Universities, the demographic decline desertifies Italian universities: in the South there is a high risk of closure

ROME – Italy’s insidious demographic decline, if it does not experience a trend reversal that is neither seen nor hypothesized to date, will desertify the country’s universities. The time frame to see fate come true is thirteen years, from now to 2040.

A work by “Talents Venture”, a consulting firm specializing in university education, argues that the decline in births, added to the flow of students leaving their areas of residence in the South, risks “creating real ghost universities, universities which, remained in defense of the territories, could only be frequented by those who work there”.