A university student can be illiterate?

There are several documented examples where students reached university while still being functionally illiterate.

—

📌 United States

A 2006 study by the U.S. Department of Education (“Literacy of College Graduates”) showed that 20% of U.S. college graduates had only basic literacy skills, meaning they could not summarize a newspaper article or compare credit card offers.

A number of investigative reports (like The Atlantic’s coverage of “Academically Adrift”) documented that many students advance to university despite weak reading and writing because admission can depend more on standardized test scores, athletic ability, or financial factors.

Athletic recruits at top universities have sometimes been admitted despite very low literacy levels. For example, a 2014 CNN investigation into U.S. college athletes revealed that some could barely read or write beyond an elementary level, yet were still enrolled in major universities because of sports programs.

—

📌 United Kingdom

A 2017 report by the UK National Literacy Trust highlighted that some students enter higher education with reading and writing levels equivalent to those of an 11-year-old.

Universities often run “foundation years” or remedial writing classes to help such students catch up.

—

📌 Africa & Asia

In some developing countries, corruption and rote-learning systems allow students to pass exams by memorization without genuine literacy.

For example, investigative journalism in Pakistan and Nigeria has uncovered cases of university students who could not write a proper sentence in their own language or in English, despite being enrolled.

In India, researchers have noted cases where students from rural areas enter university with only minimal functional literacy, having advanced through school via exam coaching and memorization rather than comprehension.

—

📌 General Research

The term “functionally illiterate university student” often appears in educational studies. It doesn’t mean the student cannot read at all, but that their literacy level is insufficient for independent learning (e.g., they can read short passages but cannot critically analyze academic texts).