AI is a key element for the transformation of the university world

Great participation in the XXXII RAU National Conference, the national association of administrative managers of Italian universities, hosted by the University of Siena, in the headquarters of the Department of Law. The central theme is the developments of Artificial Intelligence and the practical consequences in daily work, trying to provide a “compass” to orient oneself in a context that changes very rapidly and requires answers and orientation towards results.

Over 380 participants from 33 different public and private universities attended, as well as representatives of the Prime Minister’s Office, Cineca and Forum PA. Many voices have illustrated and explored the prospects of AI in the training system, linking this vision with those of the institutions and the territory. In particular, Alberto Scuttari, President of CoDAU (General Directors of Italian Universities) highlighted: “The role of the administrative manager in universities is of growing importance. In fact, these are managers who operate in the most strategic part of the administrations, i.e. the departmental structures. The Directors General and managers of Italian universities therefore need constant collaboration with the administrative managers of the universities. We must therefore all work together so that the career system in Italian universities, thanks also to the acquisition of transversal skills deriving from the challenges of technological innovation, can provide new opportunities for strategic planning to administrative managers”.

Also acting as a connection Francesco Ubertini, President of CINECA: “Artificial Intelligence loves large things, it needs large quantities of data, a large computing infrastructure, like the one we have in Italy with the best performance in the world, the Leonardo supercomputer from CINECA and high skills especially from the university system. At the RAU Conference we spoke with the administrative managers and managers of the university system who are an essential pivot in this sense. The adoption of innovative technologies can improve the quality of services even within universities but we must create a system by joining forces and CINECA makes its infrastructure available to Italian universities to achieve, together, great improvements in the effectiveness of the overall system”.

On the experiences of AI, the speech by is of particular interest Loredana Segreto, General Director of Sapienza, University of Rome: “We are at the first experiences of using Artificial Intelligence in Universities and it is strategic to have a project that puts common visions and resources into play. Universities are the perfect laboratory for experimenting with AI, they are in fact the place where the academic component, cutting-edge research and administrative management can collaborate effectively. The introduction of AI has two main impacts: reducing human effort in the most repetitive tasks and supporting highly complex tasks. It is an important opportunity to rethink work methods and organization and orient staff training and recruitment”.

The president concluded Maria Adele Savino, President of RAU, the National Association of Administrative Managers of Italian Universities: “At the XXXII RAU Conference we brought the entire Italian university infrastructure to think together, from CODAU to CINECA, from the largest universities to the smallest ones, from state universities to private ones and what emerged was the need and will to work together, because the potential of Artificial Intelligence is now as current as it is extraordinary, so there is no need to talk about whether scenarios will happen, but about how the university system as a whole, from research to administration and management, can make common factor is their own experiences to govern the change already underway, thus combining the great potential of technological, intellectual and management infrastructure present in Italian universities”.