IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ris/ilojep/0040.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Explaining Academic Performance of First-Year Undergraduate Students in Economics

Author

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of five different set of academic performance predictors on first-year undergraduate students of Economics. The academic performance predictors are grouped into pre-university school characteristics, prior academic achievement, entrance requirements, university and social factors. Stepwise regression technique is employed in the analysis. The results show that performances in O’level Economics, University and Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) consistently have significant positive influence on students’ academic performance. Attendance of tutorial in the university has important influence on students’ performance. It is evident that male academic performance is on the average, lower than female performance. However, there is weak evidence that time students spent on social media negatively affects their academic performance. This paper therefore, recommends that admission authority should put more emphasis on O’level grade in Economics and UTME score when considering candidates to study economics; and that tutorial should be well organized by the Department rather than arbitrarily as being organized currently.

Suggested Citation

  • A. Kilishi, Abdulhakeem, 2021. "Explaining Academic Performance of First-Year Undergraduate Students in Economics," Ilorin Journal of Economic Policy, Department of Economics, University of Ilorin, vol. 8(1), pages 78-88, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:ilojep:0040
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ijep.org/issues/volume8issue82021/Kilishi2021.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kurtis J. Swope & Pamela M. Schmitt, 2006. "The Performance of Economics Graduates over the Entire Curriculum: The Determinants of Success," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 387-394, October.
    2. Smith, Jeremy & Naylor, Robin, 2005. "Schooling effects on subsequent university performance: evidence for the UK university population," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 549-562, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stephen Hickson, 2016. "Maybe the Boys Just Like Economics More - The Gender Gap and the Role of Personality Type in Economics Education," Working Papers in Economics 16/07, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    2. Delaney, Liam & Harmon, Colm & Redmond, Cathy, 2011. "Parental education, grade attainment and earnings expectations among university students," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1136-1152.
    3. Robert Hill, 2019. "Does IEB make the grade? Alternative testing methods and Educational outcomes: The case of the IEB in South Africa," Working Papers 201904, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    4. Wales, Philip, 2013. "Access all areas? The impact of fees and background on student demand for postgraduate higher education in the UK," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 57846, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Sandra Nieto & Raul Ramos, 2014. "“Decomposition of Differences in PISA Results in Middle Income Countries”," AQR Working Papers 201404, University of Barcelona, Regional Quantitative Analysis Group, revised Mar 2014.
    6. Cyrenne, Philippe & Chan, Alan, 2012. "High school grades and university performance: A case study," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 524-542.
    7. Carlos J. Asarta & Roger B. Butters & Andrew Perumal, 2013. "Success in Economics Major: Is it Path Dependent?," Working Papers 13-11, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    8. Leonard C. Smith, 2009. "An Analysis Of The Impact Of Pedagogic Interventions In First‐Year Academic Development And Mainstream Courses In Microeconomics," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 77(1), pages 162-178, March.
    9. Roger B. Butters & Carlos J. Asarta & Tammie J. Fischer, 2011. "Human Capital in The Classroom: The Role of Teacher Knowledge in Economic Literacy," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 56(2), pages 47-57, November.
    10. Hildete P. Pinheiro & Pranab K. Sen & Aluísio Pinheiro & Samara F. Kiihl, 2020. "A nonparametric approach to assess undergraduate performance," Statistica Neerlandica, Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research, vol. 74(4), pages 538-558, November.
    11. Wales, Philip, 2010. "Geography or economics? A micro-level analysis of the determinants of degree choice in the context of regional economic disparities in the UK," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 33550, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Robin L. Bartlett & Marianne A. Ferber & Carole A. Green, 2009. "Political Orientation and the Decision to Major in Economics: Some Preliminary Observations," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 8(1), pages 13-31.
    13. Mañé Vernet, Ferran, 2010. "El retorno a las competencias para los titulados universitarios catalanes," Working Papers 2072/179591, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    14. Francis Green & Stephen Machin & Richard Murphy & Yu Zhu, 2012. "The Changing Economic Advantage from Private Schools," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 79(316), pages 658-679, October.
    15. Philippe Cyrenne & Alan Chan, 2019. "The Determinants of Student Success in University: A Generalized Ordered Logit Approach," Departmental Working Papers 2019-03, The University of Winnipeg, Department of Economics.
    16. Silva, Maria C.A. & Camanho, Ana S. & Barbosa, Flávia, 2020. "Benchmarking of secondary schools based on Students’ results in higher education," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    17. Buly A Cardak & Chris Ryan, 2006. "Why are high ability individuals from poor backgrounds under-represented at university?," Working Papers 2006.04, School of Economics, La Trobe University.
    18. Silva, Pedro Luís & DesJardins, Stephen L. & Biscaia, Ricardo & Sá, Carla & Teixeira, Pedro N., 2023. "Public and Private School Grade Inflations Patterns in Secondary Education," IZA Discussion Papers 16016, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Ramos, Raul & Duque, Juan Carlos & Nieto, Sandra, 2012. "Decomposing the Rural-Urban Differential in Student Achievement in Colombia Using PISA Microdata," IZA Discussion Papers 6515, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Ann L. Owen, 2011. "Student Characteristics, Behavior, and Performance in Economics Classes," Chapters, in: Gail M. Hoyt & KimMarie McGoldrick (ed.), International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics, chapter 32, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    First-year undergraduate; Academic Performance; Pre-university academic factors; Entrance requirement; university factors;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A21 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Pre-college
    • A22 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Undergraduate
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:ilojep:0040. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Daniel Akanbi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deilong.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.