This piece analyses the crucial period between the post-first word war era and the post-second world war era. In these years the relationship between the university and the Italian political system -which shifted from liberalism to dictatorship- changed and this had far-reaching consequences for the university governance. The linkages between the university and its surrounding area became more defined because higher education was once again confirmed as an instrument of social mobility. Furthermore, the humanities and the administrative law studies gained a privileged role in the Imperial project promoted by the Fascist regime. The triumphalism of the 1930s did not succeed in concealing a much more tragic reality marked by the racial persecution.
Keywords: University, Politic, Fascism, territory.