Examining the Effects of Financial Aid on Student Persistence in Taiwanese Higher Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of financial aid policies on student persistence between the first and second year at a private four-year postsecondary institution in Taiwan. A two-phase sequential research design was employed with priority was given to the quantitative data–structural equation modeling (SEM). While the conceptual framework of this study was drawn from multiple research antecedents in relation to student persistence the major perspective guiding it was based on St. John’s (1992) analysis of the research. Overall, the greatest effects on persistence were the measures of high school academic performance, followed by campus work, academic integration, social aspiration for attending college, financial aid, and parental supports, while neither parental educational attainments, faculty-student interactions, the practical value for future employment, nor peer relations were associated with students’ decision to remain enrolled in college, results which merit further investigation. In sum, this study provides a necessary beginning step, more institutional research is needed in Taiwan to improve policy makers’ and institutional researchers’ understanding of the complex interplay between student financial aid and college experiences in students’ decisions to persist in college as well as to develop a longitudinal database to identify ways to increase student success.