Factors affecting academic success among first year students in southern universities in Ethiopia

Abstract

The study intended to assess factors affecting academic success among first-year students in southern universities in Ethiopia. The challenges faced by the university first-year students are made worse to the point that some students decide they cannot handle the adjustment and quit during or after their first year. The assessment serves as a springboard to establish a model to improve first-year students’ academic success. A mixed-method concurrent design was employed in the current study. Self-designed questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were employed to collect data. A sample of eight hundred and twenty-six first-year students was selected using stratified simple random sampling. Besides, fourteen lecturers who taught first-year students, seven department heads, and seven college deans or freshmen coordinators participated in the study purposefully. The Social Sciences Statistics Package (IBM SPSS) version 25 was employed to analyze quantitative data. Qualitative data were analyzed with a thematic approach. This study employed Bandura’s social cognitive theory, Vygotsky’s social constructivism, Tinto’s theory of social and institutional integration and Astin’s theory of Student involvement. The study revealed that most first-year students’ inadequate self-efficacy, low perceived academic control, and severe stress influenced their current academic success negatively. The study also showed that first-year students had poor prior academic success that negatively affected their university performance. Students’ experiences in institutional commitment, engagement, and active involvement were positively and strongly associated with enhanced perception of academic control and academic achievement. On the other hand, students’ gender did not show a significant difference in their academic success. The study finally established that students’ healthy and improved adaptive coping mechanisms positively affected their academic success. The study recommended that the Ministry of Education should have a binding policy that clarifies and specifies services and strategies that could help improve first-year students’ academic success in university settings. It is encouraged that Universities should be empowered by policies that mandate lecturers’ methodology for first-year students' academic achievement in students’ curricula. Besides, universities should establish first-year academic success support offices within their premises. It is further recommended that universities review curricula in tandem with the theory of academic achievement pedagogy. Finally, the study recommended a proposed model to increase first-year students' academic success.