Enrolment Decision and University Choice of Italian Secondary School Graduates

This paper examines the enrolment decision and the university choice of Italian secondary school graduates. We extend previous analyses by means of a theoretical model where student's choices depend on both universities attributes and individual characteristics. Empirical evidence of theoretical predictions is provided by the estimation of a conditional logit model mainly using the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) survey of secondary school graduates in 2004. Results show that geographical distance, tuition fees and university quality play a major role in higher education choices. In addition, Italian students seem to self-sort by their own ability across dierent levels of university standards: high ability students tend to seek a higher quality. The sorting process is strongly in uenced by parents characteristics and previous elds of study.