Is '3+2' Equal to 4? University Reform and Student Academic Performance in Italy

Massimiliano Bratti, Chiara Broccolini () and Stefano Staffolani
Additional contact information
Chiara Broccolini: Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Economia

No 251, Working Papers from Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali

Abstract: In 2001 a '3+2' (unitary two-tier) university system was introduced in Italy where a 3-year First Level degree followed by a 2-year Second Level degree replaced a one-tier system where the 'old' degree (Laurea) duration varied between a minimum of four (e.g. economics) and a maximum of six years. In this paper we use individual-level data on graduates from the Economics Faculty of the Marche Polytechnic University to investigate some effects of this reform. In particular, we seek an answer to questions such as: Did the reform induce a change in the behaviour of students and higher education institutions (e.g. course workload, grade inflation, etc.)? Did it produce a change in student academic performance (e.g. student progression, grades)? Although our paper features a case study and evidence from the Marche Polytechnic University, it cannot be straightforwardly generalised to the whole Italian University system. Our analysis is nonetheless informative given the general lack of evaluation of the '3+2' Italian university reform using micro-level data.

Keywords: italy; propensity score matching; reform; university (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41
Date: 2006-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

Downloads: (external link)
http://docs.dises.univpm.it/web/quaderni/pdf/251.pdf First version, 2006 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:anc:wpaper:251

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Maurizio Mariotti ().