International Students in the UK and Italy:latest evidence and policy perspectives

Conference organised by Home Office Science and Middlesex University

London, 6 July 2012

International students in the EU• 3.7 million in the OECD area, of which 1.2 million in the EU (2010):

– Over half a million in the UK;– 250-300 thousand: Australia, Germany and France;– 100 thousand: Canada and Japan;– over 50 thousand: Spain, New Zealand, Austria, Italy, South Korea

and Switzerland.

• In the EU, the average incidence on the total number of post-secondary students is 8.6% (Eurostat, 2010) vs 3.8% registered in Italy:– Cyprus (34.6%); UK (21.6%); Austria (19.6%); – Ireland (15.1%); Belgium (12.4%); France (11.6%); Germany (10.7%)

Source: OECD

Stay permits issued in 2010• 510,000 stay permits issued for study purposes by the

27 Member States, equal to one-fifth of the total admissions, 20.6%, vs 4.4% registered in Italy (Eurostat data).

• Incidence varies between Member States, from 61.4% in Ireland to 3.9% in Greece.

• More than half were issued by the UK (271,000). Italy (26,000) is the fourth country, after France (66,000) and Germany (30,000).

Source: Eurostat

International students in Italy. Evolution in time

During the ’90s the presence is lower than 20,000 units, but it increases after the introduction of 3-yrs degrees in the years 2001/2002 and it reaches 64,000 units in 2011/2012.

Source: MIUR - Ministry of Education data

National Students Registry (MIUR)

Non-EU EU Italian

2004/2005 22.951 9.521 1.285.931

2005/2006 27.660 10.824 1.447.825

2006/2007 32.434 11.836 1.544.465

2007/2008 37.498 12.731 1.609.846

2008/2009 42.145 13.259 1.637.580

2009/2010 46.386 13.742 1.660.327

2010/2011 49.494 14.079 1.648.949

2011/2012* 50.818 13.592 1.695.323

*Provisional data (3.8% incidence of which 3.0% non-EU)

Non-EU students enrolled at Italian universities – main 10 Third Countries

0

2.000

4.000

6.000

8.000

10.000

12.00011.486

6.093

2.527 2.2301.870 1.786 1.772 1.540 1.519 1.347

Fonte: National Students Registry (MIUR), AY 2011/2012. Provisional data.

A.y. 2011/2012 provisional data

– 1 foreign citizen out of 22 newly enrolled

– 1 out of 26 total enrolled students

– 1 out of 37 graduates (over 7,000)

• 12,800 newly enrolled international students, in line with the last five years.• Considerable increase, i.e. compared to a.y. 2000-2001:

– Newly enrolled and enrolled students were approximately 1 every 60;– Graduates were just 1 every 100.

Student mobility and Labour mobility

• Student mobility does not match labour mobility:– 1 out of 3 foreign students is actually represented

by a second generation migrant, whose parents are in Italy for work or family reunification reasons;

– immigrants communities are poorly represented (except for Albanians);

– moreover, one-third of foreign students is based in Central Italy.

Changes of immigration status from education to remunerated activities

reasons• In 2011, 825 changes of immigration status (just

27 in 2008, 44 in 2009 and 46 in 2010).

• Tendentially study does not seem to be an excuse to circumvent the immigration law with the aim to stay in Italy for remunerated activities, since the change of immigration status is only allowed within the limits envisaged by Flow Decrees.

Specific aspects• Many students come from asylum applicants areas of

origin, such as Iran and the Middle East;• concerning US students, regular stayers (2,842 in 2011)

are just over one-third of new stay permit holders (6,273 new permits): their stay in the 200 American “colleges” does not exceed a semester, so at the end of the year their permit is already expired;

• students enrolled at Roman pontificial universities are about 10,000, mainly priests and nuns in possession of stay permit for religious reasons;

• in those countries where significant Italian communities are settled, emigrants’ descendants are increasingly interested in studying in Italy.

Conclusions• Internationalisation strategies are increasing, but impact is limited due to

several impeding factors: – difficulties linked to flow planning and issuance of stay permits for study reasons,

uncertain stay permit renewal; – complex procedure for the recognition of qualifications obtained abroad;– low number of grants and students accommodation facilities availability;– admission difficulties concerning postgraduate studies;– limited offer of courses delivered in English language.

• Nevertheless, Consolidated Act on Immigration affirms equal right to grants, students accommodation facilities, eventual reductions of tuition fees and other supporting tools.

• Therefore, the presence of international students and skilled migrants leads to stress the need to promote a virtuous movement, avoiding losses and promoting benefits for Italy as well as for the countries of origin.