A NATIONAL STUDY OF STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE AT UNIVERSITY
by
Elisa Rose Birch
BusinessSchool, University of Western Australia
and
Paul W. Miller
BusinessSchool, University of Western Australia
Key Words
Academic performance, university retention
Abstract
This paper presents a system-wide, longitudinal examination of the determinants of academic performance for a cohort of first-year university students. It follows students through three years of study, examining the determinants of their performance at university in each year of study and their decision to continue study from one year to the next. It finds that the main determinants of academic performance and university retention are students’ prior academic abilities. Gender and type of attendance at university also influence academic performance and retention at university over the entire university experience. Female students consistently have higher tertiary academic achievements than male students, and students studying part-time consistently have lower achievements than full-time students.
For correspondence:
Professor Paul W. Miller
BusinessSchool,
Mail Bag M251,
University of Western Australia,
35 Stirling Highway
CRAWLEY WA 6009
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A NATIONAL STUDY OF STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE AT UNIVERSITY
1.INTRODUCTION
Student performance at university has been widely examined in the Australian literature.[1]While the various studies adopt different approaches, several empirical regularities have emerged. Perhaps the strongest is the relationship between academic performance at university and students’ scores on tertiary entrance examinations. This has characterised studies that look at average marks achieved at university as well as studies that examine pass/fail criteria. For example, Win and Miller (2005) report that a one percentage point increase in students’ scores on university entrance examinations is associated with a one percentage point increase in theiraverage first-year mark at university. McClelland and Kruger (1993) report that a one percent increase in a student’s tertiary entrance score increases the likelihood that they will pass three-quarters of their course load by 0.65 of a percent.
Another strong empirical regularity concerns the link between gender and performance at university. It is commonly found that female students outperform male students. The female advantage at university carries across studies that examine pass rates (e.g. Smyth et al., 1990; Everett and Robins, 1991 and McClelland and Kruger, 1993) as well as those that focus on mean marks (e.g. Dobson and Skuja, 2005and Win and Miller, 2005). Other attributes found to consistently influence outcomes at university include type of attendance at university (i.e. whether the student is studying on a full-time or a part-time basis) and field of study.
The studies reviewed above are limited on two accounts. First, they are generally based on data from individual institutions. For example, the study by Birch and Miller (2006) considers the determinants of performance at the University of Western Australia, that by Rohde and Kavanagh (1996) focuses on students at the University of Queensland, while the studies by Evans and Farley (1998) and Dobson and Skuja (2005) are restricted to students at MonashUniversity. Monash University has been described as a ‘microcosm’ of the higher education sector in Australia (Evans and Farley, 1998, p.1) but there is no real evidence, beyond the commonalities in the findings for various institutions, to suggest that the determinants of academic success for students at one institution can apply to students at all Australian institutions. The small number of studies that are based on data for all university students in Australia (e.g. Martin et al., 2001 and Urban et al., 1999) typically examine thedeterminants of university completion rates to the exclusion of study of academic performance at the first-year level, which has dominated the recent literature.
Second, most Australian studies only consider the academic outcomes of first-year university students (e.g.Win and Miller, 2005; de Lange et al., 1997; Farley and Ramsay, 1988 and Ramsay and Baines, 1994). Whilst these studies do not make any claims that the findings for first-year outcomes would carry across to later years of study, this issue is certainly of interest, given that it impacts on completion rates and grade point averages, both of which may affect students’ labour market success.
The few studies that examine the determinants of second- or third-year university outcomes do not have the same depth as the studies that focus on the first year at university (e.g.Tickell and Smyrnios, 2005; Cullen et al., 1996 and Murphy et al., 2001). For example, Murphy et al. (2001) only examine the impact of students’ university entrance scores on student performance. Cullen et al. (1996) only consider the determinants of academic performance in secondyear and thirdyear for students enrolled in an environmental science course.These studies are also limited by the fact that most do not consider the factors which influence the decision to continue studying from firstyear to secondyear, and fromsecondyear to thirdyear. In addition, these studies are based only on data from individual tertiary institutions.
The purpose of this paper is to redress these shortcomings in the Australian literature. It estimates the determinants of first-year academic performance for students enrolled at every tertiary institution in Australia. The paper also considers the determinants of students’ decisions to persist at university and their subsequent university performance in the second and thirdyears of study.
The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 provides a brief review of the Australian literature examining the determinants of tertiary academic outcomes. Section 3 discusses the data used in the analyses. Sections4, 5 and 6 present the empirical results and Section 7 presents a summary and conclusion.
2.LITERATURE REVIEW
There are many potential measures of academic performance. Most recent Australian studies measure performance using students’ weighted average university marks (Win and Miller, 2005; Dobson and Skuja, 2005 and de La Harpe et al., 1997); grade point average[2](Foreman et al., 2001; Dobson and Sharma, 1995 and McKenzie and Schweitzer, 2001); failure rates (Long et al., 1994 and Dobson and Sharma, 1999) or pass rates (Smyth et al., 1990; West, 1985; Everett and Robins, 1991 and McClelland and Kruger, 1993).[3]
These studies typically model students’ tertiary academic performance within an education production function framework, where academic performance as described above (Output) is held to be a function of university enrolment characteristics (UEC), background characteristics (BC)and environmental factors (ENV). For a given student i, the production function can be written as:
. / (1)The main university enrolment characteristics considered in the Australian literature are students’ scores on university entrance examinations, type of attendance at university and field of study. Of these,the score on the university entrance examinations is reported as the main determinant of students’ success at university. It has been found that there is a strong positive relationship between tertiary entrance scores and both marks at university (e.g. Win and Miller, 2005; Applegate and Daly, 2005 and Rohde and Kavanagh, 1996) anduniversity pass rates (Everett and Robins, 1991 and McClelland and Kruger, 1993). It has also been reported that students with high tertiary entrance examinations scores are more likely to persist with their studies (Murphy et al., 2001) and are less likely to fail their courses (Cullen et al., 1996).
Students who study on a part-time basis are usually found to have poorer academic outcomes than students who study on a full-time basis (seeBurns, 1994; Dobson and Sharma, 1993; Stanley and Oliver, 1994 and Birch and Miller, 2006). For example, Stanley and Oliver (1994) show that the average university retention rate for students studying part-time is 12 percentage points lower than that for students studying full-time. It has also been reported that students who study their course externally have lower marks at university (Dickson et al., 2000) and are more likely to fail their university course (Palmer and Bray, 2003). The reduction in marks for students studying part-time or on an external-mode basis has been linked to the difficulties in combining study with other activities, such as paid employment and family commitments (see Palmer and Bray, 2003).
Several studies have found that students’ performance at university is influenced by their field of study (e.g. Everett and Robins, 1991and Cantwell et al., 2001). While the variables for field of study differ across analyses, it is generally suggested that students enrolled in health and education courses have greater success at university than students enrolled in maths and science related courses.
The main background characteristics considered in studies have been gender, age and birthplace.[4]Female students perform better at university than male students. For example, Dancer (2003) reports that female students have average university marks that are 2marks higher than the marks of their male counterparts. The study by Cantwell et al. (2001) shows that female students, on average, have grade point averagesthat are one-third of a grade point higher than the grade point averages of male students. The relationship between tertiary academic outcomes and gender has been linked to differences in the cultural attitudes towards education among male and female students (Hewitt, 2003), as well as to female students being more likely to meet literacy and numeracy requirements in primary school (Nowicki, 2003).
Agreement has not been reached in the Australian literature on the impact of age and birthplace on tertiary academic performance. Some studies report that younger students perform better at university than older students (e.g.Long et al., 1994), others find the opposite (e.g.Cullen et al., 1996; Smyth et al., 1990 and Cantwell et al., 2001), while some even find that students’ tertiary academic performance is not influenced by their age (e.g. Dickson et al., 2000 and McKenzie and Schweitzer, 2001). Similarly, in regards to birthplace, some studies show that students born overseas perform better at university than Australian-born students (e.g. Lewis et al., 2005 and Logan and Bailey, 1983) while other studies show that these students do not do as well at university as students born in Australia (e.g.de Lange et al., 1997).As noted above, most of these studies are for single institutions, and the findings in relation to age and birthplace could reflect institution-specific factors. The system-wide analyses below provide an opportunity to examine this possibility.
The main environmental factors analysed in the Australian literature are tutorial attendance and engagement in market work. There have been a number of studies that have found that attendance at lectures and tutorials is positively related to university outcomes (Rodgers, 2001, 2002; Rodgers and Rodgers, 2003; McInnis and Harley, 2002; Worthington et al., 1997 and Applegate and Daly, 2005). Students who participate in paid employment have been reported as having lower levels of academic achievement than students who do not work (McInnis and Hartley, 2002; Applegate and Daly, 2005; de La Harpe et al., 1997 and Elsworth and Day, 1983). Detailed examination of these issues requires collection of data on the circumstances and study habits of students. Such data collection has usually been on an ad hoc basis. Unfortunately, the data set analysed below, reflecting administrative data collection requirements only, does not permit examination of the influence of environmental factors.
The findings of most of the studies discussed above are based on data for first-year university students. There are a few studies that are of a longitudinal nature, where the determinants of academic success are examined over the students’ entire enrolment (e.g.Birch and Miller, 2006; Cullen et al., 1996; Tickell and Smyrnios, 2005; Murphy et al., 2001 and Rodgers, 2001). Most of these report that the impacts of the main determinants of university outcomes in the first year of university, such as tertiary entrances scores and gender, diminish after the firstyear of study. For example, Cullen et al. (1996, p.4), suggest that ‘success in secondary education was a strong indicator of subsequent success in tertiary studies only for the first few years of the course’. Likewise, in the study by Murphy et al. (2001) the correlation coefficient for students’ grade point average and tertiary entrance score fell by 18 percent from first year to third year.
The main determinant of students’ performance in the second and third years of university has been identified as the performance in the previous year at university. For example, Birch and Miller (2006) indicate that a one percentage point increase in students’ average mark in firstyear increases their marks in secondyear by approximately two-thirds of a percentage point. The study by Tickell and Smyrnios (2005, p.239) suggests that the ‘findings reveal that the best predictor of academic performance in any one year is the performance in the same discipline in the previous year’.
Most results in the Australian literature are limited by the fact that the studiesgenerally only examinetertiary academic success for one institution.[5]As such, it is possible that these findings do not apply for all Australian institutions. The study by Long et al. (1994), where a model of the determinants of failure rates at four universities in Australia is estimated, indicates that this may be the case. They report that the main determinants of failure rates, such as gender, vary substantially across the institutions considered.Furthermore, the studies reviewed above indicate there are varying degrees of the impact of particular variables on academic success. For example, Win and Miller (2005) suggest that the mark advantage that female students have over their male counterparts is around 2 percent at the University of Western Australia. In comparison, Birch and Miller (2005), using a similarly specified model and data for another large Australian university, report that the difference betweenthe marks of males and females at university is over 5 percent.
In summary, the Australian literature has shown that the main determinants of tertiary academic success arestudents’ scores on their university entrance examinations, their type of attendance at university and gender. However, little is known about whether these factors influence performance beyond the first year of university and whether they apply to all institutions in Australia. The research reported below aims to extend the Australian literature to examine the determinants of academic performance for all Australian universities and the determinants of success in the second and thirdyears of study.
3.DATA
The following analysis initially considers the determinants of academic performance for students in their first year of university. It then examines the determinants of the probability that these students will continue their study beyond the firstyear. Thereafter, the analysis examines the determinants of academic performance for students in their secondyear of university (who continued on from their firstyear of study) as well as their subsequent decision to continue studying beyond the secondyear. The determinants of students’academic performance in their third year of study (given they continue on from secondyear) is also investigated. Given these objectives, the data requirements are quite demanding.
The analysis draws on data from theDepartment of Education, Science and Training’s (DEST) Higher Education Statistics.Thisfilecontains individual data on all students enrolled at Australian tertiary institutions (including private universities). The data are collected by the institutions and then submitted to DEST.Essentially, this data collection is a census of all students studying at university in Australia. The data set contains information on students’ background characteristics, such as gender,and their university characteristics, such as course outcomes and tertiary entrance score. It also contains information on the institution attended, for example, its location and total enrolment.[6]
The initial data sample comprises domestic students in their first year of university in 2002, who completed high school in the two years prior to entering university, and who gained entry to tertiary study using a satisfactory Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER).[7]Thesestudents are followed for two years (2003 and 2004).There are 62,979 students in thesample.[8]
The measure of academic performance is derived from the completion status of the units the students enrolled in. There are four categories ofunitcompletion: Pass, Fail, Withdraw Without Penalty and Not Completed.[9]As the categories ‘Withdraw Without Penalty’ and ‘Not Completed’ do not record a students’ actual performance in a unit, the following analyses focus on the ‘Pass’ and ‘Fail’ categories. The data presented refer to Equivalent Full-time Student Units (EFTSU). Hence, a ‘Pass’ value of 0.750 indicates that the student passed units in the year that equate to three quarters of the usual student work load.
As shown in Table 1, students, on average, pass 86.4 percent and fail 13.6 percent of their units studied in firstyear at university.[10]These values are comparable with those reported in DEST (2001) for all commencing undergraduate students in 2000 (percentage of units passed being 84 percent). Based on a ‘typical’ university student (a student studying eight units per year with an EFTSU of 0.125 each, giving a total annual EFTSU of 1), this mean percentage of units passed (86.4 percent) indicates that the typical university student fails approximately one unit per year.
Table 1 also shows that the percent of units passed and failed varies considerably across the major characteristics of students. The percent of units passed is positively correlated with being female, TER, socioeconomic status[11]and attending a large university. Students who study Health, at a Group of Eight (Go8) university[12]or at an institution located in New South Wales, Western Australia or the Australian Capital Territory also pass a higher percent of first-year units.
Students who were born overseas in a non-English speaking country, who do not speak English at home, are of an older age, defer all their Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) liability, study part-time, study their course externally or attend an institution located outside the capital cities of Australia pass a lower percent of the units they enrol in. The percent of units passed is also negatively linked with studying in the Northern Territory and studying Information Technology.The mean percent of units passed varies significantly across the categories of each of the variables listed in Table 1 other than that for home location.
4.EMPIRICAL RESULTS: Academic Performance in FirstYear