FM: Italy should attract more African students

Rome: Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has stressed the need to increase the number of African students in Italy.

Speaking at a Catholic business and politics conference in the city of Rimini held on Thursday, Tajani called on the government to consider offering citizenship to foreign minors who have completed most of their education in Italy.

“I think the numbers of African students studying in Italy should be increased,” Tajan stated.

However, the proposal faced opposition from the two right-wing coalition parties, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Matteo Salvini’s League, according to a report.

Data released by the Ministry of University and Research indicate that most international students in Italy are from European countries, while Africa is third among continents with a number of students in Italy.

Nonetheless, compared to other EU countries, Italy hosts fewer students. In 2022, Italy had only 25,000 individuals on study permits, while Germany had about 70,000, according to the National Institute of Statistics (Istat).

Despite this, Italy has seen an improvement in attracting international students, with an increase in the number over the past few years, especially since 2017.

Statista, the data provider, reports that the country’s universities saw the highest number of international students in the 2022/23 academic year, hitting 83,000, up from 70,358 students in 2021/22 and 60,225 in 2020/21.

As the Ministry of University and Research reported previously, Italy has been popular, especially among students from Romania. A total of 11,239 Romanian students were studying in Italy in the 2021/22 academic year.

Albanian students are Italy’s second largest group of international students, totaling 8,357. One of the least represented countries of origin is Cameroon, with only over 2,000 students.

Italy’s former Education Minister, Francesco Profumo, also addressed the issue of international students at Italian institutions earlier this year, calling for a balanced approach.

“We need a kind of balance; we need more educated students, but in the meantime, we don’t have to be too jealous. Europe needs to establish a standard model to really understand what we can do to attract more students while also giving them positive feedback to go back to their home countries because improving the quality of life there is the best investment they can give,” Profumo said at a panel about international students’ impact to the economy of host countries at the NAFSA conference 2024.

Minister said that of the nearly 800,000 children born in Italy in 2004, about 500,000 completed secondary school. Of these, as explained, 300,000 will start university, and 180,000 will graduate from the university.