Social Origins and University Drop-Out During the Great Recession: The Role of the Field of Study

This paper analyzes how the Great Recession affected the drop-out rate among university students in Italy, and whether their chosen field of study moderated its effect. To examine the potential effects of the crisis on social inequality, we also explore whether students from less-advantaged families who were enrolled in prestigious courses of study were those pushed out of university in disproportionally high numbers. We investigate the interacting influence of economic crisis, social inequalities and field of study on drop-out rate using data from the Istat “Survey on the educational and occupational paths of high school graduates” in two cohorts of university students. Results using propensity score matching show that the economic crisis had a negative effect on university participation. In addition, students from lower socio-economic backgrounds in the most remunerative fields of study tended to leave university more often than their well-off peers.