Abstract

The Italian university system has always suffered from a high percentage of students who fail to complete their studies or find themselves seriously lagging behind, the latter case being the focus of this article. It is a phenomenon that involves a considerable waste of resources and skills. Reorganised and reworked here are a series of articles and commentaries published in blogs and online journals by the authors over the last year, also drawing upon the resulting extensive exchanges with the readers. This has stimulated further thinking, the fruit of which is this text.