Tertiary students with migrant background: evidence from a cohort enrolled at Sapienza University

The participation of foreign and international students in the Italian tertiary education shows a strong positive trend in the last decades, and has recently drawn attention in the literature. The aim of this study is to examine disparities in timing of graduation of a cohort of full time students which have been enrolled at Sapienza University in the a.y. 2012/2013 and graduated within twice the theoretical duration of the programme of study, considering both their citizenship and country of prior education. Although migrant background is not necessarily indicative of a disadvantage, the analysis suggests the existence of a link between migrant background and longer time to complete the programme of study, mostly in Bachelor’s programmes