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Students' enrolment at the first level has decreased significantly especially after the economic crisis of 2008. In the last years there has been a slight increase, while the students' mobility from the South to the Central and Northern regions of the country has increased steadily. The mobility may occur at two discrete time-points: the enrolment at the first level and the other one at the  second level. In this paper we analyze the paths followed by the Southern Italian students. Data were provided by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research. They are a national level longitudinal micro-data on educational careers of the freshmen enrolled at the first level Italian university degree course in 2008-09 and followed up to 2016. By using a discrete-time multi-state model,  we aim at detecting the determinants of the choice of Southern Italian students along their university career. Several aspects will be investigated, as the usual demographic variables, the time elapsed to get the first level degree, the performance of the previous career, the typology of the course, etc.  in order to provide “mover†or “stayer†profiles of Southern students.