Friuli Venezia Giulia maintains the positive trend of post-pandemic recovery as regards the flow of foreign researchers and lecturers from institutions and incoming ones: this is what emerges from the annual survey ‘Mobility of Knowledge’ carried out by Area Science Park, which has been collecting the main data on students, researchers and lecturers of SiS FVG partner research institutions since 2005.

The survey reveals that there were a total of 36,925 students enrolled in the academic year 2022/2023, 7% of whom were foreign nationals (in the academic year 2021/2022, there were 36,459 students enrolled, of whom 6% were foreigners). Female students account for 56% of those enrolled (a 1% increase over the last survey) and mainly attend degree courses in the Humanities or Social Sciences.

The number of incoming students, 707 in total, is finally approaching pre-pandemic figures. Of this target group, 75% have European citizenship, 53% are women and 47% belong to the areas of Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, Engineering, Earth and Universe Sciences. On the other hand, there are 1,104 students enrolled in outgoing mobility: EU countries are the destination of 93% of this target group, 53% of whom are students enrolled on courses in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

As far as researchers and lecturers working in scientific institutions that are part of the Scientific and Innovation System - SiS FVG are concerned, in 2023 their presence reached 3,641. Although up by about 280 compared to 2022, the overall number nevertheless remains far from the numbers recorded before the pandemic (they were 6,960 in 2019). As for the foreign component in force at SiS FVG institutions, 2023 saw the largest increase in the last four years, rising from 636 to 804, although the numbers still remain far from pre-pandemic levels.

In contrast, incoming mobility of researchers and lecturers increased by almost 4,000 to 7,854. Outgoing mobility also saw an increase in 2023, with 75 trips abroad, mainly to EU European countries (43%) but also to Asian countries (20%, excluding India and China).

Adding up all the foreigners present in the institutions of the FVG Science and Innovation System, there is a further strong increase compared to the previous year, from 7,597 to 11,934 presences, a figure that is close to that recorded before the pandemic (about 14,000).

See the complete survey, available in Italian and English. https://www.areasciencepark.it/pubblicato-il-report-mobilita-della-conoscenza-2024/