Factors affecting university students performance.

Factors affecting university students performance. We can define student as a learner or someone who attends an educational institution such as people who go to school or university. Not only that, anyone who seek knowledge or information can also be regard as a student. When it comes to learning, what we want to know is the end result. We can achieve this by scoring on exams and test or any other means to evaluate us during the whole learning sessions. Determinants of student’s performance have been the subject of ongoing debate among educators and academics. There have been many studies that sought to examine this issues and their findings point out to financial aid, family support and student’s attitude towards achieving success as factors that affect students performance. Financial issue have become one of the major reason for students drop out. A student’s life revolves around studies with the focus towards a bright future. But there is also an addition in their life that has enslaved many students and which every student dreads; and that is financial burden. Fess for university or college range differently from private to public universities. Public universities in Malaysia are finance by the government and give subsidise to students who enrol into public universities. Meanwhile, those who go to private college or universities would have to pay double (sometimes much more) than those who go to government based universities. Not many families manage to pay for their children higher education (Nasri and Ahmed, 2006) Numerous students decide to quit school because their family can no longer afford to pay for their study. Financial problem also lead students to take part time job in order to help their family, meaning less time to study and little focus in giving their best to achieve good result. Because of this, various universities, large corporate companies and government offer financial aid and scholarship to underprivileged students. Research have shown that finance affect the ability of students to achieve and promote higher achievement. An increase in aid to students mean less stress associated with paying for tuition, books and living expenses with higher GPA as the by- products (Crosby, 2011). Aside from financial aid, family support also play a big part to enhance students performance. A students academic success was greatly influence by their family, the individual with whom they spend a lot of time together. Family can and do have positive and negative influence on how well their children do at school. It is generally accepted that the quality of family interactions has important associations with children’s and adolescents’ academic motivation and achievement. Furthermore, parents need to provide healthy living condition for their children (‘ most people will’, n. d). Students that come from problematic family were unlikely to perform better than other students who lead a normal live at home. For example, family environment have power in determining students’ school achievement, academic motivation, and the number of years of schooling they will receive. When parents show an active interest in what the student’s learn, students will perform better. Many believe that, students journey towards university success began at home. Parents should guide their children view of education but not to put unnecessary pressure on them. Students do best if parents can play a variety of roles in their learning, planning their children’s future and taking part in key decisions about the school program. The approval and support of family is often very important to people in pursuing their goals especially in academic field. So, parents should be supportive towards their children choices regarding off courses and path they want to take. Besides that, student’s effort towards achieving success also one of the factors that govern students accomplishment. Research has shown that a large number of students’ performances are affected by their attitudes towards specific subjects, education and academics in general. It has been suggested that when students demonstrate week commitment to their academics then they are bound to underperform. Moreover, some students with an unrealistic view of themselves may perform poorly too. For instance, those who tend to be overconfident or ignorant about the requirements of their academics might have very poor achievement since they don’t know what exactly they need to do in other to excel in that class. Conversely, when students do not believe in themselves or when they have low self confidence, there are chances are that they will underachieve. Students should attempt to do the best on their studies (Twist, n. d). Successful students make a commitment to do what it takes to be successful. They aim to be successful in all aspects of their university experience. Unfortunately some students tend to avoid classes where they perform poorly such as in science or mathematics, so they tend to absent in classes, late to hand in assignments and score poorly in examination. They shouldn’t skip classes or didn’t do the work given because it can affect their GPA and they might get unfavourable view from the teachers or instructors. One trait of a successful students is, they make a good use of time and they always turn in their assignments on time. Successful students also participate in class discussion. They see their instructors before or after class or during office hours about grades, comments on their papers, and upcoming tests.. They’ll go out of their way to find the instructor and engage in meaningful conversation. These students demonstrate to the instructor that they are active participants in the learning process and that they take the job of being a student seriously. Students need to apply the right study skills for them in other to gain good grades (Cuesta College, n. d). Successful students thinks study schedule is vital to them. Having study schedule make it easier to study and to participate in extracurricular activities. Nevertheless, they also take a good note during class and revise it later during their free time. In conclusion, students performance can be influence by various factors. But the three major reasons are financial aid, family support and student’s attitude towards achieving success. References Heather, C. (2011). Factors affecting native American college students success. Retrieved July 10, 2012, from http://digital . library. txstate. edu. bitterstream. Nasri Harb & Ahmed El- Shaarawi. (2006). Factors affecting student’s performance. Retrieved July 10, 2012, from mpra. ub. uni-muenchen. de/136211/1/MPRA. Characteristic of a successful student. (n. d.). Retrieved July 10, 2012, from academic. cuesta. edu/acasupp/as/201. HTM. How to be a successful student. (n. d.). Retrieved July 10, 2012, from www. wikihow. com/Be-a-succesful-student. Benjamin, T. (n. d.). How to be a good student. Retrieved July 10, 2012, from www. ehow. com/how-2039704-be-good-student. html.