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The administrative director of Rome's La Sapienza University, Savino Strippoli, was sentenced last week to 22 months in prison for corruption in assigning building and maintenance contracts.

A member of the university commission for contracts, Claudio Cristofori, was also found guilty and sentenced to a year, and two Rome businessmen, Giovanni and Claudio Vento, were sentenced to a year and 13 months respectively.

Forty people, university administrators, businessmen and politicians, have been charged with 52 offences in an investigation into corruption at La Sapienza, Europe's largest university.

According to the prosecution, firms wishing to obtain contracts for maintenence, restoration or development of university buildings and facilities had to make substantial payments to politicians and administrators.

Virtually any job for the university, large or small, involved a kickback. This ranged from the 250 million lire (about Pounds 100,000) for fire extinguishers to 800,000 lire for minor repairs to the university gas system.