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This paper seeks to discover whether the performance of university students has improved in the wake of the changes in higher education introduced by the Bologna Declaration of 1999 and the construction of the European Higher Education Area. A principal component analysis is used to construct a multi-dimensional performance variable called the LEArning Society-adapted Outcome Index. A quantile regression is then applied to ensure that the analysis does not focus solely on average figures, and the performance of students of various types is analyzed. Significant improvements are found in the acquisition of systemic and interpersonal skills and in student satisfaction but not in cognitive aspects. There are improvements in students of all types, but they are smaller among the best students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bologna Process (BP) promoted a series of wide-ranging reforms of higher education (HE) systems in order to improve the quality of teaching activities across Europe. This paper evaluates the effect of these reforms on the teaching efficiency of Italian universities during the period 2000-2010. We employ bootstrapped data envelopment analysis algorithms to assess teaching efficiency. Then, we examine the convergence of the Italian HE system using several panel data estimators. We find clear evidence that Italian universities have become more efficient over time, consistent with the goals of the BP, but that substantial improvement mainly occurs during the initial period of implementation. Our estimates also show a process of convergence in the performance of the Italian HE system, but we find strong evidence of persistent gaps at both university and regional levels. These empirical findings are robust to an alternative estimator, the empirical strategy, and the employed sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]