Factors Affecting University Students' Achievement

Aims: This study aimed to investigate the factors that affect students' achievement.

Study Design: Quantitative descriptive & qualitative designs were employed in this study.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Tafila Technical University (TTU), Jordan, during Feb – May 2015.

Methodology: The sample of the study consisted of 488 students (219 males and 269 females). The researcher used two methods to collect data; a questionnaire was developed to collect quantitative data, it consisted of 5 sections; the first section includes items for demographic information (gender, academic year, college and students' accumulated average). The other 4 sections were the questionnaire domains; each domain represents the achievement problems from students perspectives related to that domain; domain1 represents achievement problems related to students (10 items), domain 2: problems related to the faculties (7 items), domain 3: Problems related to courses (9 items), domain 4 problems related to test administration (13 items). In order to collect a qualitative data about factors affecting students' achievement, the researcher used focus group discussion (FGD).

Results: The results indicated that the following factors affect students' achievement: courses, test administration, students, and faculties. The results indicated also statistical significant differences (P = .05) attributed to gender on the achievement problems associated with test administration, courses and faculties; female students had higher mean in problems associated with courses and test administration, while male students were suffering more from problems associated with faculties. Finally, there are statistically significant differences (P = .05) attributed to colleges on the achievement problems associated with students and faculties; humanity college students have more problems related to students domain, while scientific colleges students have more problems associated with faculty domain.

Conclusion: This study is aimed to determine the key factors that influencing students’ achievement, the study showed that students' achievement was affected by the factors identified by the researcher; faculties, courses, students and test administration. Students vary in the degree of the effect of these factors according to their gender and the college they study in. The student performance would be improved if the academic institution leaders minimize the influence of the proposed factors and taking care of the psychological factors that influence students' achievement by increasing the role of counseling centers at the universities, providing better environment for assessing students' achievement, faculties must be more fair in assessing their students, Faculties Development Centers at Jordanian universities may need to focus on developing the methods of assessment that used by faculties, and faculties and administrators should advise the students about the factors that affect their achievement and how to overcome these factors. The academic achievement of the students depends on many factors; only 4 of them have been identified by this study. There may be other factors which may have a direct effect on students' achievement, such as; the influence of socioeconomic factors, teacher-student ratio, students attendance in the class, and mother and father education. Based on the findings of this study and in order to generalize the results, the researcher suggests that research should be extended to all Jordanian universities.