Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Guide for Application to Obtain an Italian National Scientific Qualification

The new recruiting process for  full and associate professor positions in Italian universities is based on a two phase process. Candidates must first obtain the so-called Abilitazione, and then apply for a position at an Italian university. See here for more details.

In order to facilitate international participation in the first stage of this process, the University of Rome "La Sapienza" has created a guide and a series of video tutorials to help researchers who are not fluent in Italian or familiar with Italian rules apply.

For what they are worth (i.e. nothing), here are two considerations off the top of my head. 
  1. First of all, kudos go to "La Sapienza" for producing this supporting material. I am not aware of other Italian institutions that are taking this step and/or who have search committees that are actively looking for foreign applicants. (If you are, please post a comment.)
  2. There is probably something not quite right with a system that needs to be explained using four videos on YouTube :-)
Having said so, I sincerely hope that this new Italian process for recruiting university professors, based on scientific qualification criteria, will help the top Italian CS departments to become even stronger than they already are and that it will offer a ray of hope to young Italian academics. It will also be interesting to see how many non-Italians will apply for the abilitazione. 

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