Reform of higher education and social gradients

In 2001 a university reform (also known as the “3+2”) shortening the length of undergraduate studies in most college majors was introduced in Italy. We use the 2004 cohort of university leavers to investigate differences in social gradients between university graduates from “short” (3-year) and “long” (prereform) degrees in some educational and employment outcomes. Our analysis shows that social gradients are not evident neither on degree performance nor on hourly wages conditional on employment, irrespective of degree duration. However, after the introduction of the “3+2” reform individuals with low socio-economic status are relatively less likely to continue in postgraduate education and more likely to have switched to short degrees, which are also the degrees paying lower wages irrespective of social status. We conclude that, as shown by other studies, the reduction of degree length might have increased participation into HE but does not appear to have had an equally effective role in reducing labor market inequalities among university graduates with different socio-economic status