UNICA - Università degli studi di Cagliari
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Bando PRIN 2022

PEER -UP

Research output

Journal Articles

Usala, C., Sulis, I., Salaris, L., Tedesco, N., Porcu, M., & Barbieri, B. (2024). Disentangling the secondary school effects in the assessment of university inefficiencies. Studies in Higher Education, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2024.2345188 [link]

Usala, C., Primerano, I., Santelli, F., & Ragozini, G. (2024). The more the better? How degree programs’ variety affects university students’ churn risk. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 94, 101926.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semps.2024.101926

Tocchioni, V., Milone, S., Lombardi G. (2025). Gender disparities in school-to-university transition in Italy: the role played by socio-economic condition and type of high school. Rivista Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, 79, 67-78. https://doi.org/10.71014/sieds.v79i1.351

Usala, C., Sulis, I., & Porcu, M. (2025). Exploring the impact of high schools, socioeconomic factors, and degree programs on higher education success in Italy. Big Data Research, 100539.

Vitale, M. P., Brancaccio, N., Fraudatario, M. C., Pacca, A., Ragozini, G., & Restaino, M. (2025). PERSONAL NETWORKS, SCHOOLS, AND HIGHER EDUCATION: LINKING SOCIAL CAPITAL AND STUDENT PATHWAYS BEYOND HIGH SCHOOL. Italian Journal of Applied Statistics. https://doi.org/10.36253/ijas-16656

Working Papers

Tocchioni, V., Morabito, M. F., & Petrucci, A. (2026). Students enrolled in STEM disciplines in Italy: The role played by field of study and gender in course switching. DISIA Working Paper, 2026/03.

Chapters in Books and Proceedings

Genova, V.G., Vitale, M.P., Giordano, G., Ragozini, G. (2025). Exploring Student Mobility Trajectories in Higher Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic. In: D’Ambrosio, A., de Rooij, M., De Roover, K., Iorio, C., La Rocca, M. (eds) Supervised and Unsupervised Statistical Data Analysis. CLADAG-VOC 2025. Studies in Classification, Data Analysis, and Knowledge Organization. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-03042-9_16

Sulis I., Columbu S., Porcu M. & Usala, C. (2025). Fostering Resilience of Students at the University: Assessing the Influence of Peers’ Socioeconomic and Cultural Status. In: di Bella, E., Gioia, V., Lagazio, C., Zaccarin, S. (eds) Statistics for Innovation IV. SIS 2025. Italian Statistical Society Series on Advances in Statistics. Springer, Cham.

Pisu A., Sulis I. & Porcu M. (2025) Academic Resilience Among Low ESCS Students in Italy. In: (a cura di) G. Boccuzzo, E. Bovo, M. Manisera, L. Salmaso, IES 2025 – Statistical Methods for Evaluation and Quality, Book of Short Papers -IES 2025, Cleup, pp. 1145-1151..

Pacca, A. & Giordano, G. (2025). Exploring Peer Effect in Educational Choices: The Missing Tie. In: (a cura di) G. Boccuzzo, E. Bovo, M. Manisera, L. Salmaso, IES 2025 – Statistical Methods for Evaluation and Quality, Book of Short Papers, Cleup, pp. 1228-1234.

Moreschini I., Brancaccio N., Sulis I. & Vitale, M.P. (2025). Evaluating the Impact of Teachers’ Characteristics and Practices on High School Students’ Performance. In: (a cura di) G. Boccuzzo, E. Bovo, M. Manisera, L. Salmaso, IES 2025 – Statistical Methods for Evaluation and Quality, Book of Short Papers -IES 2025, Cleup, pp. 1121–1128.

La Rocca M., Niglio M., Restaino M., & Vitale M. P. (2025). Exploring factors affecting gender gap in university student performance.  In: (a cura di) G. Boccuzzo, E. Bovo, M. Manisera, L. Salmaso, IES 2025 – Statistical Methods for Evaluation and Quality, Book of Short Papers, Cleup, pp. 19–25.

Brancaccio N., Ragozini G. & Vitale M.P. (2025). Who Provides Support? Investigating Social Support Types in High School Students’ Personal Networks. In: di Bella, E., Gioia, V., Lagazio, C., Zaccarin, S. (eds) Statistics for Innovation II. SIS 2025. Italian Statistical Society Series on Advances in Statistics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-96303-2_41

Pacca A., Ragozini G. & Vitale M.P. (2025). Measuring Peer Effects in a Network Perspective. Survey Design and Privacy Issues. In: di Bella, E., Gioia, V., Lagazio, C., Zaccarin, S. (eds) Statistics for Innovation IV. SIS 2025. Italian Statistical Society Series on Advances in Statistics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-96033-8_21

Pacca A. & Giordano, G. (2025). The Building Blocks of Peer Effect in Educational Choices. In: (a cura di) T. Di Battista, Y. Calleo, A. Cucco, Book of Abstracts DSSR 2025, 108(1), p. 73.

Brancaccio N., Moreschini I., Sulis I. & Vitale M.P. (2025). Evaluating the Impact of Teacher Practices on High School Students’ Performance: Evidence from the INVALSI Survey. In: (a cura di) T. Di Battista, Y. Calleo, A. Cucco, Book of Abstracts DSSR 2025, 108(1), p. 72.

Policastro V., Pacca A., Ragozini G. (2025). Exploring Factors Affecting Student University Choices in Campania Region. In: Pollice, A., Mariani, P. (eds) Methodological and Applied Statistics and Demography II. SIS 2024. Italian Statistical Society Series on Advances in Statistics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-64350-7_54

Tocchioni, V., Milone, S., Lombardi, G., & Petrucci, A. (2025). Navigating academic waters: Exploring the trends of switching students in higher education. Innovation & Society – Statistics and Data Science for Evaluation and Quality: Proceedings of IES 2025 – Statistical Methods for Evaluation and Quality, 1114–1120.

Usala, C., Lombardi, G., Priulla, A. (2025). Dropout rates in Italian universities: a comparison of online and traditional universities. Innovation & Society – Statistics and Data Science for Evaluation and Quality: Proceedings of IES 2025 – Statistical Methods for Evaluation and Quality, 1106–1113.

G. Lombardi, G., R., Cipriano, G., Ghellini (2025). Exploring the predictive power of standardized assessments and non-standardized evaluations on Italian university freshpeople’s performance. INVALSI data in educational research – VII Seminar “INVALSI data: a tool for teaching and scientific research”, 103-125

Books

Sulis, I., Tocchioni, V., & Vitale, M. P. (a cura di). (2026). Dalla scuola superiore all’università: Valutare l’influenza dei pari sulle diseguaglianze educative e sulle performance. Milano: FrancoAngeli. ISBN 9788835189732.

Presentations

Friendship, Motivation, and Educational Trajectories: A Multilevel Social Network Approach

Peer Networks and the Development of Soft Skills in High School: Insights from a Social Network Study inequalities and peer’s influence in students’ performance and choices

From high school to university: Assessing inequalities and peer’s influence in students’ performance and choices

  • Conference: ARS’25 Tenth International Workshop on Social Network Analysis | 30-31 October, Naples, Italy
  • Session: Inequalities in Education: The Role of Schools, Peers, and Transitions
  • Authors: Isabella Sulis, Maria Prosperina Vitale, Valentina Tocchioni, Nunzia Brancaccio, Samuele Milone, Iacopo Moreschini
  • Presented by: Isabella Sulis

Exploring the impact of social relationships on soft skills: insights from a high school survey in Italy

Assessing Peer Effects Through a Network Lens: Survey Design and Privacy Considerations

Unraveling the Impact of Peer Networks on Soft Skills: Insights from a High School Survey in Italy

  • Conference: Sunbelt 2025 – Social Networks, Mechanisms, and Algorithms | 22-29 June, Paris, France
  • Session: The role of networks in education and labour market 3
  • Authors: Nunzia Brancaccio, Giancarlo Ragozini, Marialuisa Restaino, Maria Prosperina Vitale
  • Presented by: Maria Prosperina Vitale

Assessing the role of social support in personal networks during educational transitions

  • Conference: Sunbelt 2025 – Social Networks, Mechanisms, and Algorithms | 22-29 June, Paris, France
  • Session: The role of networks in education and labour market
  • Authors: Nunzia Brancaccio, Viviana Amati, Giancarlo Ragozini, Maria Prosperina Vitale
  • Presented by: Nunzia Brancaccio

Exploring factors affecting gender gap in university student performance

  • Conference: IES 2025 – Innovation & Society: Statistics and Data Science for Evaluation and Quality University of Padova Bressanone-Brixen, Italy, June 25-27
  • Session: Advances in statistical modeling of educational data (Chair: Rosaria Simone)
  • Authors: Marialuisa Restaino, Michele La Rocca, Marcella Niglio, Maria Prosperina Vitale
  • Presented by: Marialuisa Restaino

Navigating Academic Waters: Exploring the Trends of Switching Students in Higher Education

  • Conference: IES 2025 – Innovation & Society: Statistics and Data Science for Evaluation and Quality University of Padova Bressanone-Brixen, Italy, June 25-27
  • Session: Statistical methods and models for student mobility, performance, and resilience (Chair: Ambra Macis)
  • Authors: Valentina Tocchioni, Samuele Milone, Gabriele Lombardi, Alessandra Petrucci
  • Presented by: Gabriele Lombardi

Exploring Peer Effect in Educational Choices: The Missing Tie

  • Conference: IES 2025 – Innovation & Society: Statistics and Data Science for Evaluation and Quality University of Padova Bressanone-Brixen, Italy, June 25-27
  • Session: Statistical modeling for environmental, social, and economic challenges (Chair: Nicolò Biasetton)
  • Authors: Angela Pacca, Giuseppe Giordano
  • Presented by: Angela Pacca

Italian Traditional and Online University Students

  • Conference: IES 2025 – Innovation & Society: Statistics and Data Science for Evaluation and Quality University of Padova Bressanone-Brixen, Italy, June 25-27
  • Session: Statistical methods and models for student mobility, performance, and resilience (Chair: Ambra Macis)
  • Authors: Cristian Usala, Gabriele Lombardi, Andrea Priulla
  • Presented by: Andrea Priulla

Fostering resilience of students at the university: Assessing the influence of peers’ socioeconomic and cultural status

  • Conference: SIS 2025 – Statistics for Innovation – Genoa Italy, June 16-18
  • Session: CONT-19 – Advanced statistical modeling of complex systems
  • Authors: Isabella Sulis, Silvia Columbu, Mariano Porcu, Cristian Usala
  • Presented by: Cristian Usala
  • Abstract

Measuring peer effects in a network perspective. Survey design and privacy issues

  • Conference: SIS 2025 – Statistics for Innovation – Genoa Italy, June 16-18
  • Session: Network analysis and statistical learning for social, health, and biological systems
  • Authors: Angela Pacca, Giancarlo Ragozini, Maria Prosperina Vitale
  • Presented by: Angela Pacca
  • Abstract

Who provides support? Investigating Social Support Types in High School Students’ Personal Networks

  • Conference: SIS 2025 – Statistics for Innovation – Genoa Italy, June 16-18
  • Session: Network analysis and statistical learning for social, health, and biological systems
  • Authors: Nunzia Brancaccio, Giancarlo Ragozini, Maria Prosperina Vitale
  • Presented by: Nunzia Brancaccio
  • Abstract

Educational Choices and Peer Effects: Insights from a Literature Review

  • Conference: PopDays 2025 – AISP. Giornate di Studio sulla Popolazione, University of Cagliari, June 4-6
  • Poster session
  • Authors: Angela Pacca, Giuseppe Giordano
  • Presented by: Angela Pacca

Academic Resilience Among Low-ESCS Students in Italy

  • Conference: PopDays 2025 – AISP. Giornate di Studio sulla Popolazione, University of Cagliari, June 4-6
  • Session: Poster session
  • Authors: Alessandra Pisu, Isabella Sulis, Mariano Porcu
  • Presented by: Alessandra Pisu

Assessing determinants of implicit dropout on Italian 13th grade students and its impact on educational choices

  • Conference: PopDays 2025 – AISP. Giornate di Studio sulla Popolazione, University of Cagliari, June 4-6
  • Session: School choices, attainment and performance (Chair: Massimo Attanasio)
  • Authors: Iacopo Moreschini, Isabella Sulis, Mariano Porcu
  • Presented by: Iacopo Moreschini
  • Slides

Insights from Italy’s Traditional and Online University Students

  • Conference: PopDays 2025 – AISP. Giornate di Studio sulla Popolazione, University of Cagliari, June 4-6
  • Session: University choices and behavior (Chair: Mariano Porcu)
  • Authors: Cristian Usala, Gabriele Lombardi, Andrea Priulla
  • Presented by: Cristian Usala

The Role of Personal Network on Student Educational Choices

  • Conference: PopDays 2025 – AISP. Giornate di Studio sulla Popolazione, University of Cagliari, June 4-6
  • Session: School choices, attainment and performance (Chair: Massimo Attanasio)
  • Authors: Viviana Amati, Nunzia Brancaccio, Giancarlo Ragozini, Angela Pacca, Maria Prosperina Vitale
  • Presented by: Nunzia Brancaccio

Navigating Academic Waters: Exploring the Trends of Switching Students in Higher Education

  • Conference: PopDays 2025 – AISP. Giornate di Studio sulla Popolazione, University of Cagliari, June 4-6
  • Session: University choices and behavior (Chair: Mariano Porcu)
  • Authors: Valentina Tocchioni, Samuele Milone, Gabriele Lombardi, Alessandra Petrucci
  • Presented by: Samuele Milone

Assessing the gender peer effect and gender stereotypes in university enrolment in Italy

  • Conference: DSSR 2025 – Towards a Holistic Understanding of Society: Bridging Social Sciences, Statistics and Computational Sciences, University “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, February 19-21
  • Authors: Valentina Tocchioni – Samuele Milone – Gabriele Lombardi
  • Presented by: Samuele Milone

Evaluating the Impact of Teacher Practices on High Schools Students’ Performance: Evidence from INVALSI Survey

  • Conference: DSSR 2025 – Towards a Holistic Understanding of Society: Bridging Social Sciences, Statistics and Computational Sciences, University “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, February 19-21
  • Authors: Nunzia Brancaccio, Iacopo Moreschini, Isabella Sulis, Maria Prosperina Vitale
  • Presented by: Nunzia Brancaccio

The Building Blocks of Peer Effect in Educational Choices

  • Conference: DSSR 2025 – Towards a Holistic Understanding of Society: Bridging Social Sciences, Statistics and Computational Sciences, University “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, February 19-21
  • Authors: Angela Pacca, Giuseppe Giordano
  • Presented by: Angela Pacca

Fostering resilience at the university: Statistical models for assessing the influence of high schools and peers

Exploring factors affecting gender gap in university student performance

Identifying exchange patterns in Erasmus+ mobility

Assessing the role of individual and network characteristics in higher education choices

Percorsi degli studenti nell’università

Unveiling factors driving higher education student choices

Remapping of student mobility trajectories for Italian universities pre-and post-COVID-19

Esplorare i fattori individuali e i meccanismi sociali che guidano le scelte educative

Statistical models to predict educational outcomes in academic transitions and trajectories

Exploring factors affetting student universitary choices in Campania region

Factors affecting student choices in tertiary education

From high school to university: assessing school influence on students’ career at the university

Evaluating The School Effect On Enhancing Resilience In University Students’ Performances

Exploring the effect of Individual Characteristics and Social mechanisms on Educational Choices

The gender gap in school-to-university transition in Italy

Educational data mining for predicting students’ success

Indicators for Evaluating Secondary School Effectiveness and the Impact of Peer Influence on Access to and Completion of Tertiary Education

The gender gap in school-to-university transition in Italy: Insights from the integration between INVALSI and ANS data sources

Sessions

Inequalities in Education: The Role of Schools, Peers, and Transitions

  • Conference: ARS’25 Tenth International Workshop on Social Network Analysis | 30-31 October, Naples, Italy
  • Panel convenors: Isabella Sulis, Valentina Tocchioni, Maria Prosperina Vitale

Peer Networks and Educational Choices. Methods and Insights from School-Based Research

  • Conference: ARS’25 Tenth International Workshop on Social Network Analysis | 30-31 October, Naples, Italy
  • Panel convenors: PRIN 2022 PEER UP Members of Salerno Research Group

From high school to university: Assessing inequalities and peer’s influence in students’ performance and choices

  • Conference: RSS International Conference 2025, Edimburgh, UK
  • Panel convenors: Isabella Sulis, Valentina Tocchioni, Maria Prosperina Vitale
  • Chair: Mariano Porcu

The role of networks in education and labor markets

  • Conference: Sunbelt 2025 – Social Networks, Mechanisms, and Algorithms
  • Panel convenors: Annatine Aerne, Mattia Vacchiano, Maria Prosperina Vitale
  • Chair: Maria Prosperina Vitale

Methods and Models for Educational Data

  • Conference: DSSR 2025 – Towards a Holistic Understanding of Society: Bridging Social Sciences, Statistics and Computational Sciences, 19-21 February 2025, University “G. D’Annunzio” Chieti – Pescara, Italy
  • Panel convenors: Maria Prosperina Vitale, Isabella Sulis
  • Chair: Maria Prosperina Vitale

Drivers of education inequalities in student performances and choices

  • Conference: III Scuola Democratica “Education and/for social justice”, 3-6 giugno 2024, Cagliari
  • Panel convenors: Isabella Sulis (Università di Cagliari, Italy); Valentina Tocchioni (Università di Firenze, Italy); Maria Prosperina Vitale (Università di Salerno, Italy)

Statistical models and methods for education I

  • Conference: 18th International Joint Conference on Computational and Financial Econometrics (CFE) and Computational and Methodological Statistics (CMStatistics), CFE-CMStatistics 2024,  King’s College London, 14-16 December 2024
  • Organizers Invited Sessions: Marcella Niglio, Marialuisa Restaino, Maria Prosperina Vitale (Università di Salerno)

Statistical models and methods for education I

  • Conference: 18th International Joint Conference on Computational and Financial Econometrics (CFE) and Computational and Methodological Statistics (CMStatistics), CFE-CMStatistics 2024,  King’s College London, 14-16 December 2024
  • Organizers Invited Sessions: Isabella Sulis (Università di Cagliari), Antonella D’Agostino (Università di Siena)

Factors affecting student choices in tertiary education

  • Conference: 52nd Scientific Meeting of the Italian Statistical Society, 18-21 giugno 2024, Bari
  • Specialized Session organizer: Maria Prosperina Vitale (Università di Salerno, Italy)

Life course and education

  • Conference: 52nd Scientific Meeting of the Italian Statistical Society, 18-21 giugno 2024, Bari
  • Specialized Session organizer: Valentina Tocchioni (Università di Firenze, Italy)

Network Analysis in Education

  • Conference: INSNA – Sunbelt 2024, 24-30 June 2024 | Edinburgh, UK
  • Specialized Session organizer: Maria Prosperina Vitale, Giuseppe Giordano, Giancarlo Ragozini

Network Analysis and Textual Data in the Digital Space

  • Conference: INSNA – Sunbelt 2024, 24-30 June 2024 | Edinburgh, UK
  • Specialized Session organizer: Maria Prosperina Vitale, Giuseppe Giordano, Giancarlo Ragozini

Statistical models and methods for education evaluation

  • Conference: Spring HiTEc meeting and the Complex Data in Econometrics and Statistics Workshop, 23-24 March 2024 | Cipro
  • Chair: Marialuisa Restaino

Podcast

InnoVibe canale Podcast del CREA UniCa; 11 Puntata – Ce la puoi fare se vuoi (sì, come no). Cosa vuol dire davvero essere resilienti a scuola (Isabella Sulis)

Workshop

Workshop conclusivo PRIN PEER-UP“Dalla scuola superiore all’università: valutare l’influenza dei pari sulle diseguaglianze educative e sulle performance”, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, 30 gennaio 2026.