2025-2026, number of students to decline by 5.5% annually, public universities most affected

2026-05-27 13:00:00, Sociale CNA

2025-2026, number of students to decline by 5.5% annually, public universities

School benches and auditoriums are rapidly emptying year after year due to the sharp decline in the younger age groups. The latest INSTAT data shows that 115.7 thousand students were registered this academic year, a 5.5% decrease from 2024.

Public universities have suffered the strongest decline, while private ones have seen a milder decline. Over the last 10 years, the total number of students sitting at university desks has decreased significantly, from around 141.4 thousand students to only 115.7 thousand in the 2025-2026 academic year, or 18%.

The biggest losers of this period are public universities. While in 2016 state institutions counted over 116.8 thousand students, this number has been continuously declining year after year, with a small and temporary exception in 2018.

The decline has peaked this academic year with about 81 thousand students, which translates into a sharp loss of about 31% of the student base within ten years. The emptying of public auditoriums raises serious questions about the financial sustainability of some branches and the urgent need for structural reforms. In the academic year 2025-2026, there were 6.8% fewer students in the public higher education sector than the previous year.

On the other hand, private universities have shown a very dynamic performance, challenging the demographic crisis that affected the public sector.

From around 24.5 thousand students choosing non-public education in 2016, the numbers have been steadily increasing, surpassing the threshold of 30 thousand students in 2022 and reaching a peak in 2024 with over 35.7 thousand registered.

Although this academic year marked a slight decrease of 2.6% for private students to around 34.8 thousand students, their overall performance remains significantly positive. Over the past 10 years, their number increased by more than 40%.

This development has also radically changed the weight of each sector in the higher education market. While in 2016 public universities held absolute dominance with around 83% of the total student weight, by 2025 this weight had dropped to 70%.

In parallel, private education has gained significant ground, increasing its market share from 17% in 2016 to a full 30% in the last year analyzed.

Despite the overall contraction in the number of young people in the country, private institutions are managing to attract an increasingly larger share of the remaining students, becoming a strong competitor to the state offer./ Monitor