Abstract

In the last decade, the entry rates into the Italian universities have been decreasing. Only a fraction of this phenomenon is due to young students, whose reduction has however been concentrated in the recent years of recession. The number of fresh high school graduates that do not enroll in university, preferring to search for a job or swelling the ranks of who is not in education, employment, or training (the so called NEET), is alarmingly increasing. Yet, we also document both an increasing migration of freshmen from the South to the North during the recession and a polarization of mobility flows towards the best universities. The evidence we propose raises some questions about the causes of these trends and their relation to the current crisis, which seems to induce young people to search immediately for a job (however insecure) rather than to continue their studies.