Human capital has become a key driver of individual employment and economic growth over the past few decades. The Republic of Korea in particular has experienced rapid and sustained economic success due to a marked rise in educated human capital over the past thirty years, but this status has begun to falter as glaring inefficiencies in the South Korean educational system, particularly concerning higher education, have emerged. The high-performing academic curricula at Korea’s higher education institutions fail to reflect the needs of industries, and the subsequent high unemployment rate among university graduates has led to a high incidence of voluntary college leaves of absence (LOAs) aimed at acquiring and reinforcing those skills required by the labor market, suggesting that Korea’s educational progress and the labor market are not well matched. This dissertation is the first study aimed at understanding this voluntary break in college schooling while controlling for self-selection bias using propensity score matching (PSM) estimates. This study contributes to exploring the causal effect of a college LOA on labor market outcomes and heterogeneous effects across family background based on the 2011 Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey (GOMS), the results of which may be useful for policymakers. Distinguishing between engaging in a college LOA to gain skills or experience and engaging in an LOA because of financial difficulties, I find significant positive effects of a college leave of absence on earnings and employment status for college LOAs motivated by employment preparation for both males and females. Considering that there is high financial dependence on parents in South Korea, both for funding one’s education and for covering the monetary costs of taking a college LOA, there is a strong link between family socioeconomic status (SES) and access to extra career-related activities through a college LOA. Families with low SES do not have the same opportunities to participate in college LOAs for employment preparation as do high SES students. Although low SES students have higher heterogeneous effects of a college LOA to prepare for employment, students with low parental income have limited returns to education. The close relationship between parental wealth and the ability to invest in experience and on-the-job training through an LOA may play a significant role in achieving successful labor market outcomes. This means that college LOAs can become a new channel for intergenerational transmission of earnings and even social inequality. The impact of a college LOA due to financial difficulties on monthly income is not statistically significant for both males and females. However, statistically significant negative effect for males are found after controlling for work experience while enrolled in college, implying that student employment during college for male students who take an LOA for financial reasons has a significantly negative effect on wages in the labor market. This could be because the types of jobs that students might work may not be oriented toward labor market preparation and may even impede the development of increased human capital or have negative signaling properties, thus inducing negative labor market payoffs after graduation. Interestingly, even LOAs due to financial difficulties have a positive impact on female employment status. Given that South Korea has high barriers to labor market participation for women in South Korea, a college LOA contributes to a reduction in temporary female workers, indicating that more women are participating in the labor market with stable employment status.

A longitudinal analysis of transactional data for an entire college cohort was mined from administrative student records systems to identify individual student behaviors and establish correlations between individual students’ behaviors and academic outcomes. Conducted at one large urban community college, this study determined curricular peer association behavior between individual students, and also evaluated late registration and course schedule change behaviors. Findings demonstrated a strong correlation between these three behavioral patterns and a lasting influence on academic outcomes, such as: semestrial GPA and cumulative GPA, credit accumulation, persistence and graduation rates. Finding also indicated a correlation among the three behaviors themselves. Furthermore, conducting a longitudinal analysis of individual students made it possible to identify the temporal tipping-points which differentiated at-risk behavior from otherwise benign behavior. The intrinsic factors associated with individual students’ behaviors were followed over a period of thirteen consecutive semesters. Mining Transactional Student-Level Data at the scale achieved in this study, when compared to traditional methods of data collection, provided the precision needed to determine the actual proximity among specific peers, and the identification of registration behavior patterns. The extraction of transactional data from the records of each student in an entire cohort resulted in a method of inquiry immune to the negative effects of student’s non-response or selection bias. Complimenting previous research, this study provides a detailed descriptive analysis of those behaviors not only at the semestrial level, but also cumulatively across consecutive semesters. This study demonstrates that curricular peer association can be measured directly from common, ubiquitous, transactional records. The rates of Peer Association among individual students was very dynamic: While the majority of students had some peer associations while enrolled, in the aggregate two thirds of students had no peer association (were soloists) at some point in time, while more than a quarter of all students were soloists for at least half of their entire enrollment period. Soloists differed from students with peer associations. They were likely to be older, international students, African Americans, transfer students, or those entering fully prepared for college level coursework (no remedial coursework). Peer association was positively correlated, both in the semester in which it occurred and cumulatively, with: GPA, credits earned, and retention or graduation rates. These correlations to academic outcomes varied with the number of peer associations established, and the intensity of peer encounters. The study revealed that nearly a quarter of all students practiced late registration at least once; and more than 10 percent have registered late multiple times during their studies. Nearly three quarters of students made modifications to their course schedule at least once after the semester began. Overall, two fifths of students changed their initial schedule every semester. These behaviors were unrecorded in previous studies that were limited in the evaluation of longitudinal behaviors, used subsets of students and were subject to non-response bias. Late registration and student schedule changes was correlated with lower semestrial and cumulative academic outcomes. Late registration behavior subsequently increased the likelihood of a student being a soloist. When compared to previous studies, the analysis conducted here not only accounted for academic, demographic and financial variables at baseline, but went on to perform updates at key points in time each semester to reflect changes over time. The exhaustive revisiting of the covariates each semester provided enhanced control to the ‘order of time’ influence. All covariates were re-measured each semester allowing to better evaluate the correlation of student behavioral indicators for a given semester, and cumulatively. This enhanced the study’s ability to account for common unobserved variables inherent to academic, demographic and financial attributes that might influence student outcomes correlated with peer association, late registration and schedule changes. This study contributes to the literature by showing that peer association can be evaluated in the setting of an open admission commuter institution, and that peer association has consistent and positive correlation with academic outcomes. It provides new insights regarding the magnitude of late registration and schedule changes, as well as their negative immediate and longitudinal correlation with student outcomes. Further implications to community colleges’ faculty, administrators, researchers and policymakers, as well as future directions for research employing transactional level data are discussed.

Social class encompasses the preferences, lifestyles, and behaviors of people in various social class groups in conjunction with the structural privileges that accompany certain social locations (Smith, 2010). Class-privileged college students typically come to campus with greater amounts of cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1980) that afford them the luxury of understanding how to navigate the middle-class environment of college (Tett, 2000). Students from poor/working- class backgrounds are, on the other hand, often without the benefit of knowing the behavioral codes and expectations of college, which can lead to negative psychological outcomes in the form of lowered self-esteem, depression, and stress. As a construct, resiliency provides a framework for understanding how some poor/working-class students are able to succeed despite these potential negative outcomes and persist through college. The study aimed to measure the class-related challenges and resiliency factors that correspond to different levels of psychological outcomes using a scale called the Poor/Working-Class Challenge and Resiliency Factor Scale (P/W-CRF). Data was collected using a sample of 253 four-year college students who identified as coming from a poor/working-class background. Participants filled out an online survey consisting of a demographic survey, original challenge and resiliency factor items, psychology outcome measures (self –esteem, depression, and stress), a social desirability scale, and previously validated classism and resiliency scales. Through factor analysis, two scales were generated. The first scale represented the challenges faced on campus, which was a 20-item, four factor scale with a good fit. The second, resilience scale, was a 24-item, eight factor scale with a poor fit. The overall challenge scale was found to show convergent validity with the depression, stress, and classism scales, and divergent validity with the self esteem and social desirability scales. The resilience scale demonstrated convergent validity with the self esteem and resilience scales and divergent validity with the depression and stress scales. In an effort to explore a stronger model fit for the two models, post hoc analysis offered a possible 18-item, six- factor resilience model, with a slightly improved model fit. The document will explore potential strengths and weaknesses of using these models. Finally, implications and suggestions for future research are provided in the following areas; a) Research; b) Theory; c) Clinical Practice; d) Student Affairs or Services; e) Policy; and f) High School College Counseling.

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While it is well established that White students have positive experiences in taking diversity courses, little is known about the experiences of first-generation college students of color in these courses. This study addressed this gap by examining the learning experiences of 10 first-generation college students of color in two diversity courses in a 4-year public university. The study aim was to explore whether and how these first-generation college students of color drew from their prior knowledge and experiences to engage with the courses’ subject matter, and whether and how they used the knowledge gained in these courses in their lives beyond school. This study was informed by a three-part conceptual framework emphasizing faculty teaching practices, sociocultural features of students’ lives shaping their classroom learning, and transfer of knowledge from one learning site to another. I interviewed 10 first-generation college students of color, enrolled in one of two diversity courses and observed their learning. I learned that participants drew from their classmates’ prior knowledge and experiences to engage with and get a foothold on the diversity course content since often classmates’ lives offered examples for new ways of thinking about diversity issues and concepts. Moreover, participants drew from their own prior knowledge and experiences to offer counterarguments challenging classmates’ inaccurate views of class topics, thus relying on their lives as valuable resources for framing such arguments. Additionally, participants thought about how the knowledge they gained from the courses related to their lives beyond school; they did this by sharing knowledge with family members and friends as a way to expand their thinking of their world. They also used the knowledge gained from the courses to think about the circumstances of their neighborhoods, how to help their neighbors, and how to better support those they want to help in their future careers. Recommendations were made for (a) new research on the experiences of first-generation college students of color in diversity courses, (b) changes in institutional policy toward supporting these students’ learning in college classrooms, and (c) development of classroom (instructional) and institutional practices for supporting these students’ learning.

In recent years, attention to the number of students struggling to meet basic needs such as food and housing has grown, and services such as food pantries, emergency grants, and assistance accessing public benefits have become increasingly common on college campuses. However, much is still unknown about why colleges and universities are adopting basic needs services, how colleges and universities are incorporating basic needs services into organizational functioning, and what challenges may make it difficult for colleges and universities to provide basic needs services. The current coverage of basic needs in higher education largely focuses on documenting the prevalence of food and housing insecurity among students and advocating for basic needs services as a strategy to promote student success. To date, little research has been done to explore what it means for higher education to provide basic needs services from an institutional perspective. To better understand what it means for colleges as institutions to provide basic needs services, the dissertation uses qualitative interviews with individuals from community colleges, public four-year colleges, private four-year colleges, and highly selective private four-year universities to examine the influence of external environmental pressures as well as internal organizational dynamics on the provision of basic needs services. I find that while external pressures and internal dynamics are conveying the message that colleges should provide basic needs services, they offer little guidance over how to do so. Basic needs services tend to operate on the periphery of organizational functioning, with limited institutional support, and faculty and staff are struggling to define the extent of higher education’s responsibility. The study contributes not only to organizational theory research in higher education, but also to policy research regarding strategies for strengthening the social safety net. It concludes by highlighting remaining unanswered questions about the role of higher education in addressing students’ basic needs and offering recommendations for new research into strategies for enhancing the role of cross-sector partnerships in supporting students’ basic needs and maximizing the potential of college-based basic needs services.

The problem of this study concerned the relationship between the academic achievement of students in Jordan state universities and the socioeconomic status (SES) of their families. A survey composed of questions regarding demographics, SES background, cultural factors, and accumulated grade point average (GPA) was administered by four Jordanian professors in four state universities in Jordan. Of the 620 surveys made, there were 609 usable surveys analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Science SPSS/PC+. Data were sorted so that families' SES variables, namely fathers' and mothers' income, occupation, and education, and students' GPA were identified on a 9-point ordinal scale. Pearson's chi-square was used to determine whether relationships existed between parents' SES and with students' GPA. Spearman's correlation was also used to determine the direction and strength of the relationships. The same data were then compressed from 9 to a 3-point ordinal scale and were used to determine the relationship between studendts' GPA and their parents1 SES. For this purpose a one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used. Five additional related questions concerned relationship between degree of religious commitment of parents, number of siblings, parents' kinship, parents1 educational aspiration, and reason for parents' educational aspiration, and students' GPA were identified on a 4-point ordinal scale and also tested using the one-way ANOVA, the Tukey/Kramer method, and the Eta coefficient.

陸根書. / 論文(博士)--香港中文大學, 1999. / 參考文獻 (p. 194-205) / 中英文摘要. / Available also through the Internet via Dissertations & theses @ Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Lu Genshu. / Lun wen (Bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 1999. / Can kao wen xian (p. 194-205) / Zhong Ying wen zhai yao.

The nature of this study is exploratory. It aims to explore the financial situation and the resources which students can use to cope with their problems. The primary purpose is to obtain a clearer picture of the situations of certain Chinese foreign students, to help those who intend to study abroad with their budgeting and planning. A secondary aim is to draw the attention of authorities concerned to improve or expand services to foreign students who already have overwhelming adjustment problems and who still have to carry the additional burden of pressure from restrictive regulations.

There is an extensive amount of research on academic success and career development, but most of the literature has focused on the process of White participants. While some of the studies have examined samples from ethnic minority populations, the majority of studies use these populations as comparison groups, studying between-group differences as opposed to within-group differences. The literature is especially lacking in the area Latino academic success and career development. The current study examined how family and culture, specifically socioeconomic status, acculturation, and the quality of the parent-emerging adult relationship, influence the academic success and career development of Latino emerging adults. Eighty-three Latino undergraduate students ages 18 – 24 were recruited for participation in this study. Results indicated that valuing the role of work (career salience) significantly predicted the maturity and positivity of attitudes toward work (career maturity) in Latino emerging adults. Additionally, while family demographic and cultural variables did not seem to have a significant impact on academic success and career development, first-generation college student status, career salience, and conflict in the parent-emerging adult relationship lent some insight into the variation of levels of career maturity in a Latino sample. Furthermore, first-generation student status also impacted the relationship between career maturity and GPA.