Abstract

This paper aims at analysing the mobility of Italian graduate students between the two main Italian macro-areas - i.e. Centre-North and South - by stressing the influence that the quality of the university attended - both in terms of research and teaching - has on such choices. It will be analysed both the choice made before enrolling at university and that one made after obtaining a degree. Data drawing from the last sample survey on employment conditions of the Italian students graduated in 2004 three years after obtaining their degree (2007), led by the Italian National Statistics Institute (ISTAT), will be used. Two indices - one for research quality and the other one for teaching quality - will be used as indicators of university quality, developed by using the results of the first government evaluation of Italian university research carried out by the Interministerial Committee for Research Evaluation (2007). The results confirm that the quality of university teaching and research significantly influence migration movements of Italian students. Furthermore, since most students tend to remain in the province where they carried out their university studies, after their degree, the results show that the basic choice for accumulating human capital «in loco» - which could be the subject of appropriate policies - is that made when choosing the university. It is from this point of view that «university quality » represents a potential instrument of «intervention» in order to counterbalance the negative effects of brain drain on the accumulation of human capital in the regions where migration flows originate.