The historical denomination of Tyrol as „The Land in the mountains” characterizes South Tyrol in the best way. Since the time of the „ice-man” - five thousand years ago - the mountains have been the most important origin of fortune and unfortune for the people in this territory.
The geographical position at the crossroads of German and Italian-speaking areas featured this southern part of the historical Tyrol as a meeting point of languages and cultures. Its population of 460,000 (four hundred and sixty thousand) people is mainly composed of three linguistic groups: the group of people with German as a native language (65 % of the population), the people with Italian as a native language (26 % of the population), and a small minority of 4.5 % speaking a local Rhaeto-Romanic language (Ladin). But almost everybody speaks or understands at least the two official languages of the territory: Italian and German.
Since 1972, the „Autonomous Province of Bozen-Bolzano / South Tyrol” has had a far-reaching territorial autonomy within Italy, especially with regard to the fields of culture, education, economy and infrastructures of regional importance. In the last years, this large autonomy – regarding different legislation and administration fields – has become a model of regional autonomy in Europe, particularly for territories in Eastern European countries with linguistic minorities in their population.
In the recent history of South Tyrol, after the annexation to Italy in 1918, we can distinguish three main periods:
In this new political context, three factors favoured the foundation of the University:
Digression: Economy in South Tyrol
The economy of South Tyrol is characterized by
In the last twenty-five years the economic development has been stable. From all this there results a general prosperity with minimum unemployement and high per-capita income, compared with other European regions.
The capital city of this prosperous region is Bozen-Bolzano. With its almost 100,000 Italian- and German-speaking inhabitants, today Bozen is a multilingual, international business centre.
The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano will be a project of European dimension. This will become evident, if we consider its following characteristics:
The university offers its courses of study in three locations, which are very well interconnected by the university network:
The Bozen University Library in its seats of Bozen and Brixen is intented to be:
For this reason, a logistical and personal integration of the Computer Centre and the Language Centre within the Library seems to be important.
| 3,000 | students |
| 2,000 | other users |
| 350,000 | printmedia |
| 25 | staff |
| Usuable area | 5,456 m² |
| Main usable area | 5,156 m² |
| Open shelf and reading area | 3,254 m² |
| Seminary rooms, mediatheque, PC-pools | 625 m² |
| 21 carrels | 240 m² |
| Enquiry desk and book circulation | 119 m² |
| Administration / staff area | 198 m² |
| Stacks | 720 m² |
| User workplaces (50 % PC-workplaces) | 400 |
| 1998 | architecture competition |
| 2000 | beginning of the first stage of building (with library) |
| 2002 | completion of the library building |
| 2006 | completion of all the new university buildings |
Principally we have to distinguish between the State universities and the small number of free or privatly-run universities.
The State universities, until a few years ago, were run and financed by the State in a quite centralized form. But in 1993 a new financial system by budget was introduced by law. In the future the State universities shall have a large financial autonomy and responsibility, according to the new radical university reform approved by Parliament this year. Until today, the main financial funds of the State universities have come from the State itself. In some cases the town or regional councils support the foundation and the growing of universities or of their infrastructures.
The few free or privately-run universities are mostly financed by economically powerful institutions, foundations, banks, firms, and by study fees.
| Income generation | 1999 | Future |
| Contributions of the Province of South Tyrol | 87.4 % | 50 % |
| Contributions of the Italian State | 6.8 % | 25 % |
| Sponsors, foundations etc. | 4.1 % | 15 % |
| Study fees | 1.7 % | 10 % |
The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, in the first two years after the foundation, has been financed above all by the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol. The State contributed with funds based on the number of students. The University - especially the University Library - is funded, in addition, by sponsors and foundations. A small part of the income is supplied by study fees.
In 1999, the University had the following expenses for the Library:
| in % | |
| Media acquisistion | 49.3 % |
| Staff | 32.6 % |
| Other costs | 18.0 % |
The media acqusition is exclusively financed by the Foundation of the South Tyrol Savings Bank. Staff and other costs are covered by the University from its own income.
The temporary sites and the new buildings for the University in Bozen and in Brixen are provided and financed by the Autonomous Province of Bozen-Bolzano.
The following items will give you an exact view of the foreseen expenses (building, furniture and equipment, fees):
| Temporary university sites Bozen and Brixen | 9,810,000 Euro |
| New university buildings Bozen | 91,840,000 Euro |
| New university buildings Brixen | 55,470,000 Euro |
| Total costs university sites | 157,120,000 Euro |
| New library building Bozen | 16,840,000 Euro |
| New library building Brixen | 5,615,000 Euro |
| Total costs library buildings | 22,455,000 Euro |
Dr. Franz Berger & Klaus Kempf
University Library
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Seminargasse 4
39042 Brixen, Italy
Franz.Berger@unibz.it