- Title
- The effects of education on economic growth and global competitiveness: a statistical approach
- Creator
- Mbatha, Erica Isabel Tavares Da Silva
- ThesisAdvisor
- Knoesen, Evert
- Subject
- Economic development -- Effect of education on -- South Africa
- Subject
- Education, Higher -- South Africa
- Subject
- Educational attainment -- South Africa
- Date
- 2020
- Type
- text
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MBA
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147558
- Identifier
- vital:38649
- Description
- This thesis investigates whether there is a relationship between education, economic growth and global competitiveness and whether there is a relationship between South Africa’s current throughput rates in institutions of higher education, and its economic growth and global competitiveness. Economic growth is defined as a country’s ability to improve the life of its average citizen based on the strength of its economy. As such, it is increasingly important for a country to assess the factors that contribute to the improvement of their economy, which will ultimately result in its economic growth. Global competitiveness is an indication of how countries are able to provide for their people internally, as well as participate in the international market. To this end, economic growth and global competitiveness are two proxies that can be used to demonstrate the economic wellbeing of a country. Considering that prosperity under economic growth and global competitiveness of a country are driven by its people, one of the aims of this thesis was to investigate whether there is a relationship between education and economic growth and global competitiveness. Considering the recent demand in free education in South Africa, it is also important to understand whether there is a relationship between South Africa’s current throughput rates at higher education institutions and its economic growth and global competitiveness. Bearing in mind the political past which has led to inequality in the country, it is important to understand which types of education contribute to the economy and which types need to be further supported in order to increase the country’s economic productivity. Therefore, an additional aim of the thesis was to determine the relationship between South Africa’s current throughput rates in institutions of higher education, and its economic growth and global competitiveness. To address the aforementioned aims, data were collected from various open access online repositories. All the data were collated and numerous general linear models were constructed and tested to determine the different relationships as per the two aims. The results reveal that secondary school education had the highest impact on economic growth and global competitiveness on a global scale. This could be attributed to the fact that secondary school graduates tend to make up the largest part of the general workforce and as such, would make up a substantial proportion of the economy. Regarding South Africa, the only significant relationships were between green cluster universities (universities that focus on both research and technical training) and global competitiveness. Overall average throughput rates in all academic institutions were low; this could indicate that perhaps there are issues within the higher education system itself that need to be addressed in order to increase the throughput rate. From a managerial perspective, the results of this research stress the importance for the government to further investigate this area of study, as the call for free education becomes more prominent. The low throughput rates seem to suggest that the government is spending substantial amounts of money on students who do not always complete their studies. More research needs to be done to assess the root of the problem in South Africa’s tertiary education system, in order to ensure that this aspect increases its positive contribution towards the country’s economic growth and global competitiveness.
- Format
- 64 pages, pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Commerce, Rhodes Business School
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Mbatha, Erica Isabel Tavares Da Silva
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | MBATHA-MBA-TR20-326.pdf | 533 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |