Higher Education in Italy: Spatial Accessibility, Participation and Drop-outs

Abstract

Most previous research has focused on individual and family characteristics as predictors of high school leavers’ behaviour towards higher education. However, far too little attention has been paid to the spatial dimension of the subject. This paper aims to narrow this gap by studying whether spatial accessibility of universities from parental residences influences the decisions of higher education participation and dropouts once enrolled to a university in Italy. First a modified version of Hansen gravity index measures the accessibility of HE institutions then a Probit model uses computed access scores across Italian provinces (NUTS3 level regions) to explore likelihood of university attendance and completion. The results show that spatial accessibility is influential when deciding to enrol a university and for successfully completing a degree.