High Tuition Fees, High Living Costs: The Relationship among College Costs, Parttime Work, and Academic Involvement Chi-Ning Chang National Taiwan Normal University

Introduction • Studying in higher education in many countries (e.g. United States, Korea, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia and Canada) is a high-priced investment (OECD, 2011). • In recent years, tuition fees increase has been a general trend, so much so that in countries where tuition fees have generally been much lower than average. For Instance, in Canada, tuition fees in Quebec will raise from $2,890 to $4,700 per year, starting in the fall semester of 2012 going until 20162017(QUEBECTUITIONFEES, 2012). • However, high college costs have a disincentive effect upon the poor or middle-income students. In order to overcome the difficult situation, these students tend to apply for loans and spend more time on part-time jobs to cover expensive college costs. It is no exception for Taiwan tertiary students.

Introduction • In Taiwan context, it is unequal among school type, tuition fees, and learning quality for poor student. Student Background Enrollment test scores School type

School Resource

Tuition fee How did they look after both sides well?

Higher family income

Lower family income

Good

Poor

Public U

Private U

Good •All resources founded by government; •highly selective peer environment

Poor

Cheap

Expensive

Not only did they need to focus on academic success, but devote themselves to their part-time works

Literature review • Students living in poor families tended to work part-time during college days (Metcalf, 2003; Chen, Zhuang, &Luo, 2006; Hwu, 2006).In the United Kingdom, most of public college students have part-time works (Humphrey, 2006), whereas private college students probably were prone to have parttime jobs due to more expensive tuition fees (Chen, 2007). • However, Some studies indicated that working part-time have negative effects on student academic performance (Metcalf, 2003; Fang, 2004; Chen, Zhuang, &Luo, 2006), another study argued that taking part-time jobs have no negative effects on academic preparation(Chen, 2007),and the others stated that working too much such as over 15 hours a week could influence negatively on academic involvement (Ford & Bosworth, 1995; Neill, Mulholland, Ross, 2004&Leckey, 2005).

Research objectives • This paper will examine the relationship among college costs, part-time work, and academic involvement via statistical analysis. The research objectives are as follows.

3

1

4

2 1) 2) 3) 4)

To compare the differences of tuition fees and the costs of living between public and private universities. To analyze the factors of taking part-time jobs in public and private college students. To measure the number of working hours spent by public and private college students each week. To investigate the relation between the hours that college students spend on part-time jobs and their studies. And finally, this study provided the conclusion and suggestions according to the result of the analysis.

Research Methods and Data • The study used the 2005 Junior Survey data set from the Taiwan Integrated Higher Education Database System, which provides representative national samples of undergraduate students. • This database surveys undergraduate students from all types of higher education institutions in the country periodically through stratified random sampling techniques, and offers rich information on college costs, part-time work, and academic Involvement. • The main analytic strategies are analysis of variance (ANOVA), chi-squared test, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and logistic regression.

Result • First of all, we compared the differences of tuition fees and the costs of living between public and private universities

The tuition fees of private university were approximately doubles that of public university, whereas public school students spent more on costs of living than private school students. As a whole, private university students spent more on cost of attendance than public university students.

Result • Most students in Taiwan who paid for college costs didn't have enough savings to pay in full while they were in university. In addition to those who were supported by parents, many students tended to take part-time jobs and/or borrow money to cover them.

• As table 2, some methods students used to pay for the costs of tuition include parents, student savings, scholarships, and student loans. The expenditures of private school students via all accesses were more than of public school students

• One thing to be noted is that the percentage of parents of public university students (74%) was higher than of private university students (63%), whereas the percentage of student loans of private university students (31%) was higher than of public university students (19%).

Result • The expenditures of living costs of private school students via student savings, scholarships, and student loans were more than of public school students, while the living expenditures of public university students were paid much more money by parents than of private university students.

• Similarly, the percentage of parents of public university students (75%) was obviously higher than of private university students (67%).

Result • Next, we are focused on the factors of taking parttime Jobs in Public University and Private University.

Result • Then we gauged the different part-time working time between Public University and Private University.

• Private university student spent much more time working part-time than public university students.

Result • It is not to be denied that taking part-time works have some positive impacts on college student. However, many students in Taiwan’s university worked over 20 hours a week. Did it still have positive impacts, especially in academic involvement? • Finally, we examined the relationship between working time and academic involvement.

Conclusion • This study revealed the relationship among college costs, part-time work, and academic involvement. The students whose college costs paid by themselves had a higher possibility to take part-time job, especially for poor students. Once students works over 10 hours a week, according to our findings, the time of academic involvement will probably diminish. Neill, Mulholland, and Ross (2004) took a similar view that students who worked over 15 hours a week had a negative effect on academic involvement.

Conclusion • In Taiwan context, there exist 164 universities in this small island, and almost every student who graduates from senior high school could enroll in university. • However, most private universities ranked below average but their students had to spend more money on tuition fees. Many poor private school students suffered from higher college costs, and tended to take part-time jobs. Roughly 25% of private university students worked over 10 hours weekly so that they had less time to involve in academic activities. The unequal phenomena should be noticed.

Thank you.