Prior accounting knowledge of first-year students at two South African universities: Contributing factor to academic performance or not?

Abstract

Factors that influence students' academic performance are essential for students, lecturers, universities, Department of Higher Education, curriculum developers and professional bodies. This study focuses on the prior accounting knowledge of students entering higher education, one of many factors that could influence students' academic performance and ultimate success graduating in the time allocated for the degree. The reasons for revisiting this factor are firstly, admission requirements regarding Accounting as school subject for students applying for the "Bachelor of Commerce (BCom)" degree majoring in Accounting and the Accounting degree in becoming a Chartered Accountant (CA) are different among South African universities; secondly, since 2008 there was a dramatically change to the "National Senior Certificate (NSC)" examination; and lastly, comparing students' prior accounting knowledge as a contributing factor or not of international studies with South African studies. An investigation was launched to study the effect of first-year Accounting students' academic performance whether Accounting was one of their school subjects before registered for a degree in Accounting at two universities in South Africa. The research method used a quantitative methodology. The findings of the study suggest a greater sensitivity and better understanding for students' prior accounting knowledge which might influence their academic performance. The value of the study is an important contribution to the consideration of admission requirements for students applying for a degree in Accounting at universities in South Africa.

Professional Curriculum Practice of Economic and Management Sciences Teachers: A Case of Financial Literacy Teaching

“…Teachers tend to follow and adopt what works during training programs. A delivery of subject content knowledge is strengthened by professional development programs with an evaluation component [30]. Teacher workshops help teachers to share specialized subject content knowledge and "pedagogical content knowledge, to share their expertise and approaches to facilitating students' learning" [13].…”

“…From the above discussion, we notice that a common challenge is teachers' insufficient subject content knowledge. Papageorgiou and Carpenter [30] clearly state that teachers struggle to fulfil their seven roles. Therefore, we argue that there is a need to investigate the challenges hindering the professional curriculum practice of EMS teachers in teaching financial literacy.…”

Can We Afford It? The association between financial aid and time to completion in Accounting Higher Education in South Africa: A literature review

“…A vast amount of research has been performed on past academic results affecting student outcomes, both internationally and in South Africa. Past accounting research on student performance has explored the effect of either aggregate high school results, high school mathematics results, high school English results, high school accounting results or a combination of these on academic performance (Aidoo-Buameh and Ayagre, 2013; Gul and Fong, 1993;Jansen and De Villiers, 2016;McKenzie and Schweitzer, 2001;Papageorgiou, 2017;Papageorgiou and Carpenter, 2019;Pullen, Toerien and Anthony, 2015).…”

Predictors of academic success in postgraduate auditing in the Chartered Accountancy programme at a South African university

“…The extant South African literature mainly focusses on the academic success of undergraduate students. Bruwer and Ontong (2020), Oosthuizen andEiselen (2012), Matarirano et al (2019), Papageorgiou (2017) and Papageorgiou and Carpenter (2019) investigated the factors influencing the success of first year accounting students. This included non-academic factors such as the location of the school the students attended, age, race and gender.…”