Identifying Factors Affecting Freshman Students’ Academic Performance in Mai-Nefhi College of Science, Eritrea

Authors

  • Dawit Yikealo
  • Senay Tesfamichael
  • Bereket Yemane
  • Daniel Weldu

Abstract

Due to various factors freshman students are exposed to academic failures, which leaves a black spot on their mind and destroys their ardent hope and good expectations of parents. Bearing this in mind, the present study was conducted to identify the major factors that affect freshman students’ academic performance in Mai-Nefhi College of Science. A sample (N=155) of freshman students both with high and low GPA were recruited through stratified random sampling. A self-developed questionnaire was then distributed among freshman students. The data analysis employed descriptive statistics, Chi-square test of independence and multi-variable logistic regression model. Twenty-three covariates were tested for their effects on students’ academic performance. Based on the test of association, eight covariates were then selected for modeling multi-variable logistic regression. The tests of associations then indicated that demographic variables of marital status and responsibility at home had a statistically significant effect, whereas variables of brother/sister at college and father education show a marginally significant effect on students’ academic performance. From the personal factors, variables of matriculation score and class attendance had a statistically significant effect on students’ academic performance. Besides, study variables of social media, matriculation score and way of assessment had a significant effect on the performance of freshman students. Furthermore, the logistic regression model showed that a total of 63.3% variability in the academic performance of the students was explained by the eight study variables.

Keywords: Freshman students; Academic performance; Demographic factors; Personal factors; Environmental factors; Social Media and Economic factors

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