Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Brain drain--Middle West; Tuition--Government policy--Iowa; Brain drain; Emigration and immigration--Government policy; Middle West--Emigration and immigration--Government policy; Iowa; Middle West; Academic theses;

Abstract

This research project sought to discover the potential role participating in a tuition reciprocity program had on affecting a state's ability to stem the impact of brain drain. In order to do this, alumni records were analyzed from the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), Minnesota State University-Mankato (MSU), and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC). They were chosen because these schools serve as regional institutions, and realistically would be expected to compete for the same prospective students. Datasets were collected for general locations (ZIP codes), gender, and degree majors for those who graduated in 1999 and 2004 - five and ten years removed from college at the time of data acquisition. A majority of alumni stayed in each university's home state, and Minnesota had the greatest success rate of keeping MSU graduates, followed by UNI, and UWEC. A majority of each university's alumni live in urbanized areas. UWEC had the highest percentage followed by UNI and MSU-Mankato respectively. Of particular note is that UWEC was the only school who had a high rate of alumni leaving the state for urbanized areas. UWEC had the greatest number of degree programs with a majority of its alumni living outside of the state of Wisconsin. Ultimately, no definitive connection exists between a state's participation in a tuition reciprocity program and a decline in the likelihood of brain drain.

Year of Submission

2011

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Geography

First Advisor

Alex Oberle

Second Advisor

Thomas Fogarty

Third Advisor

Tim Strauss

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

2011

Object Description

1 PDF file (106 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Included in

Geography Commons

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