GCU National Conference on Education (GCUNCE-2014) October 21-22, 2014, Faisalabad, Pakistan

By Dr.Khuda Bakhsh KHAN Assistant Professor, gc university, faisalabad Predicting Academic Achievement of University Students in Punjab By Dr.Khuda Bakhsh KHAN Assistant Professor, gc university, faisalabad

Abstract The study focused on certain factors influencing the academic achievement of university students. The researcher developed a questionnaire to measure the determinants. A sample of five hundreds teachers from twenty one selected universities of the Punjab participated in the study. The collected data was analyzed using linear and multiple regressions. The findings revealed that all the selected factors are positively correlated with the academic achievement of the students. The department climate proved to be the best predictor followed by student interest, teacher effectiveness, parental involvement and socio-economic status with significant predictive powers.

Introduction Education is the name of teaching-learning process. It is an interesting as well as difficult process at the same time. If the institution climate is conducive to the process enriched with student interest and teacher effectiveness then it is an enjoyable phenomenon otherwise the results show low academic achievement tending to failure. Seeing the failure and low GPA of university students, it is imperative that diagnostic studies are carried out to identify the major factors that are correlated with the academic achievement of university students. The study was therefore designed to identify and analyze some predictors of the academic achievement.

Research Questions The main question was ‘how well certain predictors contribute to the academic achievements of university students? In satisfying our research mind, the following research questions were raised to be answered: What is the individual contribution of the predictors to the academic achievement of the students? What is the joint contribution of all the FIVE determinants to the variance in academic achievements of the students?

Sample and Population of the study The target population of the study was all the teachers working in public sector universities of the Punjab. A sample of five hundreds teachers of twenty one universities participated in the study. Research Instrument The researcher developed a questionnaire to measure the predictors/determinants and the academic achievement of the students was measured by CGPA. Data Analysis The collected data was entered into SPSS for regression analysis to answer the research questions.  

Results Table 1. Individual contribution of ‘Student Interest to his academic achievement. Table 2. Individual contribution of ‘Parental Involvement’ to academic achievement R R² Adjusted R Square Standard Error of the Estimate .551 304 .302 .195 R R² Adjusted R Square Standard Error of the Estimate .407 .166 .165 6.847

Table 3. Individual contribution of ‘Teacher Effectiveness’ to the academic achievement of his students Table 4. Individual contribution of ‘Department Climate’ to the academic achievement R R² Adjusted R Square Standard Error of the Estimate .525 .276 .275 6.209 R R² Adjusted R Square Standard Error of the Estimate .566 .320 .311 6.147

Table 5. Individual contribution of ‘Socio Economic Status ‘ to academic achievement Tables 1 to 5 clearly show the all the selected factors well determine the academic achievements of the students with significant predictive powers. Student Interest, Parental Involvement, Teacher Effectiveness, Department Climate and Socio-Economic Status contributed 30 %, 17 %, 27%, 32% and 13% respectively to the variance in academic achievements of the students. The ‘Department Climate’ proved to be best predictor (R²=.320) followed by student interest, teacher effectiveness, parental involvement and socio-economic status. R R² Adjusted R Square Standard Error of the Estimate .358 .128 7.512 .

(ii) Multiple Regression Analysis of the FIVE predictors with the academic achievement Table 6. Joint contribution (cumulative effect of the all variables on the dependent variable) R R² Adjusted R Square Standard Error of the Estimate .756 .572 .569 5.514 Table 6 shows the joint influence of the all the FIVE factors was 57 percent to the variance in the academic achievement of the students. It may be seen easily these results that there are more predictors of academic performance need to be investigated in next studies in this regard.  

Conclusions Taken together the results of study, following conclusions were made: All the selected factors well determine the academic achievements of university students. The department climate proved to be the best predictor followed by student interest, teacher effectiveness, parental involvement and socio-economic status with significant predictive powers. The organizational climate must be supportive and conducive to teaching-learning process The student interest in his studies enriched his teacher effectiveness is key to success. Possessing substantial influence, Parental involvements and their socio-economic status are the potent determinants of the academic achievement. The parents really excite their children to face the challenges of living life and provide the strongest foundation of their academic excellence.

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