Factors involved in attainment in university training in town and country planning

Abstract

There has been considerable interest of late in the scientific approach to the study of factors involved in academic success. Reviews of the literature can be seen in the papers by Harris (1940), Eysenck (1947), Dale (1954) and Kelsall (1961-63).A recent report by Dr. Gordon W. Miller of the University of London, (1968), has stated that 'compared with most other countries Britain's academic wastage, crudely defined as the percentage of students who leave without getting the degrees for which they enrolled, is small'. Nevertheless, the 1968 University Grants Committee Report showed that British universities' wastage still stands at 13.3%, but only 11% if we include those institutions recorded in previous reports, before the former Colleges of Advanced Technology became universities. This relatively low overall wastage is still a significant fact when one considers it in terms of individuals and of economics. It is also significant, when one considers it in terms of varying wastage rates in different university settings; in some universities, for example, a figure of 40.5% wastage has been recorded. Many people are interested in the economic cost of such wastage: five thousand failed students at university per annum, for example, would cost an estimated four million pounds. Many departments within the university are under-privileged and without doubt would welcome a share of that sum.At Newcastle upon Tyne University in 1965, 247 students or 21.7%-more than one in five-failed to complete their degrees in the normal time. Throughout Great Britain, 22.3% of university students fail to get their degrees in the normal time. One wonders how many more under-achieved, despite obtaining their degrees. There are no doubt many reasons, academic and otherwise, for under-achievement, and we are all aware of these in individual cases. Some are interested in this wastage in relation to educational, planning and administration problems. The particular interest discussed here is the influence of individual personality factors involved in under-and over-achievement. It is an extremely important area and in some ways quite different from the problem frequently discussed under student wastage, for it includes not Downloaded by [University of Exeter] at 11:28 04 June 2016 UNIVERSITY TRAINING AND PLANNING 41only those students who fail to get a degree, or the degree for which they enrolled, but also, what may well represent a much larger proportion, those students who fail to do as well as might have been expected on the basis of previous attainment, or on the basis of intellectual levels and similar criteria, but who still pass. It has been suggested that at least IJ% of all students need psychological help whilst at university, though counselling should not be confined to them alone (Times Educ. Suppl., 9th August, 1968). Whilst the effects of counselling on the wastage rate are not easy to assess, one recent American study has shown that students who made formal use of the counselling service run by professionals achieved a 25% high...

Influence of personality on achievement of medical students

“…Both our medical students (mean score, 37) and Savage's (with 29) scored better than the American average on Wrenn's study habits inventory (Wrenn, 1941) and in agreement with other sources (Savage, 1970, 1972; Wrenn, 1941; Rothman, Byrne, and Parlow, 1973), we have found high correlation between academic achievement and study habits measured by this inventory.…”

An exploratory study of individual characteristics associated with attainment in medical school

“…The Study Habits Inventory (Wrenn, 1941), a questionnaire which investigates four areas of study habits: (A) reading and note‐taking techniques; (B) habits of concentration; (C) distribution of time and social relationships in study; (D) general habits and attitudes of work ‐ and gives a total study habits score. It has been found to relate significantly to educational attainment of many areas (Wrenn, 1941; Savage, 1970; and others).…”

“…They are particularly suited to the high IQ range. The Study Habits Inventory (Wrenn, 1941), a questionnaire which investigates four areas of study habits: (A) reading and note‐taking techniques; (B) habits of concentration; (C) distribution of time and social relationships in study; (D) general habits and attitudes of work ‐ and gives a total study habits score. It has been found to relate significantly to educational attainment of many areas (Wrenn, 1941; Savage, 1970; and others). Eysenck Personality Inventories (1964 and 1968) were also used. In this initial investigation, the students were asked to fill in the Eysenck Personality Inventory (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1964), which measures extraversion and neuroti‐cism as well as a lie scale to check the validity of their answers.…”

Adult Learners in Higher Education: some study problems and solutions from Australian experience

“…The mean and standard deviation for the population as a whole is 5 and 40 respectively for each category (Savage, 1970).…”