Can higher education compensate for society? Modelling the determinants of academic success at university

Abstract

This paper examines the role that social characteristics play in determining the academic success of students who begin university with roughly similar entry grades. The data used were drawn from the administrative records of over 38,000 UK-domiciled undergraduate students from one British university between 1998 and 2009. Results show that the characteristics of entrants have varied only slightly over this period and intake is still largely in favour of 'traditional' entrants: namely those from professional occupational backgrounds, the privately educated and those of traditional age. The relationship between background characteristics and eventual academic success also reflect patterns seen at earlier education stages. However, when prior attainment was taken into account, the link between degree outcome and many social characteristics does diminish -notably for students who were privately educated and who came from professional occupational groups. This suggests that once students have overcome barriers to admission; it is entry grades rather than social characteristics that may most strongly influence eventual academic success.2

Tertiary Academic Success: A Review of Factors in the Context of Ecological Model

“…The findings of the meta analysis by Crisp et al (2014) also show similar results. Admission test scores are also positively related with academic success at university (Smith, 2016) but they are weak predictors of it (Komarraju & Nadler, 2013;Soria et al, 2013). The year of study is found to be a moderator of their relationship (Luqman, 2013).…”

“…Students from less prestigious schools perform better in medical universities (Puddey & Mercer, 2014) and also in general universities (Li & Dockery, 2014) than those from more prestigious schools. Further, schooling from English Medium schools (Ali et al, 2013) and studying in a state university (Smith, 2016) are associated with success. Student-centred instruction also promotes academic success (Severiens et al, 2015).…”

“…Empirical evidence indicates that parental education is a strong factor associated with academic success in university (Mushtaq & Khan, 2012;Smith, 2016). Parental education level affects both per-sistence decision and GPA in university (Crisp et al, 2014).…”

“…A large body of empirical evidence suggests women to be more academically successful than men generally (Anderton et al, 2016;Arshad, Zaidi, & Mahmood, 2015;Richardson, Abraham, & Bond, 2012;Soria, Fransen, & Nackerud, 2013) and to be more A grade achievers than men (Smith & White, 2015). Smith (2016) used the data of 38,236 students taken from a British university's administrative records, who entered the university between 1998 and 2006, and found women to be more successful than men. Lancia, Petrucci, Giorgi, Dante, and Cifone (2013) in a retrospective observational study with nursing students found similar results.…”

“…Researchers have measured tertiary academic success in terms of GPA (Honicke & Broadbent, 2016;Junco, 2015), grades (Glass & Westmont, 2014;Smith, 2016), percentages (Bailey & Phillips, 2016;Gašević, Dawson, Rogers, & Gasevic, 2016), retention in course (Kruzicevic et al, 2012), degree completion within time (Gašević et al, 2016) and by using academic success scales (Ainin, Naqshbandi, Moghavvemi, & Jaafar, 2015).…”