Degree-level determinants of university student performance

Although features of the higher education degree programmes in which students are enrolled are likely to have an impact on their academic (and future working) careers, primarily because of data limitations research has mainly focused on the individual, household and higher education institution's drivers of student performance. To fill this knowledge gap, using administrative data on the complete supply of higher education degrees in Italy during 2013-2018, this chapter carries out an analysis of the degree-level 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 students’ degree performances, among which a 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.