The Effects of Student Financial Contribution Toward Their Post-Secondary Educational Experience

Abstract

The college student population is predicted to increase from 13 million to 21 million between 2003–2015 (Strom, 2004). This increase along with the exponentially increasing cost of post-secondary education has caused an increase in the financial burden placed on students. Between 2000 and 2012, the two major post-secondary institutions in the Southeastern state where the study was conducted has raised their tuition rates almost 200 percent (Bennett & Wilezol, 2013). The present study used a quantitative approach to determine the relationship between student’s financial contributions and student motivation, cognitive learning strategies, and metacognitive self-regulation. These sections were broken into eight subcategories drawn from the Motivated Strategies of Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Student financial contribution was determined by students’ personal contributions (loans, scholarships, full and part-time work, and student savings) toward tuition, fees, books, housing, and transportation. The survey was distributed using the College of Education listserv through the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment. Students were sent an initial e-mail requesting participation followed by two subsequent reminder e-mails. Only students who were over the age of 19 enrolled in the College of Education were used in this study. Multiple simple regressions were used to find a positive statistical relationship between the variables. This study found that there is a significant statistical relationship between student financial contribution and intrinsic goal orientation and elaboration. Follow-up hierarchical multiple regressions were run to determine the extent to which intrinsic goal orientation and elaboration were affected by students contribution toward their post-secondary educational experience when controlling for academic success as measured by GPA. It was concluded that when controlling for GPA, both intrinsic goal orientation and elaboration are statistically significant.