Rural Versus Urban Students – Differences in Accessing and Financing PSE, Their PSE Outcomes and Their Use of Distance Education Research Projects

The most significant finding of the report lies in the relationship between distance from PSE institutions and PSE participation and type of institution chosen. Generally speaking, distance from PSE institutions or rural residency (the two are highly correlated) have important effects on the PSE decisions and outcomes of youth. These impacts vary inversely with income, that is to say, the lower the level of parental income, the greater the impact. Youth from rural communities beyond commuting distance to a PSE institution are less likely than youth from urban communities of comparable income levels to enrol in PSE; however, the gap increases significantly when rural families’ incomes fall below $40,000 per year. Moreover, regardless of income, they are more likely to enrol in a college if a university is not located within commuting distance (our analysis of YITS data also found substantially higher numbers of rural students in colleges than in universities). Distance does not appear to have a major effect on the choice of the field of study; however, there does seem to be some major differences between urban and rural students’ post-graduation incomes, at least among those who choose to borrow to finance their education.