An exploration of student failure on an undergraduate accounting programme of study

Abstract

Academic failure creates financial and emotional issues for students, with associated resource and performance implications for higher education institutions. The literature reveals that much of the work on student performance is quantitative, restricting understanding of the deeper feelings and perceptions of students towards their studies. This paper explores undergraduate student performance from an experiential perspective, recognising the complexity and subjectivity of academic performance. Findings appear to highlight: the negative focus of reasoning underlying the choice of study; the impact of affect; the importance of the role of the tutor; the tutor expectations gap; levels of control and personal responsibility for learning; and patterns of participation as possible significant and important factors in understanding academic performance. Finally, the implications of the findings are discussed and further research outlined in terms of developing a predictive model that could offer early identification of students who are susceptible to academic failure and establishing appropriate, proactive support strategies for such students.Academic Performance, Accounting Education, Experiential Perspective, Semistructured Interviews, Student Reflections On Failure,

The Effect of Academic Development Initiatives on Student Performance at a South African University: A Case of Finance Modules

“…Thus, the commitment of students to the ADO initiatives plays an important role towards the success of the academic development initiatives. These findings are supported by previous MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 4 No 3 September 2013 721 researchers (Romer, 1993;Gracia & Jenkins, 2002;Fraser & Killen, 2003) who associated good academic success with factors such self-motivation, timely and regular examination preparation, and students' interest in class discussions. Variables such as the number of individual consultations (IC), gender (D1), the dummy variable for the year of 2009 are not statistically significant.…”

“…In additon to this , at risk students were encouraged to attend lectures. Gracia & Jenkins(2002) emphasise that attendance is correlated with academic success.…”

“…However, it is important to note that attending may not yield results if students do not take part in the discussions conducted in the lecture rooms. Gracia & Jenkins (2002) state that students that perform poorly generally do not participate in class activities as they feel anxious, lack confidence and therefore fear the reactions they may get from their peers and tutors if they give incorrect answers. These underperforming students are of the notion that the lecturer is responsible for providing learning and that they are mere passive recipients.…”

Failure to get Admissions in a Discipline of their own Choice: Voices of Dejected Students

“…Failure is an important and personal event in the life of a student (Gracia & Jenkins, 2002). According to Wicklund and Gollwitzer (1982), failures in educational life have significant effects on social and personal lives of the students.…”

The reported study habits and time-management trends of post-graduate students in accountancy

“…It seems that the students who need to manage their time the best -the weaker students -are less prone to do so. The link may lay in the research of Gracia and Jenkins (2002). Gracia and Jenkins (2002, 103) found that, although students would accept responsibility for their failures, they were less willing to take control over their learning and expected someone else to do that.…”