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Class size effects in higher education: Differences across STEM and non-STEM fields

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  • Kara, Elif
  • Tonin, Mirco
  • Vlassopoulos, Michael

Abstract

In recent years, many countries have experienced a significant expansion of higher education enrolment. There is a particular interest among policy makers for further growth in STEM subjects, which could lead to larger classes in these fields. This study estimates the effect of class size on academic performance of university students, distinguishing between STEM and non-STEM fields. Using administrative data from a large UK higher education institution, we consider a sample of 25,000 students and a total of more than 190,000 observations, spanning seven cohorts of first-year undergraduate students across all disciplines. Our identification of the class size effects rests on within student-across course variation, thus controlling for any unobservable difference across students, albeit other forms of bias stemming from selection of elective courses may still be present. Overall, we find that larger classes are associated with significantly lower grades (effect size of −0.08). This overall effect masks considerable differences across academic fields, as we find a larger effect in STEM subjects (−0.11) than in non-STEM subjects (−0.04). We further explore the heterogeneity of the effect along the dimensions of students’ socio-economic status, ability, and gender, finding that smaller classes are particularly beneficial for students from a low socio-economic background, and within STEM fields for higher ability and male students.

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  • Kara, Elif & Tonin, Mirco & Vlassopoulos, Michael, 2021. "Class size effects in higher education: Differences across STEM and non-STEM fields," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:82:y:2021:i:c:s0272775721000236
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2021.102104
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    Cited by:

    1. Goller, Daniel & Diem, Andrea & Wolter, Stefan C., 2023. "Sitting next to a dropout: Academic success of students with more educated peers," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    2. Alberto Bucci & Lorenzo Carbonari & Giovanni Trovato & Pedro Trivin, 2024. "Human Capital-based Growth with Depopulation and Class-size Effects: Theory and Empirics," CEIS Research Paper 575, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 30 Apr 2024.
    3. Opatrny, Matej & Havranek, Tomas & Irsova, Zuzana & Scasny, Milan, 2023. "Publication Bias and Model Uncertainty in Measuring the Effect of Class Size on Achievement," CEPR Discussion Papers 18159, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Giovanni Gallo & Claudia Garofoli, 2023. "Proxying the socio-economic background through real estate values. An application on performances of university students," Center for the Analysis of Public Policies (CAPP) 0184, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    5. Bernhofer, Juliana & Tonin, Mirco, 2022. "The effect of the language of instruction on academic performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    6. Daniel Goller & Andrea Diem & Stefan C. Wolter, 2022. "Sitting next to a dropout: Study success of students with peers that came to the lecture hall by a different route," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0190, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    7. Modena, Francesca & Rettore, Enrico & Tanzi, Giulia Martina, 2022. "Asymmetries in the gender effect of high-performing peers: Evidence from tertiary education," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Class size; Higher education; Student academic performance; STEM;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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