Effects of workload allocation per course on students’ academic outcomes: Evidence from STEM degrees
研究发现，减少学位课程数量但保持总工作量不变，会降低学生成绩并增加大一辍学率，且对贫困家庭学生影响更大，但毕业生就业表现更好。
We investigate how the allocation of workload across university courses affects students’ outcomes. Using a difference in differences design, we provide novel evidence that reducing the number of courses in a degree, while keeping the total course work unchanged, strongly reduces students’ performance and increases first-year dropout rates. We show procrastination accounts for these effects, suggesting that students struggle to adjust their study time to handle the intensified courses. We also show that the adverse impacts on dropouts are significantly stronger for students from less affluent families, indicating that the reform likely increases inequality. On the other hand, post-reform graduates exhibit better labor market outcomes. The discussion on potential mechanisms suggests that the reform enhanced the skills of the graduates who successfully navigated the unified exams.