The Report on the system of higher education and research reaches its fifth edition, almost three years after the 2023 edition.

While the previous Report adopted as its guiding thread the analysis of the system’s evolution in the decade following Law 240/2010, with particular attention to the changes affecting universities and the research system, the present Report, while ensuring continuity in the main variables of observation, is more in-depth and offers a different perspective: to assess to what extent the national landscape and its international positioning have changed in the transition from the period immediately preceding the pandemic to the present.

The four chapters of the Report provide a structured overview, in which signs of significant growth coexist with structural weaknesses that the country can no longer ignore or postpone. Each chapter explores the complex dynamics affecting universities, AFAM institutions, and public research bodies, as well as examining the evolution of the entire system in an international context.

In addition to the general Report, attention is devoted to exploring specific topics that deserve more detailed analysis. For this reason, the 2026 edition of the Report is complemented by a second volume dedicated to Thematic Focuses, centred on eight topics that affect, in different ways, the structure of the Italian education and research system.

The 2026 Report on the system of higher education and research is complemented by a new volume that accompanies the general discussion and offers in-depth analyses dedicated to specific thematic areas. The decision to develop targeted analyses on certain topics that the Agency directly evaluates or examines within the framework of its study and research activities responds to the need to strengthen the system’s knowledge and interpretative tools, thereby contributing to the improvement of evaluation activities.

The decision to select and further explore a set of specific topics emerged during the collection and processing of the data used for the drafting of the general Report. The analysis of quantitative and qualitative evidence has in fact shown that general data provide the picture of a complex and highly differentiated system, in which some dynamics require more in-depth and targeted readings. Hence the need to complement the overall reconstruction of the system with a set of vertical analyses, capable of highlighting specific phenomena and offering a more detailed interpretation.

From this perspective, eight areas of in-depth analysis have been identified, relating to topics that are particularly relevant both for the evaluation activities carried out by the Agency and for the evolution of the higher education and research system. The volume therefore includes specific focuses on the following topics: the PNRR, the internationalisation of the educational offer, research evaluation, journal classification, teaching evaluation, online universities, gender analysis, and the right to education.