Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Education, Higher Australia Finance'

This study explores the relationship between state and federal funding policies and the ability of minority-serving institutions (MSIs) to support low-income and minority students. The way US public higher education is financed has changed dramatically since the Great Recession. State appropriations to institutions have declined (SHEEO, 2017), tuition increases have dramatically outpaced growth in household income (College Board, 2016a) and state financial aid has drifted from need-based to merit-based (College Board, 2016b). Many wonder how this policy environment is impacting low-income and minority students and the institutions that serve them. MSIs have risen to the forefront of institutions committed to serving these students, and more should be known about how these institutions are affected by the current fiscal policy environment.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between finance policies and the ability of MSIs to serve their students. Case study methodology was used to provide an in-depth analysis of how three campuses in New Mexico respond to state and federal finance policies and shifting revenue streams, and how these responses impact students. The three campuses include one Native American-serving Nontribal Institution that is a community college, and two Hispanic-Serving Institutions—a community college and a regional comprehensive university. These campuses share similar geographic and student characteristics, but are funded through different finance polices. The findings suggest that: local appropriations play a critical role in the fiscal stability of community colleges in New Mexico; state funding favors well-resourced institutions and students; and institutional leaders perceive federal funding as providing the most support for low-income student success. This study also reveals that finance policies in the state are not aligned to their full potential for increasing degree attainment.

Revenue diversification is a term that becomes more relevant as higher education institutions are confronted with increased regulation, competition, declining enrollments, and strained finances. A challenge that many institutions face is that expenditures are higher than revenues and increase faster than them. The term Revenue diversification seems obvious to higher education administration professionals, although they do not all define it the same way. For that reason, it needs a precise definition so that the industry genuinely can embrace the concept and thereby seek to generate more revenues to drive existing and innovative agendas. Indeed, a common understanding will allow universities to develop strategies to reduce the reliance on traditional tuition and fees. The study examines three not-for-profit institutions with a student population less than 5,000 that already are diversifying their revenue streams. The definition of leadership at each institution is compared with the strategies that have been implemented or proposed in order to understand whether there is alignment. The three cases—Stevenson University, Franklin & Marshall College, and Oglethorpe University—respectively have the following story lines: 1) growth is the only possibility; 2) the current situation is one of stasis, and the way forward is unclear; 3) efforts must be undertaken to improve financial viability. In addition to the qualitative research, the study also encompasses an analysis of IPEDS that reflects how each institution is changing its revenues in comparison to a similarly situated group of institutions. The findings reveal that Revenue diversification is on everybody’s mind, but the definition of the term is inconclusive. Leadership teams are trying to determine what revenue-diversification strategies will work for the institutions and its stakeholders to be able to offset expense increases. Identifying new revenue sources will entail pursuing non-historical revenue sources, which includes academic programs, services, property, institutional advancement, and more. The higher education environment is concerning to many of its member institutions, and by diversifying revenues, long-term viability can be secured.

One in five federal student loan borrowers today is enrolled in income-driven loan repayment (IDR), a set of safety net programs in which loan payment amounts are tied to borrowers’ incomes. Policymakers across the political spectrum support expanding IDR as a way of reducing loan default and encouraging borrowers to work in public service careers, though there is little evidence of the effects of IDR on borrowers’ outcomes. Through the lenses of human capital theory and risk aversion theory, this study investigates two key gaps in our knowledge about IDR in comparison to other repayment plans: whether IDR borrowers’ make different career choices and whether IDR borrowers are more successful at paying their loans. Using the National Center for Education Statistics’ Baccalaureate and Beyond dataset (B&B:08/12), I weighted borrowers by their propensity to enroll in IDR, based on family, institutional, communities, and political and economic characteristics. This analysis found that IDR borrowers are statistically significantly more likely to be women, of Hispanic origin, and from low-income households. IDR borrowers are no more likely to pursue public service careers four years after graduation, but they are substantially more likely to be in repayment as opposed to being in default, forbearance, or any other loan status. The total estimated costs of loan repayment are more varied for IDR borrowers than for borrowers in other plans. Borrowers of color in IDR are likely to pay more than White borrowers in IDR. I conclude with a discussion of the implications for policy, research, and practice, including how policy makers and researchers should interpret the tradeoffs in these results.

The value proposition of the public liberal arts colleges is that they provide the quality of education typically associated with esteemed private liberal arts colleges at a comparably lower cost. These institutions emphasize access and affordability, and a rich and rigorous undergraduate education in "small" residential settings, making this type of education available to students who otherwise could not afford it. Given the decline nationally in state funding of public higher education, demographic shifts affecting who goes to college and how, the “disruption” of technology, and the public questioning of the value of a liberal arts degree, this dissertation looks at how three public liberal arts colleges are responding to these changes and how both the changes and institutional responses to them are shaping or reshaping their mission.

This dissertation advances scholarship on how financialization ? the increasing power of financial ideologies and markets ? has transformed diverse organizations, including non-profits, state institutions, and households. In three papers, I explain how financialization has contributed to rising organizational inequality in U.S. undergraduate education education since the 1990s: 1) ?The Financialization of U.S. Higher Education? develops new quantitative measures to find large but skewed relative increases in the financial costs and returns from endowments, colleges? institutional borrowing, equity offerings by for-profit colleges, and student loan borrowing, 2) ?The Transformation of U.S. For-Profit Colleges,? uses a unique college-level and multi-wave longitudinal dataset to show how the spread of shareholder value ideology led to a new industrial-scale business model with negative consequences for student outcomes, and 3) ?The Ivory Tower Tax Haven? explains how long-standing tax exemptions have supported new endowment investment strategies that have fueled rising expenditures to maximize the prestige of the wealthiest universities. Altogether, I highlight the importance of finance ideologies in the shifting balance of resources between and within the many heterogeneous types of U.S. colleges.

This study explored the challenges minority students face in obtaining and understanding information when trying to apply for financial aid. One-to-one interviews, a focus group, and a review of documents were sources of data for the study. Themes emerging from the investigation were accessibility to financial aid information, dissemination of financial aid information, navigating the financial aid process, addressing institutional barriers to financial aid, and increase collaboration between high school and colleges/universities. Findings from the study included a need for earlier information to assist in navigating the financial aid process and a need for increased parental access to information. Recommendations for research include expanding the study to include quantitative research on the challenges facing minority students who apply for financial aid. Further research may be conducted on the community and non-profit organizations whose mission it is to help families navigate financial aid and college preparation.

Debt for public colleges and universities has been increasing while financial resources, which provide the support to repay debt, have been declining. As debt increases in proportion to assets, the risk profile of a college or university increases. This study examined the relationships between financial variables and institutional characteristics that relate to long-term debt and leverage of U.S. four-year public colleges and universities during a period of economic downturn. Understanding these relationships is needed to determine factors that enable or constrain public higher education's ability to borrow funds to meet organizational goals. In addition, this study also explored long-term debt and leverage trends categorized by Carnegie classification and geographic region from 2005 to 2009.

The data for the study were obtained from IPEDS. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and OLS regression were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that both long-term debt and leverage of public institutions had increased from 2005 to 2009. However, leverage increased at a slower pace, which indicated that public universities were able to use existing assets to offset the increase in liabilities associated with the additional long-term debt. This study also found that differences existed in long-term debt by Carnegie classification. Doctoral/Research institutions had more long-term debt than Master's institutions, and Master's institutions had more long-term debt than Baccalaureate institutions. Although Master's institutions did not have the greatest amount of long-term debt, they had greater amounts of leverage than Doctoral/Research and Baccalaureate institutions in all fiscal years. Additionally, Master's and Doctoral/Research institutions located in the Northeast had mean leverage in all five years that exceeded recommended thresholds.

The variable with the strongest relationship with long-term debt was property, plant, and equipment. Approximately 65.9% of the variance in long-term debt was explained by property, plant, and equipment. In comparison, the leverage model showed that geographic regions had the strongest relationship with leverage. Collectively, the West, Midwest, and Southeast regions accounted for 27.1% of the variance in leverage. The detailed results of the findings, conclusions, and recommendations are provided at the end of the study.

Fluctuations within the global economy have the capacity to affect the revenue streams of institutions of higher education, often necessitating discussions of financially-motivated mission shift within the context of governing boards. This study investigated the manner in which institutional cultural attitudes of governing board members differ when discussing such issues at religious institutions of higher education. These differences were studied within the unique context of the challenges raised by the interplay between organizational change and a culture defined, in part, by doctrinal formulations. Governing board members at five religious institutions of higher education were interviewed in a qualitative comparative case study regarding the board decision-making process. Structured interviews utilized the critical incident technique and the framework of resource dependence theory. The study revealed critical differences in the manner in which board members engaged the decision-making process in each of the aspects of resource dependence theory, as well as in the areas of institutional mission and finance. The local societal context of each institution was revealed to be a critical component in the board decision-making process relative to institutional mission, institutional finance, and financially-motivated mission shift.

Before 1998 a majority of English youth were supported to attend university. The government paid out "living grants" to students who enrolled in universities across the country. Some of the grants covered all living and school expenses outside tuition; others were not as generous. The subsequent story in England, however, is one of a society having been given a public good, like education, to then experience that security dwindling away in the form of new tuition and fees. This study analyzes the perceptions of former students who have been caught in the financial spiral and whether their own experience while at university and as recent alumni motivates their involvement with their university. Specific attention to the most recent tuition increases effective in 2012 and the changing nature of alumni relations services across three institutions illustrates how universities have reacted to their own awareness that students and young alumni may be expecting more from universities. A qualitative methodology including document analysis and interviews with three peer universities was conducted in efforts to study this phenomenon. Alumni engagement, however, is not a one-way street. Higher education institutions in England are aware of the notion of alumni as consumers and some are preparing proactively for addressing the needs and interests of their constituents. The quantity and quality of these interactions between the young alum and alma mater may be influenced by what is perceived today as a lifelong transaction. Success in building relationships with recent graduates faced with greater financial debt rests with the ability of the institution to provide relevance and value for students and young alumni alike.

Purpose. This purpose of this correlational study using Joo’s (2008) financial wellness framework was to determine the impact of an online financial literacy workshop on student subjective knowledge, dependent on indicators of stress, behavior, and objective knowledge, when controlling for demographic differences at a large public university.

Methodology. A quantitative correlational research design was used to interpret how student indicators of financial wellness explain subjective knowledge gained as a result of participating in the financial workshop when controlling for demographic and background characteristics. The sample population for this archival study included 2,550 university undergraduate students who participated in the Financial Literacy 101 online financial education system as a pilot program from November 2012 to January 2017.

Findings. All variables were run as a single model hierarchical multiple linear regression to control for variables and closely look at the relationships of the independent variables of interest in this study—financial stress, credit card behavior, and objective knowledge—and students’ subjective financial knowledge. Analyses of the research questions revealed mixed results. There were significant individual contributions to the model for the independent variables of gender-female, Hispanic/Latino, financial stress, and objective knowledge. Credit card behavior was not a significant predictor of students’ subjective financial knowledge.

Conclusions. The Financial Literacy 101 online education program was effective in increasing student subjective knowledge. Students who had higher financial stress levels before the workshop or who scored higher on the objective knowledge quiz scores were more likely to rate their subjective knowledge gained from the financial workshop positively after controlling for all other variables; there were no significant differences in students’ subjective knowledge dependent on credit card behaviors before the workshop.

Recommendations. Redesigning the instrument to better capture measures of financial wellness and to allow institutions to design data-informed customized interventions for their specific populations will magnify the program’s impact. The possibilities for informing the financial education community with large scale research could be significant because the product is used by over 100,000 students annually.

Using a phenomenological method, this study explored the higher-education affordability perceptions of a purposively-collected group of 19 students at the pseudonymous Crestview Community College (CCC) in Colorado. The defining themes of the study were: (a) knowledge of the College Opportunity Fund (COF) program and perceptions of higher-education affordability in the Colorado context, (b) how participants learned about and implemented college selection, financing, and success strategies, (c) family finances and their impact on work and college decisions, (d) participant views on the financial aid process, and (e) benefits of attending college.

The findings were: (a) the COF was not viewed as a significant source of support or well-understood as the State of Colorado’s contribution to college students, (b) participants described difficulty in high school learning and implementing a college selection and financing strategy with some mitigation of those failures by key adults in their lives, (c) CCC was viewed as the default college choice because of price, location, dual credit experience, and peer recommendations, (d) family structural and financial context strongly influenced participants’ perceived options and decisions regarding college selection and work, (e) participant perspectives on federal financial aid and college affordability varied drastically between Pell Grant recipients and non-recipients, (f) participants uniformly held a negative perception of student loans, and (g) participants were motivated to stay in college by hope of occupational and financial benefits and discouraged by fear of debt and post-graduation joblessness.

This comparative case study provides a qualitative exploration of how four private tuition-dependent colleges approached a tuition price reset, including the organizational context, approaches, and strategies involved. As evidenced by the literature reviewed, there is an increasing awareness that the traditional business model of “high tuition/high aid” is no longer viable for less selective, tuition dependent colleges and universities caught in the middle of the market. Some of these colleges and universities are trying to innovate to remain competitive and financially sustainable. One innovation is to drastically reduce undergraduate tuition sticker price; a trend referred to as tuition price resets. A tuition price reset is a strategy that shifts the pricing model for an institution from “high tuition/high aid” to “low tuition/low aid” by lowering published tuition and financial aid awards, often in similar, but not necessarily equal proportion. There are a number of tuition dependent colleges that either have or will consider resetting tuition. This study provides valuable insight for those individuals and institutions seeking to understand the process that colleges and universities go through in evaluating the tuition price reset strategy. Critical factors in each institution’s motivations, challenges and lessons learned are explored, including the background behind the analysis and decision, planning and implementation, as well as the outcomes of the decision.

Resource dependence has been evidenced among private HBCUs that obtain as much as 90% of operating revenue from tuition and fees. Without alternative funding strategies in place, small declines in enrollment can lead to a major budget crisis. The basic premise of this exploratory inquiry was that fundraising represents an opportunity that has been successfully utilized by many large, predominantly White institutions, but ineffectively by most private HBCUs. Focusing on five private HBCUs in the southeastern United States, this exploratory study investigated the challenges development and fundraising leaders from these institutions have experienced and strategies they have implemented to mitigate these challenges. Three themes emerged from the interviews with the five fundraising leaders: (a) lack of access to wealth, (b) understaffing with inadequate stewardship, and (c) church resource dependence. What was evident from the findings was the usefulness of fundraising dollars in helping the institutions meet critical needs, such as keeping student tuition affordable, providing students with scholarships to fill in gaps between the financial aid they receive and the cost of tuition and fees, and conducting much-needed campus maintenance and repairs. However, though the institutions made strides toward measured fundraising successes, the results revealed that these private tuition-dependent HBCUs were still challenged with securing funds above and beyond the basic fiscal needs of the day-to-day operation of the institutions. In short, the identified fundraising successes paled in comparison to the fundraising successes of many large, predominately White institutions and equated to little more than crisis fundraising typical among HBCUs.

Performance funding, the automatic and formulaic association of specific resources to institutional results on designated indicators, grew out of the accountability movement in higher education that originated in the 1950s and 1960s and redefined itself as the “new accountability” in the 1990s. To date, much of the literature on performance funding has been descriptive, prescriptive, and anecdotal, at best, with very little empirical evidence that performance funding is effective in impacting institutional performance. While recently some researchers reported on multivariate, multi-state analyses, findings continue to be mixed.

The 1974 Louisiana Constitution empowered the Louisiana Board of Regents to develop a funding formula for higher education with three main formula components, an example of a performance funding 1.0 program, which was finally incorporated into the Master Plan for Public Postsecondary Education (Louisiana Board of Regents 2001, 2012). The Louisiana Granting Resources and Autonomies for Diplomas Act of 2010 (GRAD Act) as amended in 2011 (Louisiana Granting Resources and Autonomies for Diplomas Act, 2011), an example of a performance funding 2.0 program, provided four performance objectives and related specific targeted measures. Finally, Act 462 (Louisiana Legislature, 2014) called for the development of a new comprehensive outcomes-based funding formula that ensures the optimal allocation of state appropriated funds to public postsecondary educational institutions. That formula, approved by the Board of Regents in December 2015, was implemented in the 2017 fiscal year.

This study describes institutional efforts and changes in policies/initiatives implemented at select four-year, public institutions in Louisiana as a result of the GRAD Act. The study discusses, from a policy perspective, whether or not the GRAD Act as a performance funding policy achieved its stated goal of increasing “the overall effectiveness and efficiency of state public institutions by providing that the institutions achieve specific, measureable performance objectives aimed at improving college completion and at meeting the state’s current and future workforce and economic development needs” (Louisiana Granting Resources and Autonomies for Diplomas Act, 2010, pp. 1–2). Unintended consequences of the Act are also noted. The study could inform future changes to Louisiana higher education performance funding models.

In this dissertation, I explore questions relating to estimating and framing college net pricing. In the first study, I measure variation in actual grant aid awards for students predicted by the federal template Net Price Calculator (NPC) to receive identical aid awards. Estimated aid derived from the federal template NPC accounts for 85 percent of the variation in actual grant aid received by students. I then consider simple modifications to the federal template NPC that explain more than half of the initially unexplained variation in actual grant aid awards across all institutional sectors. The second study explores perceptions of college net pricing and the resources families use to learn about college expenses. Students and parents show substantial variation in their perceptions of college price and ability to accurately estimate likely college expenses, even when prompted to seek pricing information online. While most participants were able to estimate net price within 25 percent of NPC estimates, others were inaccurate by as much as 250 percent, or nearly $30,000. I then propose possible explanations for more or less accurate estimates that consider parent education, student grade level, previous NPC use, and online college pricing search strategies. In the third study, I explore the potential for shifts in college spending preferences when equivalent college cost scenarios are framed in different ways. I exploit disparities between net price and total price to randomly present participants with one of three framing conditions: gain, loss, and full information. Participants are between five and six percentage points more likely to choose a college beyond their stated price preference when cost information is framed in such a way that emphasizes financial grant aid received as opposed to remaining costs to be paid or full cost information. The results of these studies suggest that clearly structured, simple to use informational resources can accurately and effectively communicate important college information. However, simply making resources available without consideration of accessibility or relevance may be insufficient. Policymakers and other hosts of college information resources should also carefully consider the ways that the presentation of college information might influence students’ decisions.

Abstract of Dissertation Loan Awarding Practices and Student Demographic Variables as Predictors of Law Student Borrowing This study examined the effect of institutional loan awarding practices and student demographic characteristics on law student borrowing, in order to contribute to our understanding of student borrowing decisions. Behavioral economic concepts like framing and status quo bias suggest that decisions about borrowing may not be made using a rational cost-benefit analysis alone, as traditional economic theory suggests, but may also be influenced by the loan amount that an institution initially awards a student. The amount initially awarded represents the status quo, which, for a variety of possible reasons, the student may be inclined to accept, even if he is eligible to borrow more.

Using three years of student borrowing data from a law school, multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the effect of initial loan amount offered and 15 additional independent variables on loan amount borrowed. The law school data provided a unique opportunity to study student loan borrowing decisions because the institution followed two different loan awarding practices in the three academic years for which data was obtained. This provided a quasi-experimental environment in which to study the effect of initial loan amount awarded on loan amount borrowed.

Altogether, the model explained nearly half of the variance in loan amount borrowed and initial loan amount offered explained 5.4 percent of the variance in loan amount borrowed holding all other variables in the model constant. In addition to initial loan amount offered, the following variables were also found to be statistically significant predictors of loan amount borrowed: Asian race, age, being married, Expected Family Contribution, cost of attendance, class level, student status, total credits, and total non-loan aid. It was also found that there was no statistically significant difference in the relation between initial loan amount offered and loan amount borrowed in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010, under the old awarding practice, as compared with 2010-2011, when a new awarding practice was in place. This suggests that students responded similarly to the initial loan amount offered, or the status quo amount, under both the old and new awarding practices.