Since the 1990s, the population of students from the Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) studying at Memorial University of Newfoundland has increased about tenfold.
The reasons for the large increase in Maritime student enrollment have been the subject of speculation. The Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission and a number of news stories have connected this enrollment trend to Memorial’s comparably lower tuition fees which are the second lowest in Canada after Quebec.
Last fall, a group of researchers at Memorial University (myself included), carried out a survey of our current Maritime students to provide a better understanding of the underlying reasons why individuals from the Maritime provinces are pursuing university studies in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The students we decided to survey included two groups: 1) Maritime Migrant Students - students who re-located their residence to Newfoundland and Labrador to pursue full-time on-campus studies and 2) Maritime Distance Students - students who remained in their home province and were completing their studies via distance education. Of the combined population of 449, we successfully surveyed 328 for a relatively healthy response rate of just over 73%.
Over the Winter Semester, I’ll regularly post some of the results of our survey here for public consumption and discussion. In the meantime, our research team will be working on the second stage of the study which consists of semi-structured interviews with a smaller sample of Maritimers. Since it is widely assumed that lower tuition costs have been driving the increased Maritime student enrollment, I’ll blog about our cost-related findings over the next few weeks.
One of our survey questions asked students to identify the most important influence on their decision to study at Memorial University. A plurality of the students surveyed (45.8%) identified total cost as their primary influence. Most of the students in Migrant group (52.1%) indicated that total cost was most influential, however, for students in the Distance group the most common influence was program availability (44.4%). There was a statically significant difference between the responses of Migrant students and Distance students, χ² (3, N= 325) = 17.557, p =.001). In the figure below, I provide a summary of the responses to this question for the total group surveyed as well as each of the sub-groups.
Friday, 7 January, 2011
Factors driving Maritimers to Memorial University
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Interesting stuff, Dale.
ReplyDeleteRe: total costs. Do you know what their costs actually are? Do you know what there second choice would have been? I would have thought that the costs of living away from home would have pretty much offset any gains from lower tuition. Seems to me that the only way MUN has an advantage is among students who decide first to live away from home and only then begin to work on a choice set. For a Halifax student, wouldn't living with parents and going to Dal still be the cheaper option?
re: "Do you know what their costs actually are?"
ReplyDeleteWe didn't ask for cost estimates. We assumed these students know what their costs actually are.
re: "Do you know what there second choice would have been?"
Yes, there were questions about alternate choices. I may post some of these details between now and the release of our technical report.
re: "For a Halifax student, wouldn't living with parents and going to Dal still be the cheaper option?"
Yes, quite possibly.
Re: "For a Halifax student, wouldn't living with parents and going to Dal still be the cheaper option?"
ReplyDeleteMy interactions with Nova Scotians in my undergrad at MUN ('03-08) would indicate to me that the answer to this question is, surprisingly, usually a "no".
I'm not sure how much that has changed. A lot of them would go home for the summer and work from home, so maybe accounting for the fact that the living expenses paid would be 8 months instead of 12 would help things add up? You guys can crunch those numbers :)
What are the key drivers for a potential Post-secondary students today:
ReplyDelete1. Get the diploma because "everyone" seems to expect you to have one
2. Minimize the cost of acquiring this credential
Therefore, it stands to reason that "tuition" would be a key driver for those students wanting to be away from home and seeking a degree.
I would expect those students who see university studies as a broadening of their education, mind and knowledge to be more focused on reputation, program availability and quality of faculty and then tuition.
What would be most interesting to measure are all of the "extras" that "tuition" is expected to cover, such as employment centres, health clinics, remedial tutoring (the admissions data just didn't tell the whole truth), etc. Would the credential seeking student prefer to get back to basics by shedding these add-ons and often duplicated services thus potentially providing lower tuition, challenging programs, smaller classes, a quality learning environment, more full-time faculty and, last but not least, a better educated university graduate?