Do Academically Struggling Students Benefit From Continued Student Loan Access? Evidence From University and Beyond

We estimate the effects of student loan access on educational attainment and labor market returns in New Zealand. We exploit the introduction of a national policy mandating a 50% pass rate for student loan renewals using a regression discontinuity design. Retaining loan access increases re-enrollment for students around the threshold, and a majority eventually graduate with a bachelor's degree within seven years. We find that retaining student loan access leads to large labor market returns for struggling students. The additional debt from further borrowing is both small relative to the earnings returns and declines quickly due to faster repayment.

An artificial intelligence approach to monitor student performance and devise preventive measures

A major problem an instructor experiences is the systematic monitoring of students’ academic progress in a course. The moment the students, with unsatisfactory academic progress, are identified the instructor can take measures to offer additional support to the struggling students. The fact is that the modern-day educational institutes tend to collect enormous amount of data concerning their students from various sources, however, the institutes are craving novel procedures to utilize the data to magnify their prestige and improve the education quality. This research evaluates the effectiveness of machine learning algorithms to monitor students’ academic progress and informs the instructor about the students at the risk of ending up with unsatisfactory result in a course. In addition, the prediction model is transformed into a clear shape to make it easy for the instructor to prepare the necessary precautionary procedures. We developed a set of prediction models with distinct machine learning algorithms. Decision tree triumph over other models and thus is further transformed into easily explicable format. The final output of the research turns into a set of supportive measures to carefully monitor students’ performance from the very start of the course and a set of preventive measures to offer additional attention to the struggling students.

CAN MUSIC BOOST SELF-CONFIDENCE AND ACCEPTABILITY? A LIVED EXPERIENCE

<p>Music is beneficial to all people, even those living with challenges, and can boost their self-confidence and acceptability in society. Educators know that practice is one of the key psychological principles of learning and that repetition will lead to perfection in all areas, especially so in playing instruments. The following account is a personal intervention with a low-esteem, mentally challenged boy using music. The intervention was done at Limuru, a small town in Kiambu County, Kenya. It involved teaching the boy how to play the keyboard. The boy’s self-confidence changed noticeably after he was accepted as an integral part of the worship group in his church. It is envisaged that sharing this experience can inform parents, guardians, social workers, teachers and other personnel who deal with struggling students, low esteem or mentally challenged individuals on the benefits of music intervention, even as it spurs interest in research on benefits of exposure to music.</p><p> </p><p> </p>