Differentiated trends in student access and performance during the “Bologna Process”. The case of universities in Milan

The aim of this article is to examine trends in student access and performance at university during the implementation of the “Bologna Process”. We focus on the universities in Milan in order to assess whether and to what extent institutions with different characteristics experienced differentiated changes in both first-year students composition and performance. The analysis of administrative data suggests that the reform favored a growth of enrolments and an heterogeneous change in student characteristics. Public and large universities attracted mainly students with a weaker school background, while in the private and more prestigious universities the proportion of new entrants from the secondary academic track did not decrease at all. Furthermore, there has been an overall improvement in student performance (early drop-out and exams inactivity) and a reduction of its heterogeneity across universities. Further research should address whether this is due to organizational improvements or simply reflects a lowering of academic standards.