ahead in Medical Sciences, who in Economic and Social Sciences, who in Civil Engineering and so on.

A premise is a must. And that is that these are not merely theoretical 'report cards'; on their results will depend, in fact, the allocation of a large part of the prize share of the ordinary financing fund (Ffo) of universities (which in 2025 amounted to 2.5 billion out of a total of almost 9.4 billion).

Differences from the previous cycle

In a meeting organised on Thursday 16 April, the Anvur Agency presented the institution-wide results of the fourth Research Quality Assessment (Vqr), which covers the five-year period 2020-2024 and which, in concrete terms, took place between the presentation of the call for proposals in October 2023 and the transmission of the results to the Mur in March.

On the increase are both the products evaluated, which rose from 182,648 in the 2015-19 Vqr to 199,816 in the current cycle (+9.4%), and the accredited researchers, which rose from 65,119 to 75,869 (+16.5%). A total of 132 institutions were judged, including 100 universities (two more than the previous five-year period), 13 research organisations (instead of 14) and 19 voluntary institutions (instead of 22). Last time there were 134.

The work was divided among 19 Evaluation Expert Groups (EVGs), comprising a total of 719 disciplinary and 37 interdisciplinary experts from Italian and foreign institutions; more than 6,740 external reviewers, also both Italian and foreign, were also involved in the evaluation. Numbers that give an idea of the overall effort deployed by the Agency.

The 'new' more productive than the 'old'

The Anvur tables show us a higher productivity of newly hired researchers compared to stable researchers. As Alessandra Celletti, a member of the ANVUR board of directors and contact person for VQR activities, points out: "The analysis of the indicators confirms that, as in the previous VQR, on average newly hired or promoted researchers have conferred a greater number of products per capita (2.7) than stable researchers (2.1), among other things with a higher average quality".

This phenomenon is common to more or less 80% of state universities. The most unbalanced proportion in favour of the 'new' is found in three small universities such as Teramo, Cassino and Foggia. Here, the ratio between the average grade of researchers recruited or in career progression compared to those already on the staff reaches, respectively, 1.117; 1.113 and 1.113: 1,117; 1,113 e 1,089.

To give an idea of the comparison with the greats, Roma Sapienza is at 1.038, Bologna at 1.014 and Napoli Federico II at 0.991. This means that in the Neapolitan university, the most productive are still the old researchers.

The public universities

Turning to the aggregate data by university and starting from state universities, the only qualitative indicator (the so-called 'R' indicator expressing the average quality of an institution's research products compared to the national average, taking into account the specific disciplinary mix of that university, ndr) highest is recorded by Padua with 1.065 on a national base of 1. Padua was fourth in 2015-19.

Behind it, on the podium, we find Trento with 1.060, which is now second, and Milan State with 1.057, which was third and remains third. Bringing up the rear is Messina with 0.890.

Private universities

If we look at the same indicator for private universities, the first place goes to Milan Bocconi, which comes in at 1.150, again on a national base of 1. It precedes Luiss Guido Carli, second with 1.135, and Milan Humanitas, third with 1.092. Last in this case is Florence Iul with 0.812 again on a 1 basis.

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Luogo: Roma
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Argomenti: Scuola, Università, Ricerca, Cinema, Federalismo, Enti locali
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