Factors Affecting Academic Performance of First-Year University Students: A Case of a Vietnamese University

Having research-informed and evidence-based information into factors that impact students’ academic performance is crucial for institutions to be able to identify gaps in the provision of training and support for students. This study is motivated by the need to determine and analyse such factors at a university that has been experiencing high academic failure and dropout rates. The study employed quantitative research methods with the leading research instrument being a survey administered to 397 first-year students from 13 disciplines and 7 faculties. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and multiple linear regression were used to identify the underlying relationships between variables. According to the research findings, there are five key factors that contribute to academic performance and success of first-year university students, namely, students' motivation, lecturers' pedagogical knowledge and skills, lecturers' professional knowledge and credential, learning resources and conditions and course structure. . These factors have been ranked from the one with the most substantial effect to the one that confers least impact. The findings can have important implications for proposing measures to improve academic performance for the university as well as other institutions in the higher education sector.