In October 2012, the United Kingdom adopted nation-wide automatic enrolment into workplace pension schemes. Automatic enrolment on the current scale is a major undertaking but it is also an untested policy and it is important that we understand how individuals are adapting to these radical changes in pension provision. There is currently a lack of research into the dynamic decision-making processes that lie behind some individuals' deviation from workplace pension scheme default settings. This exploratory study investigates the importance of financial planning, social relations, and the role of the employer to default adherence and deviation. The embedded case study comprises qualitative interviews with 25 middle-income employees of a large UK utility company. Participants were selected on the basis of socio-economic similarity but had variable behavioural responses to the default settings of their workplace pension scheme. The study uncovered different motives underpinning individuals' reaction to membership defaults, contribution defaults, and investment fund defaults. Continued membership following automatic enrolment was driven by social pressures. Subsequent to enrolment, individuals tried to achieve a balance between current expenditure and saving for retirement. Property ownership and mortgage debt redemption were prioritised over additional pension scheme investment. The life-stage of the individual influenced how they reacted to the contribution default settings - default adherence appeared to be linked to unsettled personal lives and career insecurity. Motives for increasing contributions were household formation, parental ageing, and relationship breakdown. Saving strategies were influenced by parental accumulation of retirement assets and parental financial literacy. Employer-matching contributions were implicated in participants' willingness to increase pension contributions beyond the minimum default; investment in share option schemes was offered as justification for limiting contributions to the maximum match. Employer endorsement effects, driven by trust in the employer's intentions, were strongly implicated in fund default adherence and in investment diversification strategies: participants pointed to the employer's promotion of the pension scheme and employer-provided financial seminars. Advice from older colleagues was also cited as influential in directing retirement savings behaviour. The research concludes that the employment context is crucial to understanding how middle-income employees react to the default settings in their workplace pension scheme.

The Education for All Movement (EFA) premises its commitment on the belief that quality education for all youth will ensure that they have equal access to skills and knowledge that will assist them in getting into gainful employment and enable them to participate fully in their societies. The importance and benefits of providing access to education and lifelong learning opportunities to youth has been acknowledged by a majority of world countries. These countries believe that quality education to youth means the ability to survive, to live and work in dignity, to participate fully in development, improve quality of their lives, to make informed decisions, and continuous learning – requirements for citizens of the 21st century. However, EFA mid-term report shows that as much as 42% of the world’s secondary school going-age youth were not enrolled in 2006, the majority of these youth are found in sub-Saharan Africa. There are a few empirical studies on the extent of school non-attendance and the profile of these youth not enrolled in an educational institution in the region. The study makes use of the Statistics South Africa dataset, Community Survey 2007, to determine the prevalence of school non-enrolment in South Africa among the 16 to 18 year olds. Second, the study attempts to establish the characteristics of the youth not enrolled in an education institution. To this end, the study analyzed the extent of non-enrolment prevalence, vi and the geographic distribution of the problem. In order to determine the geographic distribution of the problem, I first look at the size of school non-enrolment problem, nationally. I then analyse provincial, district and local patterns of school non-enrolment. Lastly, I analyse the data for identifiable individual and family factors that could be associated with the youth not currently enrolled in an educational institution. My analysis shows that the extent of youth between 16 and 18 years not enrolled in school is 16.6%, confirming recent government reports on prevalence among this age cohort. The study reveals physiographic and sub-population characteristics associated with non-enrolment in school. Disability, lack of access to social security grants, the low education level of a parent, or head of household that is not a parent are factors found to be related with low school participation by youth from those households. The study recommends a deeper investigation on the impact that the physiographic characteristics have on patterns of school enrolment.

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This study investigates the effect of human capital, using gross enrolment rate as a proxy, on labor productivity. It also investigates if a larger public effort in providing education opportunities would lead to a more efficient distribution of skills and therefore give a positive effect on labor productivity. We use a panel data approach to estimate an endogenous growth model on countries that are selected as to be reasonably similar. The main results are that growth in gross enrolment rate have a positive effect on labor productivity, while the level of government expenditure on tertiary education (measured as a percentage of GDP) has a negative effect on labor productivity.

Cross-sectional studies suggest a prevalence of mental health problems from the age that children change to English secondary schools but there are few longitudinal appraisals of these issues and how enrolment policies influence psychological wellbeing. This research focuses on key factors linking competition for secondary schools and family responses to such challenges to determine enrolment policies that can sustain wellbeing longer-term. Integrated, model-based multimethodology was used in this urban, case-based study. Views were induced from multi-agency, expert practitioners to agree a system dynamics concept model. Parental decision-making behaviours were deduced by survey to understand key factors for model calibration. Dynamic system sensitivities were abduced from the simulation model before comparing long-term psychosocial impacts on children from expert, policy-support suggestions. Modelling demonstrates that two principal feedback loops influence family psychosocial systems when deciding secondary schools (parent-child wellbeing reinforcement plus knowledge of schools balancing parent concerns). Exogenous competition stressors on psychosocial systems can erode parent knowledge while testing student resolve. Competition guidance to remove risk-laden school options (league table comparison) before sequencing any remaining choices by profit (school visits), are not always used deciding urban secondary schools. Instead, families lacking experience can adopt decisive styles based on parent needs alone. Given autocratic leadership, child wellbeing rapidly deteriorates when student needs cannot be met by schools. Rather than ending student-selective entrance tests or raising knowledge of schools at visits, effective multi-agency support policy helps by increasing school choice debate frequency within families to address psychosocial system imbalances. The research makes a clear, three-way contribution to knowledge. Firstly, intrinsic case study theory is enhanced by data triangulation between induced, deduced and abduced research approaches. Secondly, the system dynamics discipline is strengthened by studying compulsory school enrolment. Finally, developing practice-based policy through multi-agency groups endorses cooperative rather than unilateral solutions, for helping change lives.

This thesis presents a set of models of enrolment behaviour in senior secondary science courses in New South Wales (Australia) schools. The models have been developed out of concerns about declining enrolments and continued sex differences in enrolments in these courses. They use the framework of the Science enrolment Model (SEM), a framework which uses an expectancy/value approach to examine the relationships between the various influences and their combined effect on enrolment behaviour. The SEM was constructed by fitting the factors which have been shown to influence enrolment behaviour in the sciences to the structure of the General Model of Academic Choice, a model of achievement related behaviour developed by Eccles and colleagues. Models were constructed for enrolment behaviour in three specialist science courses; Biology, Chemistry and Physics and two non-specialist science courses; General Science and Science for Life. These five courses account for 97 percent of enrolments in senior secondary science in New South Wales. Measures of enrolment intentions were predicted by, measures of interest, perceived career value, TER value (value as a means gaining university entrance) and a combined measure of self-concept and performance expectations. These constructs were, in turn, predicted by measures of perceptions of parent and teacher attitudes, perceptions of past performance, attributions for past performance and personality measures. The enrolment models explained between 60% and 70% of the variance in enrolment intentions in the specialist science subjects. 'Career value' was found to be a major influence on enrolment behaviour in all five subjects. The expectancy and value variables explained approximately 80 percent of the sex difference in enrolment intentions in the specialist science subjects. Career considerations accounted for between 30 percent and 50 percent of this difference / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Doctor of Education / This case study looks at the impact of closing an urban secondary school. It considers the experiences of the students, the staff and the parents. It does not argue with the decision to close the school but concentrates on the experience for those most closely involved. The thesis is guided by the main research question which is: “What is the impact of school closure on the various elements of a school community and is there a way to close a school and minimise this impact?” Supplementary questions seek to describe how the closure was undertaken and what factors can be identified which helped ease the transition for those involved. While seeking to develop theory grounded in the research the findings have also been informed by theory associated with grief, place attachment, emotion in the workplace and change. Unpublished primary documents such as transcripts of group interviews, responses to written questionnaires and minutes of meetings are the basic sources of data for this thesis. The researcher was an active participant in the closure and well known to all respondents. The thesis concludes that although keeping the school open for the final year was of benefit to the morale and adjustment of staff it was probably less beneficial for the students involved. It suggests that with proper counselling support and identification of the closure as a critical incident, a quick closure would help student learning outcomes and prevent teacher de-skilling. It also confirms the importance of a school, or probably any institution, in the emotional life of those associated with it. Note: The students in this study range in age from 13 to 18 years of age in Years 7 through to 12.

Doctor of Education / This case study looks at the impact of closing an urban secondary school. It considers the experiences of the students, the staff and the parents. It does not argue with the decision to close the school but concentrates on the experience for those most closely involved. The thesis is guided by the main research question which is: “What is the impact of school closure on the various elements of a school community and is there a way to close a school and minimise this impact?” Supplementary questions seek to describe how the closure was undertaken and what factors can be identified which helped ease the transition for those involved. While seeking to develop theory grounded in the research the findings have also been informed by theory associated with grief, place attachment, emotion in the workplace and change. Unpublished primary documents such as transcripts of group interviews, responses to written questionnaires and minutes of meetings are the basic sources of data for this thesis. The researcher was an active participant in the closure and well known to all respondents. The thesis concludes that although keeping the school open for the final year was of benefit to the morale and adjustment of staff it was probably less beneficial for the students involved. It suggests that with proper counselling support and identification of the closure as a critical incident, a quick closure would help student learning outcomes and prevent teacher de-skilling. It also confirms the importance of a school, or probably any institution, in the emotional life of those associated with it. Note: The students in this study range in age from 13 to 18 years of age in Years 7 through to 12.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / The study explores the completion rates (the number of years a student takes to complete a degree) of graduates at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa. The graduates in the study all did at least one semester of statistics in their final year of study. The students' completion will be described with respect to school results and socio-demographics. Differences between students who finished their studies in the prescribed time of three years and those who took longer than the prescribed time will be highlighted. Factors that aid or hinder students from successfully completing their studies in the prescribed time will be analyzed. An entry selection model will be developed to screen the students. This will assist with an enrolment strategy. The most significant result found was that the political environment played the most significant role in throughput. The next significant result from the study showed that the grade 12 aggregate played a significant role in throughput. It is suggested that UWC be proactive in developing alternative methods of selecting students, since the new Further Education Training (FET) school system, which will be implemented in 2006, will omit the grade 12 aggregate.

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