Abstract

The paper offers a socio-educational interpretation of the ongoing renewal process, to connect university reformism to theoretical reflection upon the relationship between society, knowledge and higher education, placed under strain by the normative hypertrophy of the last decade and nowadays marked by the advent of 'flexible requirements'. In particular, the purpose is to set the current revision of teaching requirements into the wider context of the innovation process involving Italian Universities, analysed through accurate sociological insights. The reference background is that outlined by recent ministerial measures on the subject which seem to endow our universities with a wider autonomy in teaching planning. Nevertheless, these measures show an important criticality, the difficult application of the teaching requirements defined by Ministerial Decree no. 47/2013, allegedly in response to the freeze on turnover and more stringent norms on the issue. In this regard, the paper emphasizes the lights and shades of the new National Scientific Qualification, which seems to respond problematically to the criteria of revision and simplification of the current normative provisions.