Enrolment or a Job? The Dilemma of Economic Crisis Among Young People: “A Case study of First Year Students in Higher Education Institutions and New Employees in the Labor Market in Cyprus, before and after the Financial Crisis”

Abstract

Many people in Cyprus are living in the worst financial and subsequently economic crisis worldwide. As a result of the global financial crisis, society has been hit hard, with the youth facing the biggest blow to its development, with the result of revising the selection process for enrolling in universities or looking for jobs. In this paper I analyze the main factors contributing to the selection of young people during the economic crisis through a quantitative study, with 201 youth participants taking part. At present, about 100 Greek-Cypriot first-year students from two universities in Cyprus, one public and one private are the sample of tertiary students, and about 100 young people from the labor market. The study showed that grants and allowances, student loans, total current expenditure as well as capital expenditures fell significantly. In addition, research findings have shown that young people need and wish to continue their studies because they believe that guarantee’s a safe or better career. Nonetheless, young people prefer admissions to public universities because of the excessively high costs and the difficulty of borrowing and repaying loans as well as changing bank policy in relation to the inability of family’s to make an income. Lastly, males appear to have suffered more in comparison to females with regards to their participation in higher education.

Keywords: Economic crisis, Student choices, University decision making, Enrolment, Job decision making, Seeking for job, Economic impact