Degree-Level Determinants of University Student Performance

Abstract

Although features of the higher education degree programmes in which students are enrolled are likely to have an impact on their academic careers, primarily because of data limitations, research has mainly focused on individual, household and higher education institution drivers of student performance. To fill this knowledge gap, this chapter presents a study using administrative data on the complete supply of higher education degrees in Italy during 2013–2018 to carry out an analysis of the degree-programme determinants of university student performance, as measured by the National Agency for the Evaluation of the University System and Research (ANVUR) ‘quality’ indicators. After controlling for detailed degree subject–geographic macro-area fixed effects, our analysis uncovers several significant degree-programme predictors of university student performance, including the degree’s type of access (i.e. selectivity), language of instruction, composition of the teaching body, percentage of teachers in ‘core’ subjects, teachers’ research performance (for master degrees) and university spatial competition.

COVID-19 and the Gender Gap in University Student Performance

“…The number of earned credits is not the only student performance indicator (PI) that could be considered, although it is one on which the Italian Higher Education Quality Assurance (QA) system places significant weight. For instance, the percentages of first-year students earning at least 20 or 40 credits per year represent two important PIs defined by the National Agency of Evaluation of the University System and Research (ANVUR) on which bachelor and master degrees are regularly assessed (Bratti et al, 2022). Another important measure of student performance is GPA.…”