Performance e abbandono degli studi, contesto familiare e situazione economica: equità e disuguaglianze nei nuovi dati di UNITO

Starting from 2013, the EqualEducToEmploy (http://www.equaleductoemploy.unito.it/) research project has examined social inequalities in higher education students careers, with specific reference to dropouts, time to degree and then job entry, using data from the University of Turin (UNITO), one of the largest mega-institutions in Italy with a community of over 75.000 students. Dropout and students performance before it are notorious critical factors for Italian universities striving to achieve the E.U. strategic goals concerning education and schooling; these difficult issues have been tackled by a vast research literature in recent years, most often using data not fully suitable to the task. To dig deeper into the possible connections between the social, cultural and economic environment young people live at home and the outcomes of their higher education efforts, since 2014/15 the collection of specific information regarding the family background on enrolled students was implemented at UNITO, through a joint initiative with the university administrative offices. Providing information regarding both parents’ education and jobs is actually optional for incoming students, but a proper organization of the enrollment form allows to reach high levels of compliance (90% in 2015/16). Such data had never been collected before and are generally unavailable in Italy for whole cohorts of university students; they will allow to obtain a clearer outlook on social inequalities among university students in Turin. In the long run it will also be possible to monitor how such inequalities and their relationship with students careers evolve. Here the analysis is restricted to the 2015/16 incoming students cohort, and will delve into their background characteristics, first year performance and persistence through second year. When appropriate, bachelor and master degrees will be distinguished, as well as the chosen fields of study. The full dataset created for the task combines information from ANS (Anagrafe Nazionale Studenti, the national census of university students in Italy) with that regarding students families obtained from UNITO administrative staff, including the value of ISEE (Indicatore della Situazione Economica Equivalente, an index that summarizes the family’s income and wealth level) when available (being required only when applying for scholarships, a large minority of students do not disclose it). Assuming that nondisclosure implies a high ISEE value, it could be used as a proxy for the actual budget constrains students must cope with. This approach, however, has some limitations that we will try to assess here.