Academic standards in Italy
Academic standards in Italy
复制标题
意大利的学术标准
作者：
F. Persico
SIR-GF Gaetani和AM Ferraris（Nature 353，10; 1991）研究了意大利大学、科学研究和技术部（MURST）设立的一个委员会的议事录，该委员会负责评估某医学分支正教授候选人的科学成就。他们感到困惑的是，会议记录既没有提到用于评估的标准，也没有提到采用价值尺度或国际公认的科学指标。Amadori et a！. (355，581; 1991）可能误导，而有关委员会自愿采取的标准（M. Baccarani et al. 356，188; 1992），鉴于意大利现行法律，F. Aiuti（356，556; 1992）。我想提出证据证明，在意大利大学教授职位的竞争中，通常不采用科学成就的价值尺度，因此，在MURST的充分了解和批准下，学术晋升的选择变得越来越随意，越来越少地依赖于候选人的科学成就。证据取自最近一次全国性的理论和数学物理学副教授终身职位竞争的官方记录，因此支持G. Visconti（356，188; 1992）认为，意大利目前的学术促进机制产生的不利影响远远超出了医学院的界限，与F. Aiuti等人(356，188; 1992），它产生良好的结果，在物理学。1991年6月，一个由9名理论物理学家（5名正教授和4名副教授）组成的委员会成立，并在接下来的几个月里举行了几次会议，以将申请人数减少到最初150人的三分之一。
SIR-GF Gaetani and AM Ferraris (Nature 353, 10; 1991) examined the proceedings of a committee set up by the Italian Ministry of University, Scientific Research and Technology (MURST) to evaluate the scientific achievements of candidates for full professorship in a particular branch of medicine. They were perplexed that the proceedings did not mention the criteria used for evaluation, nor the adoption of a scale of values or of internationally accepted scientific indicators.The indicators proposed by Gaetani and Ferraris were later criticized by S. Amadori et a!.(355, 581; 1991) as possibly misleading, while the committee in question volunteered some explanations of the criteria adopted (M. Baccarani et al. 356, 188; 1992), whose extravagance, in view of the existing Italian laws, was pointed out by F. Aiuti (356, 556; 1992). l should like to present evidence that no scale of values for scientific achievement is normally adopted in Italian university competitions for professorships, so that, with the full knowledge and approval of MURST, selection for academic promotion has become increasingly arbitrary and less and less dependent on the scientific accomplishments of the candidates. The evidence is taken from the official proceedings of a recent national competition for tenured positions at the level of associate professor in theoretical and mathematical physics, and thus lends support to the suggestion by G. Visconti (356, 188; 1992) that the present machinery for academic promotion in Italy produces adverse effects well beyond the boundaries of the faculty of medicine, contrary to the belief of F. Aiuti et al.(356, 188; 1992) that it produces good results in physics. In June 1991, a committee of nine theoretical physicists (five full and four associate professors) was set up and several meetings were held during the following few months to reduce the number of applicants to about a third of the original 150.