“Talents, research and merit” – Corriere.it

Milanese, 52 years old, graduated in Political Economy, professor of Demography and Vice Rector since 2017, Francesco Billari is the new rector of Bocconi University from today, November 1st. Married to a high school friend, the scientist Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, he is an expert on birth rate, family fertility and social statistics and can be considered a “returning brain”. Was Statutory Professor of Sociology and Demography at the University of Oxford when, in 2016, he decided – in his own words – “to go home”.

What prompted you to leave such a prestigious university?
«Even when I was in Oxford I always followed Bocconi’s growth with great attention and closeness. The Brexit referendum in June 2016 was the fact that she convinced me to go home. Also because I understood that the cultural climate would change and we would be considered “foreigners”. At that time I received the proposal from Bocconi University. I was called by the then rector Andrea Sironi (who today 1 November becomes president of the board of directors and on 3 November will chair the first board renewed for the four-year period 2022-2026 in place of Mario Monti, who remains as president of the Javotte Institute Bocconi, ed) and the pro-rector Gianmario Verona (who later became rector and ends his mandate today 1 November, ed) and also of the president Monti. They also looked for me from an American university, but I chose to return to the University where I graduated and where I taught and to the city where I was born and raised ».

He returned in 2017 as pro-rector with responsibility for Human Resources. He was responsible for building the new campus and the Career Development project was launched ». What is it for?
“To help eliminate the gender gap among professors, which was also due to important family and care burdens that impeded the career trajectory. The “Car Dev” allows you to have a less heavy teaching load, therefore less teaching hours, to carry out a research project oriented towards the future for which you can also have funding from Bocconi. It has been used by many female colleagues, but also by a man, and has allowed to have the time to have international publications also aimed at career progressions. The results have arrived, with publications and even career advancements, which I like to think are also due in part to the Car Dev ».

Speaking of career, on November 3 you will announce the new Rectoral Committee. How will it be composed?
«It will be composed as currently of eleven colleagues and will be chosen with the value of diversity. Not so much because diversity is an end in itself, but because several studies show that it enriches the environment and leads to better decisions. And it is for the wealth of diversity that today a quarter of the teaching staff is made up of foreign professors, given that we have many talented Italian professors. Bocconi has become an increasingly attractive and attractive university. The choice will be based on competence and research orientation. The research orientation is not an academic habit, but it is the idea that to help improve the world, original knowledge must be produced and that this original knowledge is used to train the new generations. Our mission is to be a research university in this sense ».

On the diversity & inclusion, Bocconi despite being a private university has always offered income-based tuition. An aspect about which you are very sensitive.
«I am the son of two“ emigrants ”from the South. My Calabrian father was a craftsman, my Sicilian mother was a skilled worker. We will make all possible efforts to give more opportunities and financial support to the deserving ones ».

You are the first rector with a sociological profile. What will this origin of her translate into?
«Bocconi has 15,000“ standard ”university students, that is, full-time. Then he has the SDA courses and masters. We have a master in the environmental field in partnership with the Politecnico di Milano. We have opened a campus in Rome and we also have one in India. You will become increasingly social science oriented, as well as management and finance. We will develop the life long learning. We have just inaugurated the Department of Computing Sciences, we have recently launched the new degree program in Mathematical and Computing Sciences for Artificial Intelligence. We are aiming to offer a master’s degree in artificial intelligence shortly. We are exploring the cognitive and behavioral sciences ».

In the past, you have said that having children is economically worthwhile. With inflation approaching 12% perhaps not everyone agrees …
«More than anything else I was referring to a macro aspect: a society that does not have children is not convenient from an economic point of view, depopulation is not a factor that helps the economy. But if we want to see it from a micro point of view, we can also see parenthood as a sort of master, we will remember the book “Maternity as a master”. But what is certain is that currently the family burden is still too much on the shoulders of women and unfortunately for them having children is still a disadvantage compared to fathers ».