Building Bridges Initiative Cluster Evaluation:
Survey of Nonprofit Management Students
(Part 2 of 3)

March 2001

Part 1 - Executive Summary
              Introduction
              Nonprofit Management Education
              The BBI Survey of Nonprofit Management Students
              Profile of Students

Part 3 - Desired Course Content
              Educational Satisfaction
              Conclusion
              References

Continuing Education Decision Making

Decisions by individuals to undertake further education are complex.  Students may be motivated to further their education based on monetary or psychic rewards.  And they may consider many programs or just one.  Moreover, they may be limited or restricted to considering programs within a certain geographic area or that offer evening or weekend courses.  This section of our report focuses on the variables that influence students’ – that is, non-profit management graduate and certificate students – decisions to continue their education. 

Human capital.  Models commonly used to explain individual choices for education are based on the economic concept of human capital.  Human capital theory, narrowly defined, relates to "...activities that influence future monetary and psychic income by increasing the resources in people" (Becker, 1964: 1).  The decision to enroll in a professional program is an investment in education today that is expected to produce returns tomorrow (i.e., throughout one’s working life).  The cost or investment in additional training takes the form of tuition and books, as well as foregone earnings, loss of time, and the psychic challenge of returning to school and contemplating career and employment changes.  Changes in any of these factors will affect the cost and benefits associated with additional education.  For example, the cost of training is reduced when employers assist with tuition, thereby encouraging more education, while mid-career workers may undertake less education since they have a shorter working life remaining to recoup education expenses. 

The conventional approach to human capital portrays the individual as making a set of rational decisions, typically focused on economic outcomes, about current investments in education, job search, and training that will provide a positive return through income earned in later years.  While this narrow perspective is certainly relevant to many decisions made about graduate management education, it is also important to incorporate the broader context of the nonprofit sector.  Becker's original definition of human capital also referred to psychic income or personal factors that may be an important element in continuing education decisions. In particular, there is a well-established norm that certain types of personalities or persons are drawn to work in the nonprofit sector (see Young, 1983 for a discussion on this topic).  Focus groups of alumni from nonprofit management programs suggest that students know in advance that they could make more money in the for-profit sector yet they still choose to work in the nonprofit sector (Mirabella and Wish, 2000).

Guided by human capital theory in its broader definition, we constructed a set of questions to measure why nonprofit management students enrolled in graduate or certificate programs chose to return to school.  We asked students to indicate how important (1=very important, 5=not very important) seven factors were in shaping their decision to continue their education.  In Table 1 we rank in order these factors by their mean (M) scores (the lower the mean, the more important the factor) and the percentage of respondents saying the factor was important (1 or 2) or not important (4 or 5) in their decision to return to school.

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Table 1.  Factors Influencing Decision to Continue Education

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Results suggested that, overall, students rate personal factors as more important than economic factors in influencing their decision to continue their education.  Personal factors such as personal development (M=1.3) and skill acquisition (M=1.5) were rated as the most important factors shaping student decisions.  Following closely was the desire for new employment opportunities (M=1.8).  This factor likely captures both personal need for change and opportunity and some economic elements.  In general, respondents’ written comments corroborate the finding that they were motivated by personal factors.  Students said they were pursuing their educational program to develop the “skills and knowledge to do my job well,” for a “desire to learn theory after years of practice,” out of a “general desire at mid career to 're-engage' academically,” to “put sound theoretical and research background together with pragmatic skills,” and because they “need new skills and ideas and enthusiasm.”

While not as important as personal factors, about half of the students indicated that an increase in incomes was important (M=2.7).  Current employers had little sway in influencing students' decisions to return to school (M=4.3).

In addition to examining the motivation for returning to school, we explored employer support of the continuing education decision, the length of time students took to make this decision, and the geographic areas they considered.  

Employer support.  As discussed earlier, most students were employed full- or part-time and most indicated that employers’ suggestions had relatively little impact on their decision to continue their education.  In fact, less than one-third (31%) said their employer suggested or encouraged them to join the program.  Once enrolled, however, employers were at least somewhat supportive. Half (50%) of employed students said their employer provided some type of financial support and 44% of the students said their employer provided time-off for their education.  Just 4% of employed students said their current employer was not supportive.

Length of time and number of programs considered. The decision to return to school was often made over several years.  When we asked respondents how long they had considered a return to school, over one-third, 36%, considered it for less than a year, 24% for a year, 20% for two years, 13% for three-five years, and 7% for longer than five years. Almost half of the students, 49%, considered 2-3 programs and a similar percentage, 45%, considered only one program.

Geographic proximity.  Students were asked about the geographic areas or locations that they considered for further study. Our respondents are essentially “place-bound” with most, 71%, seeking a program within a one-hour’s drive. Less than one-fifth (19%) considered a program outside their geographic region.  Moving to a new location can greatly increase the financial and psychic cost of education, involving moving expenses, seeking new employment, and adjusting to a new community.  The importance of local access is not surprising given that many students are working and have careers, thus, they would face high costs by moving to enroll in a program at another location.  Distance learning programs are an alternative to students who are geographically bounded but only 13% of the students indicated they had considered such programs. 

Our findings reinforce the normative understanding that those employed in the nonprofit sector are likely to be motivated by personal benefits more so than financial rewards, although these two factors can be closely related.  We need to bear in mind that for some of these students, employers subsidized their participation through time off or financial support.  These employment benefits lowered the cost of education and made it financially possible for workers to seek additional training.  Without this important subsidy by the employing organizations, the level of nonprofit management training sought could well be lower.  Our findings suggest that nonprofit management programs are often sought as a complement to employment, and that students are constrained to finding programs in their location, rather than seeking out the location that provides the best program for their needs.

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Choosing a Graduate Nonprofit Management Program

We have just discussed why students chose to continue their education and found a blend of personal, economic, and geographic forces that influence decision-making.  This section of our report focuses on why these students chose to enroll in their current program.  From the human capital approach and nonprofit employment literature, we identified 18 factors associated with selecting a graduate degree or certificate program and asked students to indicate how important (1=very important, 5=not very important) each was in selecting their current certificate or graduate program.   A factor analysis of these items identified five categories of factors that we have labeled:  reputation, nonprofit and community focus, costs, accessibility, and admissions.  Table 2 lists groups of factors along with their mean (M) and the percentage of respondents indicating this factor was important or not important in influencing their choice of a program.

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Table 2. Factors Influencing Student Program Choice

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What influenced students' choices of academic program?  The reputation of the program (M=1.9/80% important) and the program’s specialization in nonprofit management (M=1.9/74% important) were the factors rated most important by respondents.  Also important was the reputation of the university (M=2.2/64% important), the program’s engagement with practitioners (M=2.2/ 66% important), the availability of evening/weekend classes (M=2.3/63% important), the teaching reputation of the faculty (M=2.4/57% important), the program’s engagement with the community (M=2.4/58% important), and the proximity of classes to work/home (M=2.4/63% important).  Factors that appeared to have less influence on students’ choice of programs include the quality of faculty research (M=3.2/28% important), the program’s placement record (M=3.3/26% important), enrollment deadline (M=3.9/12% important), work experience requirements (M=3.3/24% important), and availability of assistantships (M=3.9/18% important).

Findings suggest that students chose a program based on the program’s focus (nonprofit management) and because of the program’s positive reputation.  Students were also attracted to the program’s bridges with the community and practitioners.  Accessibility – in terms of distance and time – was also an important factor.  Of less importance were admission factors and financial considerations.

Further analysis of our data by student characteristics yielded several modest yet significant differences among students.  First, students with previous work experience in the nonprofit sector were more likely to rate as important the specialization in nonprofits as a factor influencing their decision than were other students.  Second, younger students were more likely to indicate that assistantships and financial assistance were important -- a finding compatible with a tendency for younger students to be more motivated by increases in income than older students when making a decision to continue their education. Finally, we found several significant, though modest, differences between students based on the type of program in which they were enrolled.  While the reputation of the college or university and the program were important factors for all students, they were more important to students enrolled in Master's of Nonprofit/Philanthropy degrees.  Proximity, evening and weekend courses, and costs were more important factors for certificate students than other students.  Again, not a surprising finding given that certificate students tend to be older and therefore likely to have family and other extracurricular responsibilities.

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