Selling theses was such a common practice that a tutor thought nothing of offering one to a campus policeman at the University of Urbino. The bold offer sparked an investigation of Italy’s most famous tutoring service, CEPU, credited with miraculously pushing students through the labyrinth of Italy’s university system.
For a quarter of a century, the company flourished thanks to Italy’s army of repeat university students, known as "fuori corso." According to statistics from Ministry of Public Education, only 9% of Italian undergrads get a degree before they turn 25 and 750,000 students are currently behind with exams. The government estimates this late entry into the work force costs Italy approximately $7.5 billion USD yearly.
Prosecutors in Urbino have charged 12 CEPU tutoring consultants with compiling and selling at least 23 theses, which are necessary to obtain an Italian undergraduate degree. Investigators say a thesis could be had for $5,000-7,000 USD. The company has denied involvement in the scam.
CEPU marketed heavily to frustrated students and their exasperated parents using controversial testimonials like Juventus soccer star Alex Del Piero, currently fuori corso himself, and 22-year old motorcycle ace Valentino Rossi, who does not have a high-school diploma.
www.fuoricorso.it
The virtual community for repeat students….

An Italian castle just got a different kind of reinforcement: a “shield” of four tawny owls to keep the pigeon population down. Mayor Maurizio Tornielli, of Bereguardo (Pavia), obtained the backing of Italian bird protection society LIPU, which determined the best place for a nest along the ancient castle walls. These guard owls hunt the much-maligned pigeons as they sleep. Tornielli maintains the back-to-nature method is a last resort: “We’ve tried everything from contraception to nets–but we couldn’t keep the population down. This seemed a natural next step.”

Officials in the town of San Giuliano Milanese have decided to prove it’s OK to drink the water– by offering sparkling water at almost no cost from a restored well.Locals can stroll to the Fonte di Campoverde in the center of town for refreshing, bubbly water billed as low in sodium and good for hypertension. The water, tested every 15 days for purity, will cost residents a measly 0,04 lire per liter with a limit of 12 liters per week per person. It’s the latest in a series of initiatives is trying to change Italians’ reluctance to use tap water for drinking. Currently, Italy is third worldwide in consumption of bottled water and, according to ISTAT statistics, about half the population prefers to drink bottled water over tap for safety concerns. In Rome, the water called “cold like snow and virginally pure” in 200 AD has started flowing again in the fountain by Ammannati on the corner of Via Flaminia and Villa Giulia after five months of restoration. Tourists and passersby can now sip from the city’s “virgin springs,” thanks to the Living Fountains project.

1861 Italy’s first census
22 million families & 5 million businesses polled, 2001
40 page-long questionnaire
11 languages for questionnaire
“The Italy you are. The Italy you’ll be.” (L?Italia che sei. L?Italia che sarai), was the slogan used to kick off the national census poll this week. Clearly, future Italians are in for some changes.
Despite having one of the smallest immigrant populations in Europe, for the first time ISTAT opted to make the questionnaire available in a language other than Italian. The list of languages available includes Albanian, Sinhalese, Serbo-Croatian and Polish.
And, if 30 years ago, the quality-of-life questions included whether families had a bathroom or not (in 1961, only 50% did) pollsters now watch the increase in home owners (around 60% in 1981) and vacation homes. Final data won’t be ready until 2003 but initial results will be made available in Feb. 2002.
www.censimenti.it