13-year education requirement ‘limits internationalisation’

Italy’s universities are struggling to become more international due to a law that requires potential students to have completed at least 13 years of primary and secondary education, a conference has heard.

Many countries around the world award A levels or an equivalent entrance requirement for higher education after 12 years of schooling. In Italy, however, 13 years is the norm and universities will not accept students with less than this.

At an event held on 24 and 25 June to celebrate 20 years of the Bologna process, a Europe-led effort to align national higher education systems, attendants heard that this requirement was holding Italian universities back. “In a context in which many countries grant access to academia after 12 years of study, this is a handicap,” Alessandra Scagliarini, the vice-rector for international relations at the Università di Bologna, told Research Italy.