Over the past few decades, there have been significant changes in the financial aspect of higher education.
Notably, a number of political, social, and economic issues have come into play and have affected higher education systems. The introduction of policies restricting the financial freedom of higher learning institutions has brought a significant impact on students. According to Kane et al (2003), governments have been reducing the number of appropriations to higher learning institutions which has intensified the economic impact of higher education. As a result, parents have been facing increasing difficulties in keeping up with high tuition fees.
As a result, there arises the need for higher learning students to contribute to their education financially; either by acquiring loans or grants and in other cases, getting a job to support them.
According to Baum et al (2003), the harsh economic times for higher learning students can be evidenced by the high percentage of students with debts. According to Avard et al. (2005), students with low financial knowledge face complications when dealing with tough economic circumstances.
Purpose of the Research
The purpose of this research is to develop a framework of understanding with regard to the impact of funding for higher education and how it affects students’ behavior, attainment, and retention. This research will, therefore, explore how funding of higher education affects the behavior, attainment, and retention of students.
Literature Review
Funding in higher education has always been complex. According to Callender (2010), the number of students attending higher education institutions in the United Kingdom increased with the increase in bursaries and financial aid. Essentially, higher learning students have various financial obligations that include upkeep expenses, tuition and the desire to attend expensive social events. As such, this brings about significant concerns academically as there is a possibility these issues may affect the student’s performance and hence college completion.
Hemelt and Marcotte (2011) suggest that the rising cost of higher education had brought increased attention to the education crisis.
To cope with such difficulties, higher learning organizations have increased the cost of tuition and this has burdened students with financial obligations. Engle and Tinto (2008) point to the detrimental impact of such financial constraints alluding to the poor academic and social engagement of students during such circumstances.
Britt (2017) suggests that financial stress common in higher learning institutions is responsible for the low retention of students in such institutions.
The author establishes a link between college retention and the financial concerns faced by higher learning institutions. This research can be corroborated by Chisholm-Burns et al (2017) who established a relationship between financial knowledge in college students and the rate of completion as well as attitudes in school. According to this study, students in higher learning institutions were better placed to complete their education with better financial management.
Metcalf (2003) studied the employment constraints faced by students and how it impacts their academic performance.
According to the author students forced to work part-time due to high costs of higher education are likely to have lower academic scores as they will not be able to devote enough time to their studies. Butcher (2017), supported this idea by providing evidence of medical students posting low grades due to financial constraints. Choi et al (2016) provided an interesting school of thought as they focus on the impact of financial constraints on male and female students.
Another aspect that has been extensively explored is financial counseling and according to Lim et al (2014), students who had gone through financial counseling were more likely to complete college and attain high grades.
According to Robb (2011), students face a significant threat to their financial stability when credit cards come into the picture as it affects their ability to manage their finances effectively.
According to Garibaldi et al (2012), increasing higher level tuition is likely to reduce the probability of late graduation.
Hence, in this case, increasing tuition fees motivates students to higher completion rates. In understanding students’ motivations of attending classes, Friedman et al. (2001) discovered that students who pay their own tuition are more likely to post higher rates of completion and attitude towards school. Triventi (2014) builds on this but provides that student with high-intensity jobs are likely to have lower academic performances. According to Carey (2004), the completion rates of higher learning students were lower for historically underserved students. Bok (2006) suggest that the stagnation in completion rates in higher learning institutions has provided the need for researching the factors that influence the success of students in higher learning institutions. Kuh et al. (2008) suggest that the poor completion rate of higher learning requires a significant amount of research to determine factors affecting student success.
According to (Braxton, Hirschy, and McClendon, 2004; Kuh, Kinzie, Buckley, Bridges and Hayek, 2007) students leave higher learning institutions due to family demands, lack of money, poor psycho-social fit, and change of major.
Braxton (2006) provides a formula for student success that includes personal development, academic attainment, occupational attainment and development of academic competences.
Callender and Jackson (2005) suggests that the fear of debt when it comes to higher education is detrimental to completion rates especially when it comes to students from low-income families.
This is supported in a further study that concurs on constraints on major and university choice due to financial concern (Callender et al., 2008).
Research Gap
While extensive research on the perceptions and attitudes regarding funding in higher learning institutions exists, there is a need to develop further insight into the matter to determine how funding of higher education affects student retention, attainment, and behavior. This research study will be vital in understanding the relationship between funding and student completion and performance levels in higher learning institutions.
Research Objectives
The following are the objectives of this research study:
1) To evaluate the impact of tuition fees on student attainment.
2) To evaluate the impact of tuition fees on student completion rate.
3) To evaluate the effect of tuition fees on student behavior towards higher education.
Research Questions
Based on the literature review and the problem at hand, the following research questions will be vital:
1) Do tuition fees affect students’ attainment?
2) Do tuition fees affect students’ grades?
3) Do tuition fees influence students’ behavior toward higher education?
4) What external factors are at play for/on funding?
Methodology
For a comprehensive and exhaustive approach to the research questions, the study will include a variety of students. This was significant to broaden the scope of the study and cover a large population while ensuring diversity and inclusiveness. The study’s participants will include graduate, professional and undergraduate students. They will be contacted and invited through web forums to participate in the study. Those interested in the study will email the researcher and will then sign a consent form. The study’s participants will be made up of an equal number of male and female students.
The research will be both qualitative and quantitative. A quantitative research is objectively concentrated on the collection of numerical data which is typically a deductive perspective that shows the commonest view of the nature of the relationship between theory and social science (Bryman, 2016). This type of research will involve data collection and will be categorized according to gender, parent’s level of education, financial aid, family origin, and status of financial counseling.
Consequently, a link or relationship to the students’ perceptions, motivations, attitudes, expectations, and behavior will be established with regard to the collected data. On the other hand, the collected data can be correlated to the GPA of the students. This will allow an explicit analysis of the students with their academic performance as a basis for measurement.
For the quantitative research, the participants will be issued with a self-completion questionnaire. Essentially, this type of data collection tool allows participants to complete the questionnaire by filling in the answers on their own. This type of data collection method is cheap and fast especially when collecting data from a large group of people (Pope et al., 2006).
The self-completion questionnaire will have at least twenty questions with half of them being open-ended. The questionnaire will cover family origin, gender, financial counseling, parent’s level of education, and financial aid. To gain an insightful understanding of the data, the participants will be grouped into groups based on themes such as private or public universities, financial counseling, and gender (Renner et al., 2003). This will allow better development of outcomes for the research study.
For the qualitative research, participants will be chosen using the same criteria as the quantitative research. For this research, data will be collected through interviews. According to Mason (2017), interviews are one of the most effective ways of collecting qualitative data. Typically, qualitative approaches are inductive as they seek to generate hypotheses that can explain certain phenomena (Johnson et al., 2008). The interviews, in this case, will explore the individual’s perceptions, experiences, and practices with regard to the topic study. According to Brinkman (2013), the interview questions will have to have a thematic and dynamic dimension so as to provide an in-depth insight from the participant’s data.
References
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