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Class Size Effects in Higher Education: Differences across STEM and Non-STEM Fields

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Listed:
  • Elif Kara
  • Mirco Tonin
  • Michael Vlassopoulos

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 six cohorts of first-year undergraduate students across all disciplines. Our identification of the class size effects rests on within student-across course variation. Overall, we find that larger classes are associated with significantly lower grades (effect size of -0.04) and the effect varies across academic fields, with no effect in non-STEM fields, and a large effect in STEM fields (-0.08). We further explore the heterogeneity of the effect along the dimensions of students’ socio-economic status, ability, and gender, finding that in STEM disciplines smaller classes appear to be particularly beneficial for students from a low socio-economic background, with higher attainment in A-levels and to male students.

Suggested Citation

  • Elif Kara & Mirco Tonin & Michael Vlassopoulos, 2020. "Class Size Effects in Higher Education: Differences across STEM and Non-STEM Fields," CESifo Working Paper Series 8135, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8135
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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. 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).
    3. Alberto Bucci & Lorenzo Carbonari & Giovanni Trovato & Pedro Trivin, 2024. "Human Capital-based Growth with Depopulation and Class-size Effects: Theory and Empirics," Working Paper series 24-05, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    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. Matej Opatrny & Tomas Havranek & Zuzana Irsova & Milan Scasny, 2023. "Publication Bias and Model Uncertainty in Measuring the Effect of Class Size on Achievement," Working Papers IES 2023/19, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised May 2023.
    6. Bernhofer, Juliana & Tonin, Mirco, 2022. "The effect of the language of instruction on academic performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    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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