IBP Task 2 - essay PDF

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TASK 2 Rivithma Perera 13951126 The multifaceted stress of meeting financial obligations is one that impacts university students as a whole, regardless of age, gender or nationality. As group 3 elected a focus on these wide-ranging yet complex issues experienced by students that are created by the “inability to meet financial obligations”, we collectively composed questions that aimed to target the core causes and identify the variability of the issue. Individually, I opted to collect my research from students from a range of backgrounds/nationalities, ages and university courses to conclusively pinpoint recurring difficulties. My first two interviewees Tatjana and Pritha were both first year domestic students in their respective health and science fields at UTS. Understanding that their answers would be comparable as they both would most likely experience the same extents of financial stress and through the same factors – which would provide an accurate insight into financial complexities at UTS as domestic students account for majority of the student body. My third interviewee was Randew, a third-year international student working 2 part-time jobs in the design faculty, whom I interviewed to incorporate my prior research in Part 1 of the assignment into the difficulties of international students- particularly those financially related. My final interviewee, third year mature student Sam improved the accuracy of my research by being significantly more financially independent and thus more susceptible to the constraints of financial stress.

PART 1 – JUSTIFICATIONS Within our group, we compiled 4 simple questions that covered significant areas causing financial stress on university students, whilst also giving interviewees space to elaborate and provide personal views that would shape our perspectives accurately. Through refining these questions, we noted the benefit of employing such expansive questions as they would address each interviewee’s personal difficulties in contrasting ways rather than accumulate simply yes/no answers with no context. Foregrounding the most common factor for financial stress, the introductory question “what method are you using to pay for university fees?” tackles the growing burden of student loans ( et al. 2014). Recognising that responses to the question would vary depending on distinguishing factors such as background and age, I encouraged further circumstantial explanations from my interviewees to thoroughly assess the correspondences in their answers. Supporting the notion that working to support yourself in university has gradually become unrealistic as a result of the rapid increase in tuition (Draut, 2007) as well as the progressively demanding pressures of academic performance, answers to this question provided a window into contemporary resolutions to these issues. Furthermore, it provided significant insights by enabling my comprehension of financial standpoints of a variety of students – for example having jobs or being supported by parents – emphasising the significance of this question in portraying methods of coping and adaptation (Roy, 1970,1984; Roy & Robert 1981) that enable the continued support of highly demanding university courses. By determining “what factor of university poses the most financial stress to (them)”, the root origins of such financial stress would be revealed and further shape the

direction for my group’s later choices in attempting to resolve the issue to the best of our ability. Aiming to expand our knowledge on the existing awareness of anticipated debt being a strong predictor of financial stress (Morra et al. 2008), the question intended to draw out infrequent factors such as housing and transportation costs which are often overlooked. Since the perception of imminent student debt is often seen as the dominating feature in triggering financial stress, this question set out to introduce more experiences of adversity (Watson et al. 2014). Moreover, through my diverse selection of interviewees regarding age and family background, the question enabled me to once again denote the parallels within answers in order to translate personal responses into a beneficial idea that would attempt to reduce this worry. “Through a comparison of your life prior to university and your current situation, how has financial pressure impacted various aspects of your life?” – with this inquiry, we prioritised subjective experiences to emphasise the severity of financial stress on the lives of university students. As it is assumed financial strain has a notably unfavourable impact on most of the student body, this question was targeted at alternatively identifying to what extent this change contrasted with their lives preceding financial stress. By providing clear insights into the emotional stress and Reduced course work (Joo et al. 2009) that are provoked by financial stress, the question set out to determine foremost if financially strained students were those who were more likely to be older…(and) work either part-time or full time (Joo et al. 2009). Noting that impacts of such financial stress can influence numerous aspects of a student’s life, question 3 educed answers that would signify the particular areas that would be affected – which ranged from the broad areas of academic to psychological, to social effects. Our concluding question; “To what extent do you think student loans will impact your levels of financial stress in the future? Do you have a plan to minimise this impact?” took a different standpoint to the rest of our survey, rather deliberating the implications of financial stress in the long-term. Because of eroding financial support from parents and family (Worthy, Jonkman & Blin-Pike, 2010), we employed this question as a recognition of the growing demand for students to display financial independence in repaying student debts. Being a factor that derives from accumulated debt within university, the question allowed us to obtain perspectives from a range of students on their personal ability to relieve this looming financial stress in their future. Acknowledging that most younger students would have a lack of financial knowledge in the case of financial stressors (Goff & Smith, 2005), the disparities in answers from first years to third years would further form our data accurately.

PART 2 – INSIGHTS Thus, with combined knowledge from both academic research papers and my four comprehensive interviews, the presentation of many distinct ideas and discernments was welcomed. Through conducting these surveys, I was able to measure the varying levels of impact financial stress had on their individual circumstances. Among many profound observations was the difference in how financial stress affected areas of students’ lives depending on characteristics such as age and background. Given rise to by answers to Q3, I was able to note commonalities in academic research and my own questioning of interviewees such as Randew and Sam in contrast to Pritha and Tatjana. Cementing Joo’s proposal that older students are more financially strained, Sam and

Randew displayed this through their commitment to undertake substantial hours of part-time and full-time work during their tertiary education in order to meet financial obligations. To them, this went on to impact the academic aspect of their life, resultant in more effort and pressure placed on academic performance. Echoing the argument of greater (financial) adversity reporting poorer academic achievement and satisfaction (Watson, Barber, Dziurawiec, 2014), these findings were furthered by the distinguishing responses from Pritha and Tatjana as having “little” to no significant financial stress. I later attributed this juxtaposing perspective as a result of domestic students’ ability to defer student fees for a certain time period through a government HECS loan, as well as being of age where having strong financial literacy is not generally achieved. When considering the differences between these two views, I noted that areas in which younger students expressed variations (Q3) were more linked to psychological and social aspects of their life as opposed to academic. Alongside elaboration on this question, I gained insight into the social impacts of financial stress, particularly for international students who experience difficulties in fraternizing when costs of university societies or camps prevent participation due to overwhelming financial obligations in housing, transportation and academic expenses – which I subsequently learnt has grown at three times the inflation rate (Britt et al. 2016). This was supported by responses to Q2 which sought out the dominant cause for financial stress. Whereas I anticipated student loans to account for majority of the feedback, core expenses including accommodation, textbooks, travel were recurring influences for all interviewees – particularly for international and mature age students. Providing a lens into the psychological strain produced by these additional aspects of financial stress, I gained awareness of the implications of financial stress that goes beyond academic performance. Furthermore, recognising that majority of domestic university students only come into the realisation of the severity of their financial pressures towards the end of their studentship was a factor that prominently changed my perspective. I was able to determine this through the stark disparities in mature student’s responses versus domestic first-year students, where the latter may not consider the weight of financial burden as considerably until a closer date to their obligatory repayment of student loans. Employing comprehensive answers to Q4, I discovered that unlike secondary research which suggested many students are assisted by family in repaying debts, contemporary society has seen younger generations become increasingly financially liable for their own debts. By questioning how significantly each interviewee perceived student debt to affect them in the future, I was able to conclude the disparaging effect this has on younger generations through their earlier start in working long hours that limit academic potential and may even lengthen the course of a degree if students; such as Randew, are forced to switch to part-time study in order to work hours that permit his “balance of work and study”. When defining my perspective on the impacts of financial stress after thorough research, I considered the added subliminal factors that establish it. Understanding that it is a common factor of university life that heightens students’ vulnerability to psychological, academic and social complications, the interviews facilitated a range of subjective angles on the issue as a whole. By definitively revealing the varying degrees of severity of financial stress and the individual characteristics that give rise to this, the pressures of meeting financial obligations are a major issue that has affected the marketed university experience and continues to do so.

APPENDIX: 1. What methods are you using to pay for your university fees? 2. What factor of university poses the most financial stress for you? i.e. transportation, housing, food etc. 3. Through a comparison of your life prior to university and your current situation, how has financial pressure impacted various aspects of your life? i.e. personal commitments/academic results etc. 4. To what extent do you think student loans will impact your levels of financial stress in the future? Do you have a plan to minimise this impact?

REFERENCES: Joo, S.-H., Durband, D. B., & Grable, J. (2008). The Academic Impact of Financial Stress on College Students. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 10(3), 287–305. doi.org/10.2190/CS.10.3.c

Britt, S., Mendiola, M., Schink, G., Tibbetts, R., & Jones, S. (2016). Financial Stress, Coping Strategy, and Academic Achievement of College Students. Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning, 27(2), 172–183. doi.org/10.1891/1052-3073.27.2.172 Heckman, S., Lim, H., & Montalto, C. (2014). Factors Related to Financial Stress among College Students. Journal Of Financial Therapy, 5(1), 19-25. doi: 10.4148/1944-9771.1063

Watson, S., Barber, B., & Dziurawiec, S. (2014). The Role of Economizing and Financial Strain in Australian University Students’ Psychological Well-Being. Journal Of Family And Economic Issues, 36(3), 421-433. doi: 10.1007/s10834-014-9404-5....