Marketisation of Higher Education and the Right to Education: The Italian System in Human Rights Perspective

This thesis examines the marketisation of higher education through a human rights and social justice perspective, with a specific focus on the Italian university system. It argues that the progressive implementation of market-oriented governance arrangements, characterised by performance-based funding, competitive institutional frameworks, and managerial reforms, has created structural tensions with the normative content of the right to higher education as enshrined in international human rights law. Drawing upon international and European legal frameworks, alongside the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the study conceptualises higher education as both a fundamental right and a public good, emphasising substantive equality rather than formal access. Through a multi-level analysis, the thesis demonstrates how structural underfunding, territorial disparities, and weak education-to-work transitions undermine the effective enjoyment of the right to higher education, disproportionately affecting the younger generation. It concludes that marketisation constitutes a structural challenge to the social function of universities and their capacity to promote equality, social mobility, and inclusive development.