Earnings Expectations of Typical South African University of Technology First-Year Students

Autor/in	van der Merwe, Alex
Titel	Earnings Expectations of Typical South African University of Technology First-Year Students
Quelle	In: Education Economics, 19 (2011) 2, S.181-198 (18 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0964-5292
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Human Capital; Education Work Relationship; Educational Attainment; Expectation; Wages; Social Theories; Validity; Evidence; Enrollment; Decision Making; College Freshmen; Technical Education; South Africa; South Africa (Durban) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Humankapital; Bildungsabschluss; Bildungsgut; Expectancy; Erwartung; Wage; Löhne; Gesellschaftstheorie; Gültigkeit; Evidenz; Einschulung; Decision-making; Entscheidungsfindung; Studienanfänger; Technikunterricht; Südafrika; Süd-Afrika; Republik Südafrika; Südafrikanische Republik
Abstract	Human capital theory holds that a higher education will be pursued to the extent that its pecuniary rewards outstrip its costs. This notion is founded on the neoclassical economic assumption that expected earnings conditional on educational investment are accurately anticipated by those considering such investments. However, the evidence in support of this thesis is slim and, in the case of South Africa in particular, remains largely untested. This paper--the product of a qualitative study--reports the expected earnings data of Durban University of Technology first-year students who, on the whole, are evidently able to relatively accurately predict their commencing and medium- to long-term earnings. This merited the computation and analysis of expected private rates of return to educational investments which were found to be significantly related to study field and parents' educational attainment, useful knowledge in any description of higher education demand. More importantly, though, the paper argues, possibly somewhat controversially, that human capital theory may offer a more plausible explanation of individual higher education choice if it is unconstrained by its neoclassical economic framework. (Contains 7 tables.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10