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The effects of the 2006 tuition fee reform and the Great Recession on university student dropout behaviour in the UK

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  • Bradley, Steve
  • Migali, Giuseppe

Abstract

This paper investigates the causal effect of the Great Recession, and a conditional effect of a tuition fee reform, on the risk of students dropping out of HE. We use HESA data and our analysis combines duration modelling with difference-in-differences. We find that the causal effect of the recession increases the risk of drop out, especially for males. A smaller and positive effect of the tuition fee reform for males, whereas we observe the opposite effect for females. Differences in dropout behaviour are also found for high and low income groups, and between different types of university and subjects studied.

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  • Bradley, Steve & Migali, Giuseppe, 2019. "The effects of the 2006 tuition fee reform and the Great Recession on university student dropout behaviour in the UK," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 331-356.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:164:y:2019:i:c:p:331-356
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2019.06.002
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    4. Barbara Sadaba & Sunčica Vujič & Sofia Maier, 2020. "Cyclicality of Schooling: New Evidence from Unobserved Components Models," Staff Working Papers 20-38, Bank of Canada.
    5. Sadaba, Barbara & Vujić, Sunčica & Maier, Sofia, 2024. "Characterizing the schooling cycle," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    6. Arnup, Jessica L. & Black, Nicole & Johnston, David W., 2024. "Expecting less in hard times: How the state of the economy influences students’ educational expectations," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    7. Don Tawanpitak, 2024. "Paying Tuition under Few Credit Constraints: Debt, Field of Study, and Drop Out," PIER Discussion Papers 226, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research, revised Jan 2025.
    8. Jennifer Graves & Zoë Kuehn, 2022. "Higher education decisions and macroeconomic conditions at age eighteen," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 171-241, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tuition fee reform; Recession; University dropouts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

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