Italy’s shrinking student population at an university level should worry Italian HEIs.

The EUA, the Association of European Universities, certifies a further downhill trend for the student population enrolled in Italian Universities.

According to a report released on February 20th, it looks like our Country in a decade has lost a full 8.5% of its tertiary student population. That is, almost a 10% of the whole student body. Parallel, the number of HEIs grew, so internal competition also rose.

In fact, the university student population shrank from 1.81 to 1.72 million students.

What’s worse, institutions lost an alarming -17% of academic staff. This indicator bears negative consequences, especially when considering its negative impact on international rankings.

Further, EUA research shows a terrifying -26% fall of non-academic staff. This means that the same tasks, and possibily more, will be on the shoulders of three quarters of the personnel if compared to the decade before.

In the same period, Germany‘s students grew a full 45%, academic staff a 46%, non academic staff 21%. France: + 18.1 %; + 2%; + 9%. England: +10.6%; +21%; +12%.

Italy’s shrinking student population is clearly an immediate consequence of a progressively ageing population.

and a COVID-19 medium- and long-term effects ahead, time is ripe to think about a national branding, marketing, and international recruitment strategy.