CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.2. Problem Statement
1.2.3. The landscape of student performance in the College of Law and Management Studies
AND MANAGEMENT STUDIES
The CLMS at UKZN comprises of two Faculties: (1) Law and (2) Management Studies (FMS). The FMS is the largest single Faculty at UKZN in terms of student numbers and comprises of six schools which confer degrees, diplomas, and certificates that include inter alia: Bachelor of Commerce (BCom (General)), Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) (BCom (Accounting)), Bachelor of Business Science (in Actuarial Science, Economics, Finance, Human Resource Management, Industrial Relations, Information Systems and Technology, Management, Marketing, and Supply Chain Management), Bachelor of Administration (BAdmin), and Bachelor of or certificate in Business Administration (BBus Admin). The CLMS as a whole offers a number of core disciplines such as accounting, commercial law or legal studies, economics, financial management, human resources, information systems and technology, management, marketing, public administration, and quantitative methods that form the foundation for many highly specialized professional career paths in South Africa.
Executive managers and administrators of the CLMS discuss the University-wide high failure rates, and poor graduation and throughput rates regularly at College, Faculty or School Board meetings in order to address the problem at the College level.
Particular concerns include the decreasing trends in the pass rates of undergraduate modules of BCom (Accounting) and the BCom (General) degree over the years. The Mbali (2006) Report, commissioned by the Exco, identified the modules with the highest failure rates for the 2004 and 2005 academic years. As these modules are taught in different classes on three different campuses (Howard College, Westville and Pietermaritzburg), these failure rates are illustrated in Table 1-3 and Table 1-4 with different module codes for the same modules taught in a specific campus of UKZN. In 2004, there was a dismal failure rate of 74 percent in intermediate macroeconomic policy and issues (ECON202S on the Westville Campus) (see Table 1-3). In 2005, there was an extraordinarily high failure rate of 81 percent in Advanced Generally Agreed Accounting Practice (ACCT2A0 on the Westville Campus) (see Table 1-4). It was agreed that these low pass rates have to be investigated (FMS, 2005).
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Table 1-3: Highest Failure Rate and Attrition of Students in First and Second-year Modules, FMS, CLMS, UKZN, 2004 Module Code Number of Students Failure Rate (in %) Supp/fail Drop-out Cancellation
ECN101S 1,408 38.7 427 111 35
PAC100Y 627 36 108 48 80
ECN102S 1,316 34.4 0 84 73
PEC1101 634 27.4 139 68 44
DEC1QT2 946 26.3 188 65 86
DEC1EC1 1,649 25.8 298 166 75
ACC112S 1,316 23.7 241 133 84
DEC1EC2 1,638 20.4 290 162 185
ACC111S 1,354 19.8 190 114 53
DAC1ST2 1,223 19.8 309 65 184
DAC1ST1 1,153 14.3 178 84 54
DAC1AC2 1,121 8.1 117 121 124
DAC1AC1 1,137 6.8 83 167 31
ECN202S 504 74 109 43 109
PAC200Y 245 36 21 78 82
DEC2EC1 1,215 33 340 104 0
DAC2IS2 781 32 13 337 89
DEC2EC2 1,304 28 278 196 0
ECN201S 567 16.3 106 48 75
ACC211Y 686 14 24 164 63
PEC2111 634 6.7 139 68 14
PEC2212 267 2.6 6 41 29
PEC2121 391 2.2 29 4 30
Source: Adapted from Mbali (2006).
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Table 1-4: Highest Failure Rate and Attrition of Students in First and Second-year Modules, FMS, CLMS, UKZN, 2005 Module Code Number of Students Failure rate in (%) Supp/fail Dropout Cancellation
ACCT101 2017 16.1 299 236 96
ACCT102 1994 10.4 209 240 353
ECON101 2987 44.4 900 213 258
ECON102 2678 34.2 503 220 417
ECON122 1301 43.3 241 123 527
ACCT2A0 724 81.3 321 32 113
ACCT200 1042 39.7 308 39 185
ACCT2IS 705 24.8 232 15 70
ECON201 2232 21.2 618 82 217
ECON202 2284 14.8 538 84 305
Source: Adapted from Mbali (2006).
Tables 1-3 and 1-4 show that substantial numbers of students dropped out of courses or modules in the FMS. In 2004, 337 students dropped out of Accounting Information Systems 2 (DAC2IS2 at the Howard College campus) and in 2005, 240 dropped out of Accounting 1 (ACCT102). From 2006, pass rates in first- year accounting 101 module decreased steadily for three successive years as illustrated in the following Table 1-5. Pass rates for the principles of microeconomics (ECON101) module alone dropped from about 65 percent in 2008 to 56 percent – a drop of about 16 percent.
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Table 1-5: Pass Rates of First-year Accounting and Economics Modules Against Enrollment, FMS, CLMS, UKZN, 2005- 2009
Modules 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
ACCT101 82.9 91.1 89.7 88.0 75.2
ACCT102 88.1 88.3 86.7 90.6 83.1
ECON101 52.9 61.1 63.9 64.7 56.2
ECON102 63.6 55.9 63.7 67.5 62.6
Source: Pass and Failure Rate per Module (2005-2009), FMS, CLMS, UKZN. Accessible at http://www.ukzn.ac.za/dmi (Accessed 20 June 2010).
This indicates that pass rates for the Economics 101 alone dropped from about 65 percent in 2008 to 56 percent in 2009 – a drop of about 16 percent.
A report on exclusion appeals 2009 commissioned by the FMS to determine the factors that impede student academic progression in the Faculty undertook a frequency count of the exclusion appeals documents to determine the modules in which FMS students most often underperformed, i.e. achieved less than 50 percent in their final examination marks. These official documents were intended to be utilized by the Faculty’s Exclusion Appeals Committee (FEACOM) to establish whether students either indeed are excluded from further study at UKZN or proceed (FMS, 2009). Table 1-6 reveals the results in the following modules in order of decreasing frequency.
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Table 1-6: Modules Most Often Failed, FMS, CLMS, 2009
Ranking Module name Module code Frequency
1 Principles of Microeconomics ECON101 108
2 Principles of Macroeconomics ECON102 92
3 Intermediate Macroeconomics and Application ECON201 72
4 Information Systems and Technology 1A ISTN101 70
5 Quantitative Methods 1 MATHS134 68
6 Intermediate Microeconomics and Application ECON202 66
7 Information Systems and Technology 1B ISTN102 61
8 Accounting 200 ACCT200 44
9 Accounting 101 ACCT101 42
10 Accounting 102 ACCT102 42
11 Accounting 300 ACCT300 41
Source: Adapted from report on exclusion appeals in the FMS (2009).
From Table 1-6, it is clear that the modules students most often underachieve in are Economics and Accounting subjects. Seven out of the 11 modules explicitly mentioned are first-year modules in the FMS.
This is of concern as students enrolled for both the BCom (Accounting) and BCom (General) Degree follow a common programme during their first-year, taking 10 compulsory modules. Table 1-7 provides an overview of the identical approved curriculum with the exception of the mathematics (Maths) requirements.
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Table 1-7: Approved Curriculum for the First-year in BCom (Accounting) and BCom (General), FMS, CLMS, UKZN, 2010
Module Name Module Code Semester
Accounting 101 (or Financial Reporting 1A) ACCT 101 or FINR104 1
Accounting 102 (or Accounting 103) ACCT 102 or ACCT103 2
Economics 101 (Principles of Microeconomics) ECON 101 1
Economics 102 (Principles of Macroeconomics) ECON 102 2
Information Systems and Technology for Business ISTN 101 1
Information Systems and Technology Development Fundamentals ISTN 102 2 Management 110 (at Westville) or Effective Writing for Commerce
(at Pietermaritzburg)
MNGT 101 1
Management 120 MNGT 102 2
Quantitative Methods 1 MATHS134 1
Specialized Business Statistics or Business Statistics STAT171 or STAT181 2
Source: Adapted from page 71 of Faculty of Management Studies Handbook (2010).
Students who wish to complete their degree with a specialization in economics take Quantitative Methods I (MATHS134) in their first semester and Specialized Business Statistics (STAT171) in the second semester, while students who wish to complete their degree with a specialization in accountancy take Business Statistics (STAT181) in the second semester (prior to the merger in 2004, accountancy students used to register for Business Maths (MATHS137) in the first semester but this module was phased out by the School of Mathematical Sciences). Economics 1 comprises two modules: ECON101 taken in the first semester and ECON102 in the second semester. Accounting 1 also comprises two modules: ACCT101 taken in the first semester and ACCT102 in the second semester. Unlike ECON101, which is not a prerequisite for ECON102, ACCT101 is a prerequisite for ACCT102 and students have to achieve at least 55 percent in both ACCT101 and ACCT102 before registering for ACCT200 (second-year level). From the second-year, there are compulsory and non-compulsory (referred to as electives) modules in the students’
degree programmes that students may choose from among a large number of different courses/modules in different disciplines.
18 Many students have failed accounting and economics modules over the years. These modules are gatekeepers of all of the degree programmes and qualifications in the FMS, since they are a prerequisite at first- and second-year level for all students. To improve pass rates, both the School of Accounting and the School of Economics have enforced a duly performed (DP) requirement. Students who do not achieve a 40 percent class marks are excluded from writing the examination. These two subjects are becoming significant stumbling blocks, affecting students’ progression.
At any university, the quality of intake, and thus, student enrollment influences teaching, learning, and research performance. Students’ enrollment is a crucial parameter and one of the determinants of income and expenditure patterns in the higher education sector (Steyn and Villier, 2005). The CHE (2010) is planning to make enhancing the quality of teaching and learning processes the focus of its second round audit. Research on the first-year student experience is now viewed as a high-priority research area because of the significant consequences of student attrition and failure upon university reputations and finances (Palmer et al., 2009: 37).
One of the aims of this study is to conduct enquiries into student records data of the largest single Faculty at UKZN - the FMS - with the purpose of finding the salient predictors of student success and trends which will help improve admission criteria, retention, graduation and throughput rates in the CLMS through enhancing the quality of teaching and learning processes which have been receiving renewed attention by the CHE (2010).
To achieve this end, treating each academic year as a separate statistical entity, high failure and dropout rates in the undergraduate accountancy and economics modules over the years and the concerns in the Faculty gave rise to the following research questions:
1. What are the determinants of student performance in the undergraduate modules that can be discovered via student records, specifically, of first-year accounting and economics in the FMS?
2. Amongst these determinants that can be discovered via student records, which ones negatively affect (impede) or positively affect (contribute to) student performance?
The measures of student performance used in this study are: (1) the students' final examination marks in first-year accounting and economics modules (used as a discrete variable as explained in Chapter 3), (2) the students’ final examination marks of 50 or above (i.e. percentage eligible to pass the module, used as a
19 dichotomous variable as explained in Chapter 3). Although, this study’s econometric analysis deals with first-year accountancy and economics modules only, it acknowledges that the selected modules at second- and third-year level have also higher risk of failure. For example, Accounting3 pass rate in 2004 was 40 percent and in 2005, 17.15 percent (FMS, 2005). This study’s conceptual model can also be extended in other studies to test non-incorporated modules at second- and third-year level.
Due to the high failure and dropout rates, the quality of matriculants who are admitted as students into HEIs is questioned at times in the South African public debate. The quality of the matriculation examinations has been hypothesized to be a predictor of university student success. Visser and Hanslo (2005) noted that in South Africa the matriculation certificate examination serves as the primary gatekeeper to selective HEIs.
UKZN’s Admission Points Score (APS) calculation determines the entry requirements for candidates to be eligible to apply for the different ranges of degree programmes offered. Prior to the 2009 academic year, admission in the BCom (Accounting) and BCom (General) degree at UKZN required 36 total matriculation3 (matric) points as well as at least a D symbol for matric Maths on Higher Grade (HG) or a B symbol for matric Maths on Standard Grade (SG). The Dean’s discretion is applied in the case of candidates with between 32 and 35 total matric points (UKZN, 2010). In 2009 academic year, with the introduction of the National Senior Certificate (NSC), the minimum requirements become 31 total matric points and level 5 in matric Maths. This is discussed in more detail in Chapter 2.
This study also aims to test the quality of the matric students being admitted at UKZN. Stakeholders hypothesize that the quality of matric students being admitted at UKZN is deteriorating. They have recommended that to address the high dropout and failure rates, admission eligibility criteria should be revised. Once students are admitted, academic development and support systems have to be integrated into the offered mainstream disciplines to ensure that as many students as possible graduate. Based on above rationale, the whole question of whether the APS defined in this study as total matric points, and selected designated matric subject scores are still key predictors of university success at undergraduate level in the FMS is tested.
3 Throughout the rest of the thesis, the two terms “Matriculation” and “Matric” are used interchangeably.
20 To achieve this end, treating each academic year as a separate statistical entity, these hypotheses give rise to the following additional research questions:
1. Are total matric points and selected matric subject scores at school-leaving level predictors of university student success at undergraduate level in the FMS?
2. To what extent are total matric points and matric subject scores at school-leaving level keys, reliable and valid predictors of university student success at undergraduate level in the FMS?
This thesis therefore poses the following four research questions:
1. What are the determinants of student performance in the undergraduate modules that can be discovered via student records, specifically, in first-year accounting and economics modules in the FMS?
2. Amongst these determinants, which ones negatively affect (impede) or positively affect (contribute to) students’ academic performance in undergraduate modules in the FMS?
3. Are total matric points and selected matric subject scores predictors of university student success at undergraduate level in the FMS?
4. To what extent are total matric points and matric subject scores keys, reliable and valid predictors of university student success at undergraduate level in the FMS?