Assessing factors affecting academic achievement among undergraduate students at Makerere University. A case study of bachelor of statistics students

Abstract

This study assessed the factors affecting academic achievement among undergraduate students at Makerere University using Bachelor of Statistics as a case study. Specifically, the study examined the influence of demographic, socio-economic, student-related, university, peer and social environmental factors on students’ academic achievement. The study used primary data collected from 188 undergraduate students using a structured questionnaire administered through the kobo collect tool. The study used a cross-sectional research design and stratified simple random sampling technique were the collected data was analysed using Stata 16 software through univariate analysis, bivariate analysis and multivariate analysis using the Multiple Linear Regression to determine the combined influence of the explanatory variables on students’ academic achievement. The key findings showed that 54.26% of the students were aged between 23 - 25 years, 51.06% were female, 59.57% were privately/ self-sponsored, 83.51% were not employed, 46.28% attended more than 5 lectures per week, 85.64% reported having the ability to overcome academic challenges and 32.98% often accessed internet/ e-learning resources. Study habits and time management (F = 4.670, p = 0.004), learning resources (F= 3.830, p = 0.005), source of tuition (t = 2.434, p = 0.016), motivation and self-efficacy (t = -2.440, p = 0.016) and peer influence (t = 2.402, p = 0.017) were significantly associated with academic achievement. The multiple linear regression was statistically significant (F = 4.34, p = 0.000) and R2 = 0.197. After controlling for other factors, only learning resources and source of tuition remained statistically significant predictors of academic achievement. Students who very often accessed internet/ e-learning resources had significantly higher CGPA (β = 0.554, p = 0.014) than those who never accessed them while privately/self-sponsored students had significantly lower CGPA (β = -0.191, p = 0.003) than government sponsored/ scholarship students. The study concludes that access to learning/ e-learning resources and source of tuition are the key determinants of academic achievement among Bachelor of Statistics students at Makerere University. It recommends that Makerere University improve access to internet/ e-learning resources by expanding digital learning infrastructure and computer facilities while government and scholarship providers should increase financial support to reduce the burden on privately sponsored students. The study also recommends continued promotion of effective study habits, academic mentoring, counselling services, peer learning groups and greater utilization of available learning resources to enhance students’ academic achievement.