Does student loan debt deter higher education participation? New evidence from England

Research among prospective UK undergraduates in 2002 found that some students, especially from low social classes, were deterred from applying to university because of fear of debt. This paper investigates whether this is still the case today in England despite the changing higher education landscape since 2002. The paper describes findings from a 2015 survey of prospective undergraduates and compares them with those from the 2002 study. We find that students’ attitudes to taking on student loan debt are more favorable in 2015 than in 2002. Debt averse attitudes remain much stronger among lower-class students than among upper-class students, and more so than in 2002. However, lower-class students did not have stronger debt averse attitudes than middle-class students. Debt averse attitudes seem more likely to deter planned higher education participation among lower-class students in 2015 than in 2002

Sommaire de : La poursuite des etudes a l'age adulte et ses repercussions sur les gains au Canada

Le present article resume les conclusions du document de recherche intitule: La poursuite des etudes a l'age adulte et ses repercussions sur les gains au Canada. Fondee sur un echantillon tire de l'Enquete sur la dynamique du travail et du revenu (EDTR) de 1993 a 1998 et 1996 a 2001 de Statistique Canada, l'etude a permis de determiner que les travailleurs jeunes (de 17 a 34 ans) et celibataires etaient plus susceptibles que les travailleurs plus ages (de 35 a 59 ans) et maries ou divorces de poursuivre des etudes a l'age adulte et d'obtenir un certificat postsecondaire. Les travailleurs ayant un niveau de scolarite inferieur au secondaire et pouvant avoir le plus grand besoin d'augmenter leur investissement en capital humain etaient moins susceptibles de poursuivre des etudes a l'age adulte que les travailleurs ayant un diplome d'etudes secondaires ou un niveau d'etudes superieur au secondaire. L'etude montre que les travailleurs de sexe masculin qui avaient obtenu un certificat postsecondaire tout en continuant de travailler pour le meme employeur affichaient generalement des augmentations de salaire et des hausses des gains plus importantes que leurs homologues qui n'etaient pas retournes aux etudes, quel que soit l'age et le niveau de scolarite initial. En revanche, les hommes qui avaient obtenu un certificat et change d'emploi generalement n'avaient pas obtenu de rendement significatif de leur niveau de scolarite plus eleve, sauf pour les jeunes hommes (de 17 a 34 ans) chez lesquels l'obtention d'un certificat a donne un rendement plus significatif qu'ils aient change d'employeur ou continue de travailler pour le meme employeur. L'obtention d'un certificat a entraine un rendement important au chapitre des salaires et des gains pour les femmes plus agees (de 35 a 59 ans) qui ont continue de travailler pour le meme employeur et des gains salariaux significatifs pour les jeunes femmes qui ont change d'employeur.Adult education and training, Education, training and learning, Labour, Outcomes of education, Wages, salaries and other earnings

La poursuite des etudes a l'age adulte et ses repercussions sur les gains au Canada

Fondee sur un echantillon tire de l'Enquete sur la dynamique du travail et du revenu (EDTR) de 1993 a 1998 et 1996 a 2001 de Statistique Canada, l'etude a permis de determiner que les travailleurs jeunes (de 17 a 34 ans) et celibataires etaient plus susceptibles que les travailleurs plus ages (de 35 a 59 ans) et maries ou divorces de poursuivre des etudes a l'age adulte et d'obtenir un certificat postsecondaire. Les travailleurs ayant un niveau de scolarite inferieur au secondaire et pouvant avoir le plus grand besoin d'augmenter leur investissement en capital humain etaient moins susceptibles de poursuivre des etudes a l'age adulte que les travailleurs ayant un diplome d'etudes secondaires ou un niveau d'etudes superieur au secondaire. L'etude montre que les travailleurs de sexe masculin qui avaient obtenu un certificat postsecondaire tout en continuant de travailler pour le meme employeur affichaient generalement des augmentations de salaire et des hausses des gains plus importantes que leurs homologues qui n'etaient pas retournes aux etudes, quel que soit l'age et le niveau de scolarite initial. En revanche, les hommes qui avaient obtenu un certificat et change d'emploi generalement n'avaient pas obtenu de rendement significatif de leur niveau de scolarite plus eleve, sauf pour les jeunes hommes (de 17 a 34 ans) chez lesquels l'obtention d'un certificat a donne un rendement plus significatif qu'ils aient change d'employeur ou continue de travailler pour le meme employeur. L'obtention d'un certificat a entraine un rendement important au chapitre des salaires et des gains pour les femmes plus agees (de 35 a 59 ans) qui ont continue de travailler pour le meme employeur et des gains salariaux significatifs pour les jeunes femmes qui ont change d'employeur.Adult education and training, Education, training and learning, Labour, Outcomes of education, Wages, salaries and other earnings

Participation in Adult Schooling and Its Earnings Impact in Canada

Based on a sample drawn from Statistics Canada's Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID: 1993 to 1998 and 1996 to 2001), the study finds that young (17 to 34 years old) and single workers were more likely than older (35 to 59 years old) and married and divorced workers to participate in adult schooling and to obtain a post-secondary certificate. Workers with less than a high school education who might have the greatest need to increase their human capital investment were less likely to participate in adult education than workers with high school or more education. The study shows that male workers who obtained a post-secondary certificate while staying with the same employer generally registered higher wage and earnings gains than their counterparts who did not go back to school, regardless of age and initial level of education. On the other hand, men who obtained a certificate and switched jobs generally realized no significant return to their additional education, with the exception of young men (17 to 34 years old) who would receive significant returns to a certificate, whether they switched employer or stayed with the same employer. Obtaining a certificate generated significant wage and earnings returns for older women (aged 35 to 59) who stayed with the same employer, and significant wage returns for young women who switched employers.Adult education and training, Education, training and learning, Labour, Outcomes of education, Wages, salaries and other earnings

Are there Nonverbal Cues to Commitment? An Exploratory Study Using the Zero-Acquaintance Video Presentation Paradigm

Altruism is difficult to explain evolutionarily if subtle cheaters exist in a population ( Trivers, 1971 ). A pathway to the evolutionary maintenance of cooperation is nonverbal altruist-detection. One adaptive advantage of nonverbal altruist-detection is the formation of trustworthy division of labour partnerships ( Frank, 1988 ). Three studies were designed to test a fundamental assumption behind altruistic partner preference models. In the first experiment perceivers (blind with respect to target altruism level) made assessments of video-clips depicting self-reported altruists and self-reported non-altruists. Video-clips were designed with attempts to control for attractiveness, expressiveness, role-playing ability, and verbal content. Overall perceivers rated altruists as more “helpful” than non-altruists. In a second experiment manipulating the payoffs for cooperation, perceivers (blind with respect to payoff condition and altruism level) assessed altruists who were helping others as more “concerned” and “attentive” than non-altruists. However perceivers assessed the same altruists as less “concerned” and “attentive” than non-altruists when the payoffs were for self. This finding suggests that perceivers are sensitive to nonverbal indicators of selfishness. Indeed the self-reported non-altruists were more likely than self-reported altruists to retain resources for themselves in an objective measure of cooperative tendencies (i.e. a dictator game). In a third study altruists and non-altruists' facial expressions were analyzed. The smile emerged as a consistent cue to altruism. In addition, altruists exhibited more expressions that are under involuntary control (e.g., orbicularis oculi ) compared to non-altruists. Findings suggest that likelihood to cooperate is signaled nonverbally and the putative cues may be under involuntary control as predicted by Frank (1988)