Research assessment plays a crucial role in order to comply with basic principles of good management and impartiality in university system governance. Such a relevant administrative function needs to be examined within its constitutional framework. Principles of scientific freedom and university autonomy come out in the matter under consideration.“Autonomy, responsibility and evaluation are fundamental principles of the organization of scientific institutions”: from the principle of University autonomy follows the necessity to guarantee a consistent performance of rating activities, without conditioning.
Recent legislative developments are evaluated in light of these principles, in this particular case according to the law 240/2010, with which the Parliament sought to introduce a comprehensive body of rules. In this legislation there are many crucial points. The power to appoint the ANVUR’s members is assigned to Ministry and widespread standardization of multiple rating criteria is a major obstacle to the respect of freedom of science in terms of the prohibition of political interference. In contrast, the rating activity – all the more in the competition for university chairs – does not lend itself to rigid predetermination of guidelines, from which can only result an unreasonable limitation of administrative discretion.