In this paper, the influence of personal networks and social support on study attainment of students in university education is examined. Furthermore, the paper aimed at clarifying the possible mediating role of achievement motivation, time spent on studying and working, procrastination and self-esteem. The study is a follow-up of the '89 cohort study, but is restricted to those students who have transferred to university education after finishing secondary education. The students have been approached with a questionnaire in 2004. Multinomial logistic regression shows that social support has no effect on study attainment, but that personal networks do have an effect on attainment. The relationship between social support and personal networks on the one hand and study progress on the other hand is not mediated by the before mentioned variables.Keywords Personal network Á Social support Á University Á Higher education Á Attainment Á Student Á Achievement motivation Á Self-esteem Á Procrastination Students who transfer to higher education face a number of changes in their personal and academic environment. The transition from secondary education to higher education not only calls for academic adjustment, but also includes different social demands. Students need to develop new or increased capacity for self-regulation and must learn to cope with the time pressure that is inherent in going to college. Moreover, students must integrate into a new social environment. They leave their parental house, most of their former classmates and teachers and they meet new friends, housemates and classmates. Existing supportive relationships may change or even disappear, and new supportive connections can be formed. The extent to which students succeed in integrating into this new environment and also the amount of social support received from network members possibly determines part of their academic success or failure.L. Eggens (&) Á M. P. C. van der Werf Á R. J. Bosker Groningen Institute for Educational Research, University of Groningen, Grote Rozenstraat 3, 9712 TG Groningen, The Netherlands e-mail: l.eggens@rug.nl 123High Educ (2008) 55:553-573 DOI 10.1007 Most models for explaining academic performance in higher education are based on the interaction model developed by Spady (1970Spady ( , 1971, further elaborated on by Tinto (1975). Based on these and other models, a wide range of possible determinants of academic performance has been described and tested, which can roughly be divided into contextrelated factors like curricular characteristics and assessment procedures, and studentrelated factors like gender, motivation and learning styles. These variables are mainly academic and/or personal determinants though, leaving the students' social environment out of consideration.This study examined the influence of personal networks and social support on academic attainment of students in university education. The impact of students' social support and personal network was studied together with the influence of achieve...

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