Fostering Good Practices for Vulnerable Students in Higher Education: Suggestions from Italy

The positive advantages of diversity in the Higher Education environment have been largely documented by research. Nevertheless, face to the apparent benefits of diversity, current attempts to widen and reinforce HE participation still deal with a number of challenges. Even though European governments repeatedly committed to the goals of increasing graduation rates and fostering diversity in HE, the lack of financial support, combined with unfavourable demographic patterns, prevents them to reach such ambitious objectives. Consequently, universities still tend to be open to students that are likely to succeed from the outset more than those that are affected by economic, social or cultural drawbacks. To counter this trend, good practices concerning favouring the access, retention and success of underprivileged students to Higher Education have been brought about in many European countries. The chapter will provide an examination of the socioeconomic, organisational and educational factors that influence the development of good practices in Italy, as well as an evaluation of the advantages and limitations of the good practices approach applied to Higher Education.