Student Awareness of Costs and Benefits of Educational Decisions: Effects of an Information Campaign

Abstract

Many students appear to leave full-time education too soon, despite the possibility of high returns from further investment in their education. One contributory factor may be insufficient information about the potential consequences of their choices. We investigate students' receptiveness to an information campaign about the costs and benefits of pursuing postcompulsory education. Our results show that students with higher expected net benefits from accessing information are more likely to avail themselves of the opportunity presented by our experiment. Their intention to stay on in post-16 education is strongly affected by the experiment, though not their intention to apply to university. Effects are heterogeneous by family background and gender.

Intended College Enrollment and Educational Inequality: Do Students Lack Information?

“…Our study shares similarities with the information treatments assessed by Oreopoulos and Dunn (2013);McGuigan, McNally, and Wyness (2014) and Kerr, Pekkarinen, Sarvimäki, and Uusitalo (2015). Oreopoulos and Dunn (2013) investigate the effect of an Internet based information campaign for high school students from disadvantaged schools in Toronto.…”

“…Some studies provide information about costs and benefits of education (Oreopoulos and Dunn, 2013;McGuigan, McNally, and Wyness, 2014;Kerr, Pekkarinen, Sarvimäki, and Uusitalo, 2015), while other studies focus on specific information, i.e. provide students solely with information on financing possibilities (Booij, Leuven, and Oosterbeek, 2012;Herber, 1 In 2006, seven out of sixteen states in Germany introduced tuition fees, which triggered a lively discussion about fairness in access to university education.…”

“…However, Oreopoulos and Dunn (2013) find no change in the intention of students who do not plan seek further education following high school. The paper by McGuigan, McNally, and Wyness (2014) examines students aged 14 or 15 in a sample of London schools. Their results show that information provision has an effect on staying in education, i.e.…”

How important is career information and advice?

“…In common with studies that look only at student knowledge and expectations as outcomes [8], [9], almost all show a positive impact on students' knowledge and beliefs. However, out of the ten RCT studies, only half show an impact on application/enrollment decisions and/or educational attainment-and three out of the five showing a positive impact are from developing countries.…”

“…The content of the information intervention might be characterized in the following ways: (a) information about the relative labor market benefits of different educational options [1], [2], [3], [4]; (b) information about financial aid [5], [6], [7]; (c) information about labor market benefits and financial aid [8], [9]; (d) more specific semi-tailored information about admissions processes, and the relative merits of different institutions/programs in terms of inputs, future prospects, and costs [10], [11], [12]. The target groups vary from young people or their parents some time before they make post-compulsory decisions [1], [4], [7], [8], [9] to people right at the margin of making decisions [3], [10], [11], [12]. In addition, it is relevant to determine if the intervention aims to influence the decision to participate in post-compulsory education at all [2], [10] or the nature of that participation, such as what courses or institutions they should apply for [3], [11], [12].…”