Factors Affecting Academic Performance Of Undergraduate Students

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Universities always face on a challenge of providing an evidence of their effectiveness to the society, government and international higher education. The top management of any university is concerned the performance of their student to show their usefulness for the international community. A lot of countries in World, the rate of graduated students, for example, have served as an indicator of usefulness of the universities (Rytkönen, Parpala et al. 2012).As a result, the students should pass the examinations to graduate from universities.

Academic performance or achievements can be defined in terms of the performance of examinations and test (Martha 2009). As the students’ academic performance is an important thing for both Universities and the countries of the world. Determination and identifying of the factors that influence on student’s academic performance, is an essential as well. The factors could be determinant factors such as Admission points, Social economic status, and medium of instruction and so on while extraneous factors could be University facilities, Management of university and quality of the lecturers(Martha 2009).

The study investigates factors influencing student’s academic performance. The present research focuses on three independent variables; parent’s social economic, former school background, and admission points and the dependent variable which is student’s academic performance. One’s family background has been found to influence student’s academic performance. Research has found that socioeconomic status, parental involvement, family size are particularly important factors(Jennifer Barry 2006).School background can also affect student’s academic performance .Research has found that ownership like private or public can influence student’s academic performance(Lubienski and Lubienski 2006).The admission points is always linked to student’s academic performance .A researcher argued that admission points can be a predictor of student’s academic performance(Burns 2009). The researcher wants to see whether there is a relationship between these three factors and student’s academic performance at Amoud University, Borama, Somalia.

Statement of research problem

The statement of the research problem is to what limit the factors do such as the socioeconomic status, former school background, and admission point affect student academic performance. The examination results are used to measure student academic performance. Academic performance is one of the main aims of a school or university. A research argued that the aim of the establishment of any school is to impart knowledge to its students and reason behind this to enhance student academic performance (Hoyle 1986).The vision of Amoud University is to be a centre of excellence in the Horn of Africa. It always assures the quality and maintains the standards. However, the centre of quality assurance unit and academic dean has pointed out the some do well in examination while others fail or do not performance well. A research suggested that one of the reasons students fail to perform well in the examination is socioeconomic status(Christine Kerres and Michelle Kilpatrick 2006).To maintain the reputation of the university, management and academic deans are concerned about those who fail their examination. The research wants therefore to determine the factors influencing academic achievement of undergraduate students of Amoud University with particularly reference to social economic status, former background, and admission points.

The general objective of the study

The objective of this study is to find out if the factors such as parent’s social economic status, school background and admission points influence academic performance of first degree students at Amoud University.

Specific objectives:

To determine the association between parents’ social economic status and academic performance of undergraduate students;

To determine the association between students’ former school background and academic performance of undergraduate students; and

To determine the association between students’ admission points and academic performance of undergraduate students.

Research Questions

What is the relationship between students’ admission points and academic performance of undergraduate students?

What is the relationship between parents’ social economic status and academic performance of undergraduate students?

What is the relationship between students’ former school background and academic performance of undergraduate students?

Literature review

The theory used for this research is originated from the theory input-output of the system invented by Ludwig Von Bertalanffy in 1956.The theory proposes that any structured institution or enterprise hardly exists in a vacuum; it always depends on the environment in which it is established(Martha 2009). The organization gets directly its inputs from the environment, which then turns the inputs into output. According to this study; the students (inputs) got admission from the university, from various social economic statuses, with various grade points and come from different kinds of schools. When they become part of the university system, the university management revolutionizes them through the process of instruction and education. The students’ academic achievement is the output which is measured by their examinations results.

Previous studies used to measure students academic performance in various ways such as GPA, CGPA and tests (Mushtaq 2012) .The student’s academic achievement can be measured in terms of examinations, course assessments, and tests(Martha 2009).

A research found that the predictor of social economic status is significant for the students’ academic performance(Farooq, Chaudhry et al. 2011) and the study suggested that lower social economic status causes poorer academic achievement. Another study also supported that students’ academic achievement can be predicted by number of social economic factors like the family financial status and parent’s educational level(Akahomen, Emuhi et al. 2009). Acording to Akahomen, and Emuhi (2012), if parents are wealthy ,they can afford to provide for their kids the resources of learning. However, some researcher argued that social economic status does not influence students academic perfomance(Frederickson and Petrides 2008). In 2012,A study also found same conclusion with that parental socio-economic background and educational level are not the predictors of students' academic achievements(Femi Ogunshola and A.M. Adewale 2012).

Current discussions have highlighed the issue of school background as a main factor in students’ academic performance.There are different researches demonstrating with contradicting results or findings.In 2004,a study shows that private school students scored lower than public school students(Lubienski and Lubienski 2006).Other reseaches were then released to demonstrate that private schools make better gains in student learning(Lubienski and Lubienski 2006).However, recently results of studies shows that without controling for the other differences of student’s background, private school are better than publich schools in academic perfomance of the students(Lubienski and Lubienski 2006).

Admission selection criteria is also a factor that affect studets’ academic perfomance.Key findings of a study reveals that statistically significant relationship appear to exits between the admission points and academic performanc(Akin Palmer 2008).It is also found that the grade pionts is the strogest predictor of stdunts academic perfomance(Burns 2009).Many universities in world request their applicants to provide a proof for their English proficiency such as IELTS certificate during the application process.There is a positive correlation between the Test of English as a foreign Lanuage(TOEFL) and academic performance(Wait and Gressel 2009).

Conceptual Framework

Figure (1) Source: Adapted from (Martha 2009)

The Figure above illustrates the relationship between independent variables and dependent variable. The determinant factors are social economic status, admission points, and former school background while the dependent variable is students’ academic performance.

Research Hypotheses

There is no association between parents’ socio-economic status and academic performance of undergraduate students

There is no association between students’ former school background and academic performance of undergraduate students.

There is no association between students’ admission points and academic performance of undergraduates

Expected outcome

Conceptual framework of methodological approach will determine the effect of factors like social economic status, school background and, admission points on the academic performance of undergraduate students. The effect of socioeconomic status on student’s academic performance will be determined. The association between former school backgrounds and student’s academic performance will also be identified. Finally, the influence of admission points on student’s academic will be determined.