Correlates of the (soft) skills of Italian undergraduate students

Our research investigates the correlates of the soft skills owned by Italian undergraduate students (first-cycle degree programmes) at almost the end of their academic career. We take advantage of a unique data set provided by the National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research Systems, which contains information from both the adaptation of the US Collegiate Learning Assessment Plus test to the Italian context and the evaluation of the research quality of Italian universities. The research derives and discusses a set of relationships between test scores and some observed characteristics of students, institutions and study programmes. Results draw a general picture of the students who are preparing to enrol in second-cycle degree programmes or to enter the labour market, and show how – along with individual characteristics – institutional and socio-economic backgrounds affect students’ human capital endowments.