SOCIAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUNG AND MATURE AGED NURSING-STUDENTS IN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES

This national study compares the social and demographic characteristic s of direct and delay entry students in a control group of 1551 studen ts in higher education programmes in 1987 and 1990 with the national s tudy group of 2295 students sampled in 1995. Using a specially constru cted socioeconomic variable for comparison the analyses demonstrated a significant difference in the socioeconomic level of the household fo r the younger aged group but not for the mature aged group. There was also a significant difference between males and females in their age o f entry patterns. Furthermore, there was a significant difference in t he location of school attended for most of their secondary education f or the younger aged group but not for the mature aged group. For both groups there was a significant difference in the number of siblings, t he level of education attained by the mother and the income received b y the mother in the households of the control and study groups. Legit analysis revealed that there was a significant interaction between the household variables: socioeconomic status, number of siblings, and in come received by the mother of the respondents in the control and stud y groups for the younger age group but not for the mature age group. T his interaction for the younger age group, plus the finding that nursi ng students were more likely to delay their Higher Education Contribut ion Scheme (HECS) payment than other university students suggests that politicians need to take great care in any changes to current HECS pa yments as such changes could upset the delicate social balance that ha s been achieved in nursing recruitment in Australia.