This study examines the effect of policy and programs for college education, including national
scholarships and student loans, using the 7th and 8th waves from the Korean Education
Longitudinal Study administered by the Korean Educational Development Institute. To analyze the
effect, educational attainment and learning attitudes were examined for students in 4-year
universities, while income expectation for the first job and characteristics of preferred job were
used for those who in 2-year colleges. With regard to independent variables, policy and programs
to support financing college expenses were categorized into 4 groups; students having (a) both
scholarship and student loans, (b) scholarship only, (c) student loans only, and (d) none of them.
For the analysis, multivariate, logistic, multinomial logistic regressions, and propensity score
matching were utilized. Results revealed that among the students enrolled in universities,
‘scholarship-only’ and ‘scholarship + loans’ groups showed better academic performance and
positive learning attitudes compared to the ‘none’ and ‘loans-only’ groups. For students in colleges,
no significant difference was found in the income expectation, while for the job preferences,
‘scholarship + loans’ and ‘scholarship-only’ groups showed higher interest in government/public
institutions compared to ‘none’ and ‘loans-only’ groups.
Based on the aforementioned findings, the authors discuss and suggest the followings: (a)
providing more opportunities for scholarships to support the student’s college tuition, (b) finding
various (internal/external) financial sources for universities/colleges, and (c) introducing a new
type of financial aid, namely, scholarship and loans combined.