Few graduates and too many off-course graduates in Italy: 43.8% overtake by more than three years

The European Commission country report on Italia also includes a substantial chapter on education. It starts from a well-known phenomenon - the chronic shortage of graduates in the 25-34 age bracket (with Italy at 31.1% in 2025, which puts us in second-last place in the EU where the average is 44.8%) - to give it an original interpretation. Putting the emphasis on too many students (or too long) out of course. As many as 43.8% according to the latest available data (updated to 2023).

Behind the scarcity of young people with a university degree, the EU executive sees the "long time it takes to get a degree", "high school (and university, we would add) dropout rates", a "low return on education" and a "mismatch between demand and supply of skills, which have important implications for youth employment and productivity". Regarding the 43.8 per cent of university graduates who did not complete their studies in the time frame considered, plus another three years, the document points out that the EU average is 32.5 per cent. With a delta of more than ten points, therefore, which can be explained to a certain extent by the still double-digit university drop-out rates also recently reported by the Anvur report on higher education.

For Brussels, the Italian tertiary education system also suffers from other ills. With a list: "relatively high" drop-outs, the lowest employment rate among new graduates (77.8% compared to 86.7% in the EU, in 2024), a poor correlation between degree and employment with 40% having worked in jobs unrelated to their studies, the oldest teaching staff in the EU, associated with less innovative teaching methods, curricula and use of technology.

A contribution to turning the tide is expected from the NRP which, according to the Commission, 'has enabled Italia to take some measures to address these challenges'. Once fully implemented, the reform of university degree courses will allow for greater customisation of the curriculum and greater alignment with new skills needs. But it may not be enough. Hence the call for the Italia government to reform the university system 'to eliminate disincentives such as free repetition of exams, the absence of mandatory minimum annual credits, and the absence of class attendance requirements'. Measures that - according to the report's drafters - could help "reduce drop-out rates and delays in graduation".

Lastly, a mention must also be made of the issue of resources, which in our country are notoriously limited when it comes to education, as all the latest international reports indicate. For the EU executive it would be "fundamental" to link Anvur's university funding criteria to "student course evaluations and completion rates". And here a help could come from the tests on outgoing skills (the Teco) that were started on an experimental basis in recent years and that it is now up to the new heads of the agency to make structural.