This article deals with a new discipline about the recruitment of professors introduced by a recent reform of the Italian university system (Law n. 240/2010). This reform substitutes the previous mechanism (carried out in each university and based on competitive procedures by a an evaluation committee whose members were elected among all professors belonging to the same subject area), with a new system based on a national qualifying examination run by a committee of members decided by lot.Those members are chosen from different areas and disciplines: a list of suitable candidates is formed and each university department can choose among them through a selective procedure, in accordance with the European Charter for Researchers.
The article discusses pros and cons of this new system and also deals with the general objectives of the reform of higher education. It tries to emphasize the importance of allowing departments both to develop efficient and transparent selective procedures and to satisfy its proper needs of quality and expertise of new professors.