The effect of student aid system on equality of opportunities and graduation times in higher education in the Nordic countries
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School of Business |
Bachelor's thesis
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Authors
Date
2017
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Taloustiede
Language
en
Pages
26
Series
Abstract
This thesis studies the effect of student aid system on equality of opportunities and graduation times in higher education in the Nordic countries based on the existing literature and empirical research. The topic is relevant and current issue especially in Finland due to recent cuts made by the government to the student aid system which have raised many critical opinions regarding these cuts. The purpose of this thesis is to make an objective evaluation on the effect of the past reforms made to student allowance and student loan in the Nordic countries in the past decades. The main observations are that loan based incentives have had the biggest positive effect on decreasing graduation times in higher education. The studies also show that there isn’t enough evidence to support the claim that students with lower income families would be more risk averse regarding taking up student loans. Also there seems to be no evidence backing the statement that increasing student allowance increases the equality of opportunities. If the goal of the policymaker is to create incentives for decreased graduation times through student aid system, then a loan based system with loan refund based incentives for students graduating on time seems to be a much better instrument comparing to increasing the proportion of student allowance. I also conclude that there are no simple answers or single truths regarding a perfect student aid system which leads to the point that the goodness of the outcome of the system is dependent on the goals of the policy makers and every student aid system is a compromise made to optimize the goals of the policy makers.Description
Thesis advisor
Murto, PauliMustonen, Mikko
Keywords
student aid, economics, graduation duration, equality of opportunities