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This paper proposes a novel approach to investigating the determinants of academic performance: GPA and time to degree. We match administrative records with questionnaire responses for a large set of undergraduate students from one Italian public university. By exploiting reforms implemented by the University, we estimate the effect of the excess time to degree on GPA and find a strong negative relationship. Our results shed light on two crucial outcomes of academic performance, which may also determine the students' bargaining power in the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a standard difference-in-differences approach to examine the effect of the L’Aquila earthquake on the academic performance of the students of the local university. The empirical results indicate that this natural disaster reduced students’ probability of graduating on-time and slightly increased students’ probability of dropping out. While post-disaster measures (e.g. fast re-establishment of education activities in temporary locations) are likely to have mitigated the effects of this event, disruptions in the learning environment and the mental trauma suffered by students in the aftermath of the earthquake may have worsened their academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to discover whether the performance of university students has improved in the wake of the changes in higher education introduced by the Bologna Declaration of 1999 and the construction of the European Higher Education Area. A principal component analysis is used to construct a multi-dimensional performance variable called the LEArning Society-adapted Outcome Index. A quantile regression is then applied to ensure that the analysis does not focus solely on average figures, and the performance of students of various types is analyzed. Significant improvements are found in the acquisition of systemic and interpersonal skills and in student satisfaction but not in cognitive aspects. There are improvements in students of all types, but they are smaller among the best students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on academic achievement is a heated issue that involves all the higher education contexts. This paper attempts to provide an indicator that can make the measurement of university student performance easier and that can be easily applied to different systems, making comparisons more fair. The Italian University System is used as a starting point to make several considerations on the current measures and to build up a new performance indicator. Then, a generalization for other marking systems is shown and finally a quantile regression is performed to investigate some determinants of the new performance indicator, also with respect to the current one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]