"Like Guttenberg, Gelmini was a graduate in law. And like him, she felt that her driving ambition justified taking short cuts in academic procedures to get the degree that would help her political career. In 2001 she travelled from her home town of Brescia in the north of Italy to Reggio Calabria, in the far south, to sit her bar exams. At the time, pass rates in the north were below 10%, compared with a rate of suspiciously more than 90% in Reggio Calabria, a city otherwise known for low academic standards. After the press revealed the Reggio Calabria bar exam to be a scam, the Italian academic community called for Gelmini's resignation � to no avail. The irony of having a minister with responsibility for universities who herself cheerfully admits to having dodged academic rules is not lost on the community."
Στη συνέχεια, το άρθρο του Nature κάνει μία ενδιαφέρουσα αναφορά στις διαδρομές ανάμεσα στο πανεπιστήμιο και την πολιτική:
"In Germany, Italy and neighbouring countries in Europe, politicians are frequently drawn from academia. Credentials help political careers, and nearly 20% of the German parliament hold PhDs. But then, almost 9% of Italian parliamentarians are university professors, so the differing reactions to calls for resignation prompted by scholastic misdemeanours cannot be down to ignorance about how universities work. Instead, the difference seems to be based on how large a threat each government considers the weapon of moral correctness to be � and how dangerous is the academic community wielding that weapon."
Το ερώτημα είναι πότε η διεθνής ακαδημαϊκή κοινότητα θα πάρει είδηση και το τι γίνεται στην Ελλάδα και πως απέκτησαν διδακτορικά (ή ισχυρίστηκαν πως απέκτησαν) πολιτικοί τύπου Βουλγαράκη, Στυλιανίδη, Δρούτσα και Τζάκρη...
