Evaluation in the Italian higher education system: Many tribes, many territories ... many godfathers

Italian higher education has undergone deep changes in the last ten years to bring it into line with other European systems. ... These changes were fully implemented when they did not involve the active cooperation of all levels of teaching staff. ... But whenever the changes involved an active collaboration of the professorate, their success greatly depended on disciplinary and local dimensions. The difficulties in establishing a tutorial function in the universities and the uneven distribution of short-cycle courses among fields and institutions are good examples of this. This article tries to analyse this form of resistance to the introduction of evaluation in Italian universities as a way of reacting to changes seen by academics as a threat to both their own roles and to the university's functions in society. (DIPF/orig.)