Determinants of Academic Performance of Students: Case of Wolaita Sodo University (Published)
Education is one of the most important factors in producing human resource that is necessary for economic development of a country. The quality of educational system of any country may reflect the development attempts to be made in social, economic and political aspects. Furthermore, in this era of globalization and technological revolution, education is considered as a first step for every human activity. Indeed, education in higher institution can be influenced by some many factors these variables are inside and outside school that affect students’ quality of academic achievement or academic performance. These factors may be termed as student factors, family factors, school factors and peer factors. The main objective of this study is to identify the major determinants or factors which influence the academic performance of students at Wolaita Sodo University (WSU). Out of 6,553 students a sample of 367 students was taken from 38 departments of Wolaita Sodo University using stratified random sampling with proportional allocation to size. Both secondary a well as primary sources of data were used through student filled questionnaire. To estimate the effect of the socio-economic, demographic variables, academic motivation, academic self-concept, environmental factors and psychological factors on academic performance (achievement) were considered. The cross tabulation with Chi-square test and binary logistic regression were employed to analyze the data. The result of cross tabulation with Chi-square test show that age, study outside class, amount of money received from family and first choice of department have significant association with academic performance at 5% level of significance. Also the result of the logistic regression analysis revealed that preparing time table, father’s education level, peer influence; combining ideas and good life later on (motivation) have a significant relation with academic performance at 5% level of significance. It can be concluded that to increase and improve students’ academic performance some crucial steps regarding securing first choice of department and advising about peer influence should be taken into consideration. It can be recommended that the university should set programs to strength self-concept to make them confident on their potential
Keywords: : Academic Performance, Logistic Regression Analysis, Motivation, Peer Influence, Securing First Choice of Department, Wolaita Sodo University