Factors influencing enrolment and academic performance at a South African university
Date
2008
Authors
Maraschin, Simona
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Abstract
Although various policies have been implemented to lessen the impact of Apartheid on all levels of education since 1994, sub-Saharan Africa still has the lowest level of higher education enrolment in the world (Bloom, Canning & Chan, 2006). This study therefore aimed to identify which factors contributed to students' university enrolment in South Africa and how these factors affected their academic success at university. A self-developed questionnaire assessing factors influencing enrolment for three key areas (personal, parental and schooling) was administered to 337 psychology one students registered at the University of the Witwatersrand and academic success was estimated using their psychology one mark for the first semester. Data was analysed using frequency counts, Spearman's correlations and two independent sample t-tests.
Results showed that intrinsic and extrinsic motives had the greatest influence on individuals' decision to attend university, with those students intrinsically motivated performing better on average than those motivated by any other factor. In addition, socio-economic status played a role in success at university, possibly because it affects the quantity and quality of resources available to an individual. As a result, those students' with a higher socio-economic status tended to do better than those of lower socio-economic status. Further analysis indicated that fluency in English also had an effect on student's overall success.
Description
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Education
(Educational Psychology).
Keywords
College attendance -- South Africa, Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- entrance requirements, Academic achievements -- South Africa
Citation
Maraschin, Simona (2008) Factors influencing enrolment and academic performance at a South African university, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://hdl.handle.net/10539/22341>