‘Exams never end’, said Eduardo De Filippo in 1973 with a tone of weary melancholy,  describing a difficult existential condition involving exhausting responses to life’s constant challenges,  a chapter of unhappiness from the ‘Cantata dei Giorni Dispari’.

Under the torment of exams, Eduardo was extraordinary: a marvellous chapter in the history of Italian theatre. And yet, leafing through today’s newspapers, this state of perpetual uncertainty seems to have taken on a different dimension to Eduardo’s sadness: ‘The desire to go to university returns at forty,’ writes Viola Giannoli in La Repubblica (28 April),  noting how ‘the number of adults returning to university is growing’. Over the last decade, their numbers have doubled, she says, ‘a choice in search of redemption and new skills’.

There are 133,079 students aged over 40 at university (academic year 2024–2025), accounting for 6.4% of Italy’s 2 million university students. And their number is increasing year by year. There were just 61 thousand in 2015/16. This figure exceeded 100 thousand in 2021/22, reaching 122,454 in 2023/24. This is a continuing phenomenon.

As we know, Italy ranks second from last in Europe in terms of the number of university graduates.  And it certainly won’t be students with grey hair who solve the problem (especially given the general demographic trend of a steadily declining population). Yet those more than 100,000 forty-somethings who are picking up their books again and adding a renewed commitment to their studies to their daily work and normal family responsibilities are telling the rest of the country something very important.

Work, knowledge and the skills required have changed radically, not only for career progression, but also to tackle with greater awareness all the challenges posed by the digital and environmental transitions that have long been reshaping professional environments (in industry, services and countless sectors of the service sector). Failing to acquire the skills needed to keep pace with these changes effectively means falling behind in the workplace. With consequent repercussions in terms of career prospects and pay.

Of course, amongst so many personal stories, there are plenty that speak of personal fulfilment, of cultural and social pride in finally obtaining a degree after having reluctantly put their studies on hold, of personal achievements, and of a desire to complete a journey interrupted in their youth for financial and family reasons. Of climbing the social ladder.

But, on closer inspection of the stories gathered by universities, from Milan to Bologna, professional and career needs take precedence.

The decisions made by universities regarding distance learning, which was successfully tested during the pandemic, play a significant role in favouring the resumption of studies. There is also a growing awareness among teaching staff of their responsibilities regarding the country’s general level of knowledge and improving tools for understanding increasingly complex and difficult-to-interpret real-world situations.

However, the greatest driver is the awareness of the need to cope with changes in production methods and work content.

Growing awareness of the relationship between productivity and wages is also acting as a stimulus. Equally significant are the changes in roles and responsibilities brought about by the radical shifts in production cycles, which have been transformed by the spread of digital technologies and data-driven organisational practices.

Everything suggests that the growing prevalence of Artificial Intelligence will now lead to a renewed interest in reading books. While it is true that many companies are making great efforts to enhance their employees’ professional skills through training programmes, a return to books and university environments continues to hold a certain appeal.

We are a country that invests little in research and training, that reads little, and that has a high level of functional illiteracy. We struggle to meet the new technological challenges linked not only to work, but also to the many processes of digitisation in everyday life.

So, it is certainly welcome news that people over 40 are returning to university. This will have a positive impact on our understanding of the issues affecting our daily lives, starting with health and the environment. It will also raise awareness of the complexity of the choices we face in our personal and social lives, given the changes taking place and the technological, cultural, social and moral implications they entail. ‘It’s never too late’, as the saying goes, to properly understand how and to what extent our world is changing, and to act accordingly. And a book is becoming increasingly essential.

(photo Getty Images)