Number of enrolled students in Italy 2020-2021, by field of study

In the academic year 2020/2021, 50 thousand students in Italy enrolled in economics programs. Moreover, industrial engineering and computer engineering were the second most popular courses of studies in Italy among new university students, counting 40.7 thousand enrollments. Medical programs, including those in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, were chosen by 33.1 thousand students, while juridical studies by 22.5 thousand.

Leading universities

In the academic year 2019/2020, 104 thousand students were enrolled at La Sapienza University of Rome, making it the largest Italian university. The main universities of the cities of Bologna and Turin, in the North, followed in the ranking. According to an Italian research institute, the University of Bologna Alma Mater Studiorum was the best large public university in the country. The criteria adopted for the ranking were basis of services, scholarships and taxes, buildings, websites, internationalization, and employment.

Growing popularity of online courses

Among the largest Italian universities, an online university ranked 7th: in the academic year 2019/2020, over 55 thousand students were enrolled at the Pegaso online University. In total, in the academic year 2018/2019, 82 thousand students chose e-learning for their bachelor studies, while 20.8 thousand individuals were enrolled in an online master course. Between 2013 and 2018, the number of students who graduated at an online university constantly increased. In the academic year 2013/2014, 3.9 thousand people graduated at an online university. After four years, the number of students more than doubled, reaching about 8.1 thousand graduates.