Disentangling the secondary school effects in the assessment of university inefficiencies

ABSTRACT

The inefficacy of the Italian university system has been discussed in the relevant scientific literature, mainly using data from single universities or survey data. This paper uses the data provided by the National Student Archive related to eight cohorts of first-year students who enrolled in Italian universities between 2010 and 2018 to study the risk of dropout and churn during the 1st year. Revisiting the model of Tinto, to include in the analysis the possible effect of university services and linking each student to the high school attended before enrolment, the work has two primary aims: (i) to investigate the determinants of university failure, focusing on how strategic factors – such as students’ mobility choices, previous educational background, and university policies addressed to improve digital communication and services – affect the probability of experiencing churn or dropout; (ii) to disentangle the secondary school effect on these two outcomes by adopting a two steps procedure which relays on multilevel logistic models. Results allowed us to estimate adjusted indicators of inefficiency, which are suitable for comparisons across universities that offer degree programmes in the same disciplinary field and provide evidence on the role played by the secondary school attended in determining substantial inequalities at entrance.

KEYWORDS:

• University dropout
• university services
• secondary school effect
• multilevel models
• university failure

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge financial support under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.1, Call for tender No. 104 published on 2.2.2022 by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU– Project Title From high school to university: Assessing peers' influence in educational inequalities and performances, PI Isabella Sulis, CUP F53D23006150006 – Grant Assignment Decree No. 1060 adopted on 07/17/2023 by the Italian Ministry of Ministry of University and Research (MUR).

The data used in this study have been processed under the RESEARCH PROTOCOL for the study “From high school to the job placement: analysis of university careers and university mobility from Southern to Northern Italy” among the Ministry of University and Research, the Ministry of Education and Merit, the University of Palermo as the lead institution, and the INVALSI Institute. The reference researcher is Mariano Porcu.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca: [grant no 2017HBTK5P - CUP B78D1900018000].