Educational achievements of student support recipients Publications
Publication Details
This report presents the results of a study on the effects of different types of financial aid, provided through the student support system, on educational outcomes of students participating in tertiary study. The types of student support looked at included the student allowances and student loan schemes. This support is provided to improve access to tertiary education and reduce the social disparity arising out of education benefits.
Author(s): Bhaskaran Nair, Tertiary Sector Performance Analysis & Reporting, Ministry of Education
Date Published: July 2008
Summary
Key findings:
- Student support is designed to remove financial barriers to tertiary education. The results of this study seem to suggest that student support system helps people succeed in study and so helps provide equity to some extent.
- Full-time students who either receive student allowances or use the student loan scheme are likely to benefit from the support system – they achieve better in tertiary education, controlling for all other factors.
- Those who qualify for student allowances tend to do better in their tertiary study, especially among those who studied at bachelors level and those who were non-employed or household person before starting their tertiary studies.
- While receiving allowances is associated with a greater probability of successful completion, changes to the student support system since the period analysed mean that caution is needed in drawing policy conclusions from this study. In addition, the explanatory power of the model used in this analysis implies that other factors not captured in the model – such as family background for instance – are also important factors in success in tertiary education.
- The effect of student support on completion was more pronounced for Māori – Māori who receive allowances or who borrow using the loan scheme are significantly more likely to succeed in their tertiary studies than those who do not receive student support.
- A literature review on this topic indicated that socio-economic factors have a strong influence on the probability of successful completion of qualification. Adding factors such as individual background characteristics and parental education to the model to control for the effect of socio-economic status may throw more light on the effect of support system on educational outcomes.
The study used the integrated dataset on Student Loans Scheme borrowers and student allowances recipients. This dataset includes details of more than 346,000 individuals enrolled in tertiary education and engaged in full-time study during the years 1999 to 2001. The study disaggregated student support into four categories - 'loans only', 'allowances only', 'loans and allowances' and 'no loans and no allowances'. The last category was treated as a reference category for comparison purposes. The data were analysed using multivariate logistic regression and a bagging technique, to study the relationship between student support types and the probability of successful completion of a qualification over five years. Two models — a main effects model and an interaction effects model – were used to examine the effect of support types on the completion status.
In addition to student support types, there are potential effect modifiers that influence the probability of successful completion of a qualification. The potential effect modifiers are - age, ethnic group, gender, qualification level, field of study, prior activity, provider type, study load and nature of attendance. The intrinsic relationship between the support types and the nature of attendance indicator (full-time or part-time study), distorts the causal effect of the primary variable on the outcome. As a consequence of this, data covering only those individuals who were engaged in full-time study was used.
The study found that there was a substantial positive effect on educational achievements for students receiving support, compared with students who received no support. The results indicated that different forms of student support have different effects on the outcomes.
For example, in the main effects model, the odds of successful completion were nearly two times higher for students who received allowances only, than for students who received no financial support. Further, the odds were 1.4 and 1.3 times higher for students who were recipients of both loans and allowances, or of loans only, than for students who received no financial support.
Among the main effects of study variables, the study load was most significant, followed by education provider, prior activity, field of study and qualification levels. A ten percent increase in study load increased the odds of success by 1.07 times. The Māori and Pasifika sub-groups showed a significantly lower likelihood of successful completion, compared with other ethnic groups in the main effects model.
Examining the interaction effects of demographic and study variables with support types showed the modifying impact of these variables on the qualification completion rate. In the presence of interaction effects, students who received an allowance only were two times more likely to complete a qualification, compared with students who received no financial support. By contrast, the likelihood of successful completion of a qualification for students who received both loans and allowances, or loans only, was on par with students who received no financial support. The likelihood of successful completion for the Māori students receiving 'allowances only', 'loans and allowances' or loans only' was 3, 1.6 and 1.6 times higher than for students who received no support. The probability of successful completion for females was a marginal 5 percentage points higher than for males.
The literature states that socio-economic factors, such as individual background characteristics and parental education, have a strong influence on the probability of successful completion of qualification. As this analysis didn't measure socio-economic status, it is suggested that an assessment of socio-economic status, along with longer-term outcomes, including participation and achievements in tertiary education be a focus for future study.
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