Do Economics and National Political Governance influence Student-Enrolment at a Private Higher Educational Institution?
Keywords:
Intentional Homicide, Student Enrolment, Macroeconomic Conditions, Substitution-Effect of EnrolmentAbstract
Witter and Anderson have empirically established that structural adjustment has destroyed many social institutions as well as the agricultural sector in Jamaica. The current work aims to answer the following question, “Do intentional homicide rate, rape rate, and selected macroeconomic indicators such as inflation, unemployment, exchange rate (US $ to Jamaican dollar), and GDP per capita rates influence student enrolment at a Private Higher Educational Institution?” The purpose of this investigation is to aid policy and decision makers in understanding the role of politics and economics in student-enrolment at tertiary level, and that these should be brought into the discourse of the choice of students to pursue tertiary studies. For the present study, data were taken from publications from government departments on macroeconomics (Planning Institute of Jamaica, 1970-2016; Bank of Jamaica, 1970-2016; and Statistical Institute of Jamaica, 1970-2016) and the online computer system at a Private Higher Educational Institution (1970-2016). Data were recorded, stored, retrieved, and analyzed, using the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows, Version 24.0. The level of significance that is used to determine statistical significance is less than 5% (0.05) at the 2-tailed level of significance. The findings revealed that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita positively influences student-enrolment at the Private Higher Educational Institution, and that it is the most significant predictor of student-enrolment. The results also revealed that inflation, exchange rate, intentional homicide and GDP per capita are predictors of student-enrolment, with these four independent factors accounting for 97.4% of the variability in annual enrolment at the Private Higher Educational Institution-GDP accounting for most of the variance in student enrolment (i.e. 90.6%). With continued dwindling market share of students, the Institution must diversify its product offerings to include the wider public and the government.
References
Andrianov Y. The impact of macroeconomic factors on student enrolment in Canadian post-secondary institutions. TRU Undergraduate Research & Innovation
Conference 2017; 11(1). Retrieved from http:// digitalcommons.library.tru.ca/urcproceedings/vol11/ iss1/5/
Anwar T. Impact of Globalisation and Liberalisation on Growth, Employment and Poverty 2002. Retrieved from ttp://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0708/ DOC8753.pdf, accessed September 28, 2017.
Babbie E. The Practice of Social Research 12th Edition. Wadsworth, a Division of Thomson Learning, Inc 2010.
Balashov Y, Rosenberg A. Introduction. In Philosophy of Science: Contemporary Readings, 3-7. London: Routledge 2002.
Bank of Jamaica (BoJ). (1970-2016). Bank of Jamaica Quarterly Monetary Policy Report, Kingston: BoJ 2009.
Bank of Jamaica (BoJ). (1970-2016). Statistical Digest, 1980-2009. Bank of Jamaica.
Bourne PA. Impact of poverty, not seeking medical care, unemployment, inflation, self-reported illness, health insurance on mortality in Jamaica. North American Journal of Medical Sciences 2009; 1(3): 99-109.
Bourne PA, Peterkin VMS, Anderson R et al. Organized crime in the Caribbean and the Latin America Region. International Journal of Insights & Transformationals in Law, Crime and Justice 2016; 1(1):1-22.
Bourne PA, Pinnock C, Blake DK. The Influence of Violent Crimes on Health in Jamaica: A Spurious Correlation and an Alternative Paradigm. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research 2012; 5-12.
Bourne PA, Sharpe CL, Beecher D et al. The influence of macroeconomic indicators on homicide and rape in Jamaica: An empirical inquiry that revisits the oldpoverty-homicide paradigm. International Journal of Insights and Transformations in Law, Crime and Justice 2017; 2(1): 1: 35.
Bourne PA, Sharpe CL, Evans D et al. Do intentional homicides in the US, political governance, and macroeconomic conditions in Jamaica impact on
homicide and rape rates in Jamaica? A Governance Explanation. International Journal of Insights & Transformations in Law, Crime & Justice 2017; 2(1):
-50.
Creswell JW. Research Design: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. 4thed. SAGE. Thousand Oaks. USA 2014.
Crotty M. The foundations of social research: Meaning and perspective in the research process. London: SAGE 2005.
Downes A. The global economic crisis and Caribbean States: Impact and response. Presented at Commonwealth Secretariat Conference on the Global Economic Crisis and Small States, London 2009.
Huber E, Stephens JD. Political Parties and Public Pensions: A Quantitative Analysis, Acta Sociologica 1993; 36: 309-325.
Kuhn TS. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions 3rd. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 1996.
Lawrence RZ, Litan RE. Why protectionism doesn’t pay 1987. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/1987/05/whyprotectionism- doesnt-pay, accessed October 11, 2017.
Leedy PD, Ormrod JE. Practical research: Planning and design. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill 2010.
Melville JA. The impact of structural adjustment on the poor. Basseterre: St. Kitts and Nevis: 7th Annual Development Conference, Eastern Caribbean Central
Bank 2002.
Menard S. Applied Logistic Regression Analysis: Sage University Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage 1995.
Neuman WL. Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches, 7th ed. New York: Pearson/ Allyn and Bacon 2014.
PIOJ. (1970-2016). Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica, 1988-2009. Kingston: PIOJ.
Rapley J. Understanding development: Theory and practice in the Third World, 2nd ed. London: Lynne Rienner Publishers 2002.
Smith, A. (2015, May 14). Enrolments fall. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/14/ improved-economy-leads-enrolment-dips-among-twoyear- and-profit-colleges, accessed on September 22, 2017.
Stewart F, Berry A. Globalisation, Liberalisation and Inequality: Real Causes. Challenge 2001; 43(1): 44-92.
Tabachnick BG, Fidell LS. Using Multivariate Statistics (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon 2001.
Tsiligiris V. The impact of the economic crisis on higher education. University Worldnews 2012. Retrived from http://www.universityworldnews.com/article. php?story=20120314055536933, accessed on September 22, 2017.
Waller LG. ICTs for Whose Development? A critical analysis of the discourses surrounding an ICT for Development Initiative for a group of microenterprise entrepreneurs operating in the Jamaican tourism industry: Towards the development of methodologies and analytical tools for understanding and explaining the ICT for Development Phenomenon. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Waikato, New Zealand 2006.
Witter M. Anderson P. The distribution of the social cost of Jamaica’s Structural Adjustment, 1977-1989. Kingston, Jamaica: PIOJ 1991.
World Bank. 2000. Retrieved from http://siteresources. worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/ 278200- 1099079877269/547664-1099079956815/ peril_
promise_en.pdf, accessed on September 22, 2017.
Longjian L. Advanced biostatistics and epidemiology applied in heart failure study. In Heart failure: Epidemiology and research methods, Elsever 2018;
-102.
Afifi A, Clark V, May S. Computer-Aided Multivariate Analysis. 4th ed. Boca Raton, Fl: Chapman & Hall/CRC. 2004.
