What do UEL students think about the future of university education and why - Essay Example

? Research Project: What do UEL think about the future of education and why? BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE What do UEL students think about the future of education and why? Background to Study In performing the secondary research to uncover the most critical aspects of what might drive student beliefs on the future of education, a common theme was uncovered not necessarily related to the actual learning experience. Secondary literature described many conflicting attitudes from general society and university students regarding their beliefs in the university learning processes of tomorrow. One theme uncovered included a shift toward distance learning, an e-learning model, that would alter the interaction between educator and the student. Another theme uncovered in the research was growing sentiment that university classroom sizes should be reduced in order to provide better learning and relationship development. Further, there were also beliefs that teacher education would need to be improved in order to build more competent teaching to keep up with the dynamic changes in tomorrow’s business environment. However, these identified themes had very radically-different attitudes about the future of education that conflicted with using them as a foundation for primary research. The most common theme, both in psychology text and general research articles was the impact of debt and financing for tomorrow’s university experience. Due to the commonalities associated with costs and future debt, this study developed its methodology based on this common theme. Review of literature There are many different governmental policy-makers that continue to debate the nature of public financing for education and are currently working on proposals to change the government involvement in providing tuition and living costs to students with low- and mid-range incomes. One proposal for the future of university education is to create a system whereby student loan debt payments actually decrease based on income changes for the post-graduate (Browne 2010). Why is this important for this study? According to Callender (2002) students who take on considerable student loan debt have very high instances of pathological depression and anxiety about how this will impact their lifestyles. Pathological depression, according to Morris and Maisto (2005) is defined as a mood disorder that includes overwhelming feelings of sadness, social isolation and excessive guilt. Further, those struggling with anxiety have prolonged periods of intense fears that can lead to panic or even social isolation (Morris and Maisto). University educators not only attempt to promote standardized learning, but also to assist students in becoming active contributors to the social order. Students who have earned their degrees from the university tend to be more participatory in volunteerism, experience much more social inclusion, and tend to be more involved in community affairs (Greenaway and Haynes 2003). Universities will be limiting their ability to provide more effective contributors to society if lessons on community and sociology are lost to situations of anxiety and depression due to concerns over debt load. Why is this a concern for the future of university education? According to Vasagar (2011), universities are losing revenues today and therefore are planning to charge the ?9000 pounds for tuition that is allowable by current laws related to university enrolment. Concurrently, university costs continue to increase annually by approximately 10 percent, thus the future of funding for education looks to greatly exceed the current ?9000 cap due to inflation and higher operational costs of the university (i.e. facility management, payroll and supply chain). Research also identified that complaints about the student loan process have greatly increased from 2006 to 2011. A major supplier of student loans, The Student Loans Company, logged an increase in grievances from students that rose from 1,411 in 2006 to 5,648 in 2011 (Cook 2011). This is an over 400 percent increase in only five years. The largest criticism involved statistics that one-in-four students actually received their student loans late, after the Fall term had already begun (Cook). Processing of student loans, today, is conflicted by governmental policy-makers and also the current recession that does not allow companies to staff a sufficient volume of processors. Therefore, it is reasonable to speculate that unless system-related changes occur to the student loan generation processes, this will contribute to much higher anxiety for the university student of the future. Current schemes in the government related to financing for education include pay later concepts where nothing is paid up front. However, “many students feel aggrieved by this change in policy and are nervous of the prospect of graduating with perhaps ?50,000 worth of debt” (Money Marketing 2011: 44). With rising costs of tuition and housing at a rate of approximately 10 percent yearly, it is likely that the incentive of pay later will continue to contribute to ongoing depression and anxiety for tomorrow’s students who buy into this pay later scheme. Further, Depaola and Vincenzo (2011) describe that many students have to turn toward credit cards in order to secure a decent lifestyle today. In 2009, the amount of credit debt that university seniors had incurred was over ?4000. It is not only student loans that are creating debt load, but their need for additional privately-funded credit in order to sustain their spending needs. With annual inflation rates, it is likely that the university student of tomorrow will continue to have even more reliance on private funding that will only contribute to mounting debt. The higher the debt ratio, the more likely the student will experience concern, anxiety or even depression. As identified, this is of significant concern for tomorrow’s university educators attempting to instil a sense of community, socialisation and volunteer services in students. The research method Since debt, credit, student loans and the psychological outcomes of this were the most prevalent and correlated themes discovered through research, this primary study focused on these factors. A hypothesis was generated based on the findings. The hypothesis is that students will place significant emotional concern about debt as it relates to the future of university education. The study established one specific objective: to uncover what reactions students have, psychologically, to the concept of student loan debt to act as a predictor for the future of university education. The study involved creating a survey with a one-to-ten ranking scale. According to Adams (2010, p.2) this type of survey instrument provides a better research modelling than reliance on scales such as the Likert Scale that “limits human responses to situations”. Adams (2010) suggests that a one-to-ten system with a mean analysis is a quality quantitative methodology that provides hard data to understand human behaviour. The sample included data from 18 different students, each from varying backgrounds, ethnicity and gender. The survey consisted of eight different questions focusing on debt, student loans and expenses during the university experience. In addition, a small random sample of students was selected for interviewing to uncover the more emotional responses to future university debt load or to identify any other themes that might have correlations about tomorrow’s education. The sample group consisted of six different students, each of varying race, gender and socio-economic background. The random sample was selected in order to gain diverse attitudes about debt, anxiety and the role of debt in tomorrow’s university experience. Observation and questionnaires were rejected as viable methodology. It is difficult to observe issues of anxiety or depression occurring in student lifestyles since usually these feelings are masked from society; something managed internally by the student without being revealed due to shame or other social concerns. Questionnaires are too open-ended and would provide the sample group with too many opportunities to focus on issues outside of debt, rather than focusing on the emotional responses to key concepts as it relates to tomorrow’s university experience. This primary study, then, was a blend of quantitative and qualitative research. A major concern was ensuring validity, which is the ability for a research instrument or process to truly measure what is intended to be measured (Joppe 2000, p.1). This is another reason why the mean analysis was determined to be the best measurement tool, with its numerical ranking system, to gain a mathematical representation of whether attitudes are largely conflicting on this issue or whether debt anxiety and depression are common. The aim of this study is to gain an outline to act as a predictor for how university students of the future might view the debt and expense situation associated with the university experience. According to Fowler (2007), it is the procedures used to conduct a survey that will most largely impact the likelihood that results will accurately describe what is intended to be measured. Students were approached in a courteous manner to gain their confidence. Out of those approached, the most receptive to performing the survey were recruited for a brief, 10 minute interview which was conducted immediately after filling out the survey. The results The students recruited identified significant concerns over debt. The mean analysis scored, on the ranking system, a score of 7.6 related to the level of anxiety currently experienced related to debt incurred for university financing. In relation to subjective projections of student loan anxiety and depression, students placed high emphasis on these concerns carrying into the university student experience of tomorrow. Projected anxiety and depression achieved a mean score of 7.9 as it relates to tomorrow’s university students. The interview revealed that five of the six recruited students had significant concerns over debt that they had currently incurred with their own student loans, credit and other private financing. None of the recruited students had significant parental involvement in providing household funding for their education, all of which had taken government-issued or other private student loans to fund their education. One student believed that their academic achievement records and their socialization were directly impacted by pathological depression, a situation not experienced prior to taking on loan debt and before entering the university. The study found significant predictions that tomorrow’s university students would experience measurable anxiety and depression. One student involved in the interview suggested several tips for future university students to reduce these anxieties by focusing on non-financial issues and engaging themselves in extra-curricular recreational activities. This participant from the interview found significant emotional release from these complex emotions through distraction. One interviewed student, when asked about the integrity and competence of the student loan processing and delivery systems, suggested that these processes were steadily getting worse and were becoming unreliable. This student was a senior who had been attending UEL for the last four years. This tends to support the concepts offered by Cook (2011) about the 400 percent increase in grievances against Student Loans Company from 2006 to 2011. Whether these inefficiencies stem from pressures to reduce staffing for cost control or whether it is due to volume is uncertain, which would make an interesting future study about efficiencies within the student loan system both private and governmental. Conclusion Largely, there is enough evidence that ongoing periods of anxiety and depression related to university debt load will serve as a predictor for situations that will occur in the university experience of tomorrow. Such high quantitative scores related to these concerns, coupled with growing inefficiency in the student loan process, will likely contribute to growing negative emotions in tomorrow’s students. The research project indicates that most students seem to believe that debt associated with tuition and other expenses continues to exert its influence on emotional stability. There are no significant changes occurring in these systems today, and with rising inflation, higher university operational costs and the global recession, student anxiety and depression seems to grow as supported by the data. Coupled with 10 percent annual increases in tuition costs, the likelihood of reduced anxiety and depression symptoms in tomorrow’s university students is minimal. Current attitudes and emotions associated with debt load, as identified through the study, serve as a predictor of the future of university education. This should be of significant concern, then, to government and the educators. References Adams, C. (2010) The significance, fun in a one in ten scale, Boyertown Area Times [online] Available at: http://www.berksmontnews.com/articles/2010/05/22/boyertown_area_times/opinion/doc4bf2cd07d5bab913699064.txt [accessed November 28, 2011] Browne, J. (2010) Securing a sustainable future for higher education, Independent review of higher education funding and student finance. [online] Available at: http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/corporate/docs/s/10-1208-securing-sustainable-higher-education-browne-report.pdf [accessed November 26, 2011] Callender, C. (2002) Student debt: the causes and consequences of undergraduate borrowing in the UK, Journal of Social Policy vol.31, p.571. Cook, P. (2011) Student loans – sharp rise in complaints, Northern Echo 9 May. DePaola, M. and Vincenzo, S. (2011) The effects of class size on the achievement of college students, The Manchester School 79(6), 1061. Fowler, F.J. (2007) Survey Research Methods, 3rd ed. Sage Publications Greenaway, D. and Haynes, M. (2003) Funding higher education in the UK: the role of fees and loans, The Economic Journal, vol.113. [online] Available at: http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/nmg/1468-0297.00102.pdf [accessed November 27, 2011] Joppe, M. (2000) The research process [online] Available at: http://www.ryerson.ca/~mjoppe/rp.htm [accessed November 27, 2011] Money Marketing. (2011) Students fear new pay-later policy, 15 September, 44. Morris, C.G. and Maisto, A. (2005) Psychology: An Introduction, 11th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall. Vasagar, J. (2011) Top charging universities admit too few state school pupils, The Guardian. [online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/mar/31/top-charging-universities-too-few-state-school-pupils [accessed November 27, 2011] Appendix A: Survey Instrument 1. To what extent have you experienced anxiety over debt associated with university tuition or other related expenses? 2. To what extent have you experienced depression over debt associated with university tuition or other expenses? 3. To what extent has depression or anxiety (if applicable) impacted your academic performance? 4. To what extent has depression or anxiety (if applicable) impacted your socialisation with peers? 5. To what extent do you believe that tomorrow’s university students will experience anxiety or depression over debt associated with university tuition and other expenses? 6. To what level do you feel that the current student loan process (either public or private) is efficient and reliable? 7. To what level do you think that debt will impact tomorrow’s university students emotionally? 8. To what degree do you believe that the future of university education will manage to improve debt concerns for students? Read More