The Effect of Florida's Bright Futures Program on College Enrollment and Degree Production: An Aggregated-Level Analysis

Liang Zhang, Shouping Hu, Victor Sensenig

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the impact of the Bright Futures Scholarship Program on college enrollment and degree production in Florida by using IPEDS enrollment, migration, and completion data. Results suggest large and significant enrollment effects at Florida's public 4- and 2-year institutions, for both full-time and part-time enrollment. This large growth is at least in part due to reduced out-migration of Florida's resident students attending out-of-state institutions. Thus the net effect is lower than the enrollment growth in Florida. Finally, our results indicate that the effect of Bright Futures on degree production is lower than that on enrollment. This aggregated-level analysis provides an important baseline for our future research on the effect of Bright Futures on students' college attendance, choice, financial aid renewal, persistence, and graduation by using detailed individual-level data.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)746-764
Number of pages19
JournalResearch in Higher Education
Volume54
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2013

Keywords

  • College enrollment
  • Degree production
  • Merit based aid

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education

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