For university education, however, the gap is certainly worrying.
Here, Italy seems hard put to keep up with the other advanced countries: again in 2009, the proportion of graduates in the 25–64 age group was less than 15 per cent, or just half the OECD average; amongst people aged between 25 and 34 years, it exceeded 20 per cent, compared to an OECD average of around 37 per cent.