The end of free college in England: Implications for enrolments, equity, and quality

Murphy, Richard; Scott-Clayton, Judith; Wyness, Gill

doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.11.007

Cited by 64 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…In this context, tuition subsidies appear as a simple tool to broaden college access. Our free college counterfactuals complement the literature on the recent free college policies in Chile (Bucarey 2018) and the elimination of free college in England (Murphy et al 2019). It also joins in the vast literature of college financial aid, 5 including the recent literature on free community college and the so-called "Promise" programs implemented in multiple U.S. states.…”

Section: Related Literaturesupporting

confidence: 52%

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Raising College Access and Completion: How Much Can Free College Help?

Ferreyra¹,

Garriga²,

Martin-Ocampo³

et al. 2020

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Free college proposals have become increasingly popular in many countries of the world. To evaluate their potential effects, we develop and estimate a dynamic model of college enrollment, performance, and graduation. A central piece of the model, student effort, has a direct effect on class completion, and an indirect effect in mitigating the risk of not completing a class or not remaining in college. We estimate the model using rich, student-level administrative data from Colombia, and use the estimates to simulate free college programs that differ in eligibility requirements. Among these, universal free college expands enrollment the most, but it does not affect graduation rates and has the highest per-graduate cost. Performance-based free college, in contrast, delivers a slightly lower enrollment expansion yet a greater graduation rate at a lower per-graduate cost. Relative to universal free college, performance-based free college places greater risk on students, but precisely for this reason leads them to better outcomes. Nonetheless, even performance-based free college fails to deliver a large increase in graduation rate, suggesting that additional, complementary policies might be required to elicit the large effort increase needed to raise graduation rates.

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Section: Related Literaturesupporting

confidence: 52%

“…The abolition of free college has been implemented as an income-contingent loan from the government, which covers full per-student costs throughout college. Murphy et al (2019) show that the new system has led to higher enrollment, greater participation of lower-income students, and higher per-student funding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raising College Access and Completion: How Much Can Free College Help?

Ferreyra¹,

Garriga²,

Martin-Ocampo³

et al. 2020

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“…5 These proportions are broadly in line with figures from other data sources. For example, Murphy et al (2019) report a university enrolment rate of around 38% for individuals aged 19-23 in 2008-09 (when most of the LSYPE respondents decided about higher education), based on the UK Labour Force Survey. subsequent GCSE performance (Strand, 2006;Betthäuser et al, 2020).…”

Section: Educational Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Primary and Secondary Effects of Social Origins on Educational Attainment: New Findings for England

Bukodi¹,

Goldthorpe²,

Zhao³

2020

Preprint

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We aim to bring together two strands of existing research into inequalities in individuals’ educational attainment associated with their social origins: that into the relative importance of the primary and secondary effects of social origins; and that into the relative importance of different components of social origins, indicative of different kinds of parental resources. Our main findings are the following. The secondary effects of social origins – their effects via the educational choices that young people make given their prior academic performance – are clearly operative across five key educational transitions within the English educational system. More specifically, we estimate that 35% of the total effect of social origins is secondary in the earliest transition we consider, and from 15-20% in the subsequent four. Further, mediation analyses reveal that secondary effects are most strongly associated with parental education and then to a lesser degree with parental status, while little association exists with parental class and none at all with parental income. Primary effects are also at all transitions most strongly associated with parental education and status but in this case both parental class and parental income do retain some importance. Finally, secondary effects on educational transitions appear to be top-driven. There is a clear tendency for their importance to be greater in the case of young people with highly educated, professional parents as compared with those of all other social backgrounds. We suggest an explanation for our empirical findings as resulting largely from the concern of such parents and their children to avoid the occurrence of downward intergenerational mobility, especially in terms of education and status.

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“…However, a recent meta‐analysis concluded that students in the United States are more responsive to prices changes in higher education than European students (Havranek et al, ). Moreover, recent studies regarding the effect of specific reforms in tuition fees and student aid on enrolment found only modest or even no effects in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Denmark (Azmat & Simion, ; Baier & Helbig, ; Baumgartner & Steiner, ; Bruckmeier & Wigger, ; Dearden et al, ; Hübner, ; Murphy et al, ). Previous research has suggested that enrolment elasticity is rather weak in the Netherlands; there is a modest decrease in enrolment if the price of education increases (Canton & de Jong, ; Huijsman, Kloek, Kodde, & Ritzen, ).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Early research in the United States demonstrated that higher tuition fees and lower student aid are associated with diminishing enrolment in universities (Dynarski, ; Heller, ; Kane, ; Leslie & Brinkman, ). However, later research outside of the United States has indicated only modest or no effects of such reforms on enrolment (Azmat & Simion, ; Baier & Helbig, ; Bruckmeier & Wigger, ; Coelli, ; Dearden, Fitzsimons, & Wyness, ; Murphy, Scott‐Clayton, & Wyness, ; Nielsen, Sørensen, & Taber, ; Steiner & Wrohlich, ). Moreover, a recent meta‐analysis concluded that “the effect of tuition on enrolment is close to zero” (Havranek, Irsova, & Zeynalova, , p. 25).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of student financial aid reforms on leaving home: Evidence from the Netherlands

Berg

2019

Population Space and Place

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To save costs, young adults may delay leaving the parental home in times of welfare cuts. However, although the impact of student financial aid reforms on educational decisions has received considerable attention in previous research, the impact on leaving home has not previously been studied. Using register data, this study investigates how recent student aid reforms in the Netherlands have impacted students' home‐leaving decisions. Event history models suggest that students who started studying after the reforms are substantially less likely to leave the parental home than students who began studying before the reforms. These findings underline the importance of the family for support: The family tends to take over when state support declines. The findings for income patterns are mixed. The decrease is greater for low‐income students relative to middle‐income students, whereas there is no difference in the effect of the reforms between low‐income and high‐income students.

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The end of free college in England: Implications for enrolments, equity, and quality

Cited by 64 publications

References 21 publications

Raising College Access and Completion: How Much Can Free College Help?

Raising College Access and Completion: How Much Can Free College Help?

Primary and Secondary Effects of Social Origins on Educational Attainment: New Findings for England

The impact of student financial aid reforms on leaving home: Evidence from the Netherlands

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