Norwegian and Danish Educational Grant System: Study-related Impacts of Increased Educational Grant

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to learn more about what impacts an increased educational grant might have on students’ study-related behaviour. Particular factors that have been of interest is part-time job and the value connected to it, study effort and progress, consumption pattern, and willingness to cut job and rather spend more time on studies. The thesis is limited to students who receive support from either Lånekassen in Norway or SU in Denmark. We have mainly used theories within the area of consumption and attitude. The methodologies of the thesis are based on a deductive research approach where the aim is to reveal pattern and correlations which will be connected to relevant theories in order to construct predictions and form a conclusion. This is a quantitative thesis based on an online survey, which was our only primary data. There was gathered a total of 461 responses, where 220 was receiving support from Lånekassen in Norway, and 241 was receiving support from SU in Denmark. We learned that Danish students are significantly more likely to have a relevant part-time job. Their highest motivation for having a part-time job is to gain relevant experience, while Norwegian students are significantly more likely to have economic reasons as their highest motivation. The students’ consumption pattern revealed the same trend for both Norwegian and Danish students, whereas the budget increase the students will spend less on groceries and more on savings. The trend for, what we define as luxury goods, did keep a relatively stable curve. Overall, the students seem to have a realistic view of their own study effort and progress. However, our data indicated that only Norwegian students would be more willing to cut their job and spend more time on their studies. Danish students were significantly more likely to not be willing to cut their job if their academic results were to decline. We did not find any correlation between having a relevant job and willingness to cut job. It seems as the biggest factor of whether the student will be willing to cut the job is economic stability.