Institutional Grants and Graduation Success: Assessing Sector Performance among Four-years U.S. Colleges

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 10. Higher Education: Administrative Trends and Institutional Effects

Abstract

This study explores how institutional grants influence the six-year graduation rates among the four-year universities in the public, private non-profit, and private for-profit sectors. Using panel data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (N = 2,632), I employed fixed effect and random effect models to examine the relationship between the average amount of institutional grants students received and the average graduation rates among student cohorts across sectors. My results show a positive effect of institutional grants on students’ graduation outcome after controlling the effect from other financial aid packages, school characteristics, and student demographics. However, results also suggest the directions, magnitude, and significance of the association between the institutional grants and graduation rates vary substantially by school sectors. Results show that the positive institutional grants effect is highest among the public universities, followed by the non-profit private colleges. The institutional grants effect is uncertain for private for-profit colleges. The “negative” institutional grants effect among the for-profit colleges may be due to the inconsistency in tuition structure and administrative practice, and unique student demographics.

Author

• Yiwan Ye, University of California, Davis