Can grants affect student performance? Evidence from five Italian universities

Grazia Graziosi; Eline Sneyers; Tommaso Agasisti; Kristof De Witte

doi:10.1080/1360080x.2020.1737343

Can grants affect student performance? Evidence from five Italian universities

Grazia Graziosi^*, Eline Sneyers, Tommaso Agasisti, Kristof De Witte

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

This paper assesses the effect of need-based grants on the performance of university students in Italy. We performed a series of between-universities and within-universities propensity score matching analyses to evaluate the effect of grants on several student performance indicators, such as dropout rate, first year credits and efficiency of study. Our findings suggest that financial aid has a positive, substantial and statistically robust effect on university students' performance and on if and when they complete their undergraduate degree courses. The positive impact is heterogeneous across universities, while few differences were detected for subgroups of students. Reinforcing financial aid policies can simultaneously help disadvantaged students and improve overall academic performance in Italian universities.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	24-48
Number of pages	25
Journal	Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management
Volume	43
Issue number	1
Early online date	18 Apr 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080x.2020.1737343
Publication status	Published - 2 Jan 2021

Keywords

Financial aid
Italian higher education system
propensity score matching
PROPENSITY SCORE
COLLEGE ACCESS
CAUSAL
PERSISTENCE
SYSTEM
AID

Access to Document

10.1080/1360080x.2020.1737343

Full TextFinal published version, 3.17 MBLicence: Taverne

Cite this

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title = "Can grants affect student performance? Evidence from five Italian universities",

abstract = "This paper assesses the effect of need-based grants on the performance of university students in Italy. We performed a series of between-universities and within-universities propensity score matching analyses to evaluate the effect of grants on several student performance indicators, such as dropout rate, first year credits and efficiency of study. Our findings suggest that financial aid has a positive, substantial and statistically robust effect on university students' performance and on if and when they complete their undergraduate degree courses. The positive impact is heterogeneous across universities, while few differences were detected for subgroups of students. Reinforcing financial aid policies can simultaneously help disadvantaged students and improve overall academic performance in Italian universities.",

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author = "Grazia Graziosi and Eline Sneyers and Tommaso Agasisti and {De Witte}, Kristof",

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AB - This paper assesses the effect of need-based grants on the performance of university students in Italy. We performed a series of between-universities and within-universities propensity score matching analyses to evaluate the effect of grants on several student performance indicators, such as dropout rate, first year credits and efficiency of study. Our findings suggest that financial aid has a positive, substantial and statistically robust effect on university students' performance and on if and when they complete their undergraduate degree courses. The positive impact is heterogeneous across universities, while few differences were detected for subgroups of students. Reinforcing financial aid policies can simultaneously help disadvantaged students and improve overall academic performance in Italian universities.

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