University still in difficulty between dropouts and few graduates: the report
Despite the end of the pandemic, the university crisis continues. In fact, the improvement of the productivity of researchers, the increase in beneficiaries of the right to study and the stable number of matriculations are not enough. What is worrying is the ever-increasing number of dropouts and the few students who manage to graduate, as well as territorial gaps and gender differences .
Data from the ANVUR report
As emerges from the Report on the higher education and research system of ANVUR , the National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research System, the crisis of the Italian university is not over yet. Although the number of students has increased by 10.3% compared to ten years ago, reaching 1.9 million students with 331,000 new students, there are still many difficulties to be resolved, starting from the many dropouts up to the problem of territorial mobility.
According to the report, in fact, the dropout rate between the first and second year of the three-year course increased significantly, reaching 14.5%. Worrying numbers, especially when compared to those of other European countries. Even with regard to the number of graduates, the situation is not the best: only 28.3% of the population aged 25 to 34 manage to obtain a degree, compared with the OECD average of 47.1% .
The data also shows the tendency of students to move towards the universities of Northern and Central Italy , to the detriment of the universities of the South and the Islands, which have seen a reduction in the number of students enrolled in their courses of study.
On the other hand, the number of students enrolled in online universities is growing, which from the 2011-2012 to 2021-2022 academic year went from 44,000 to 224,000, thus representing 11.5% of total university students.
How to increase the attractiveness of the university
University dropouts are a problem that many have been trying to solve for some time, proposing solutions and valid alternatives. In this regard, Talents Venture, the consultancy and development of solutions in support of university education, has published a study on the dos and don'ts of attracting students to the university.
After analyzing the reference context, reporting data on the university transition rate and the difference in enrollment between the second and first year, the research focuses on what drives students to abandon their studies, examining what works in 'incoming orientation and what should be changed instead. If what worries students is the lack of clarity about vocations and personal inclinations, as well as the difficulty of choosing among the many offers available, the aspect that instead attracts students concerns the economic benefits and employment opportunities , but also the possibility of attend online classes. This is a fact already anticipated and also testified by the ANVUR report.
For this reason, the telematic university represents a valid way to attract students to the academic world. Between greater flexibility, more stimuli and lower costs, as explained on the Atenei Online website , online university is in fact a real solution to university abandonment.
In addition to this, to retain students in universities it would then be necessary to introduce scholarships, tutoring and placement in the world of work, but also psychological support .
The psychological component is in fact very important: according to the Talents Venture study, 32% of women and 19% of men feel negative moods when choosing a university. For this reason, having psychological support during orientation and during the university period can be a real added value both for students and for the universities themselves.
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The article University still in difficulty between dropouts and few graduates: the report comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/universita-ancora-in-difficolta-tra-abbandoni-e-pochi-laureati-il-report/ on Thu, 29 Jun 2023 14:33:01 +0000.