Higher education beliefs and intentions among immigrant-origin students in Italy

Abstract

The article addresses beliefs about higher education and ensuing intentions among a large sample of upper secondary school leavers in Italy, with a focus on children of immigrants. ‘Foreign’ students currently account for 7% of upper secondary students, and their incidence has been growing over time. Only a minority of non-Italian students continue their studies at the university level versus a majority of Italians. The article investigates the extent to which students of non-Italian origin differ from their native fellow students in terms of characteristics associated with a higher likelihood of enrolling in tertiary education The study draws on a survey involving over 5600 last-year upper secondary students – 525 of whom are of immigrant origin – in Italy during the 2013/14 school year. After a brief overview of the evolution and current situation of first and second generations in Italian upper secondary schooling, the text describes similarities and differences between native and non-native students with regard to a set of key features. An exploration of school leavers’ beliefs about the benefits of higher education and its link to the labour market reveals that immigrant-origin students have slightly less favourable views of higher education with respect to their Italian schoolmates. Finally, the analysis turns to school leavers’ intentions to enrol at university, which is examined via a set of binomial regression models, which suggest that immigrant-origin youths’ weaker higher education intentions are largely due to prior decisions in favour of non-academic school tracks.