Analysis for the Average Grade of Students at National Economics University in Vietnam

1. INTRODUCTION

School, colleges and universities have no worth without student. Students are most essential asset for any educational institute. The social and economic development of the country is directly linked with student academic performance. The students’ academic achievement plays an important role in producing the best quality graduates who will become great leader and manpower for the country thus responsible for the country’s economic and social development. In the particular university environment, student academic performance has been measured by some surprising reasons which are mentioned in the other parts of our research. These factors strongly influence on the university student performance, but certainly these factors vary from person to person and country to country.

Exploring factors affecting students’ academic performance plays an important role to enable student decide on and apply the effective methods to increase productivity as well as save time, fees, and strength. Lacking of time and facility, a smaller topic is narrowed, which is about university students’ academic performance. It is believed that not only the student care about which primary reasons distract their attention from their major obligations, but also the social and governments have attempted to identify these factors to perfect the whole educational systems. As being students, this study is conducted because of its close and simple topic as well as practical application.

The focus of this research is that students’ performance is linked with students’ outline consisted of  our approach towards average score, self-learning hours, absence, online hours, and orientation. With such figures and statistics analyzed meticulously, this research is hoped to be a   trustworthy reference for students who are believed to especially take interest in this kind of information. Moreover, this new information will help make a conclusion and give recommendation to students how to improve their studying.

1. THEORETICAL MODEL

As the research scope and methodology stated above, we establish the model illustrating the factors affecting the study performance of National Economics University’s students at the end of first semester in 2015. Study performance is shown through the average grade of student after each semester. During study process, it may have the probability that the students are affected by at least four major elements.

They are assiduousness which is demonstrated by how many days they are absent. How does this factor have the great influence on student average grade? With the students attending the class fully and concentrating on the lectures, it is undeniable that they are able to capture the knowledge and widen the understanding about the subjects better than the others who just stay at home and sleep or do something else irrelevant to study. However, in order to achieve high performance at university, not only do students have to participate in the class fully as well as actively but they also raise their awareness of self-study which is shown through the time they spend on accumulating and researching knowledge at home and library. The students can study alone or in group but the important thing is that thanks to a few hours per day for self-study, they are likely to review all lessons in the class and dig deeper them into practical exercises or problems. As a result, their performance is absolutely great because of comprehensive understanding.

Not only do the time they take to study affecting the final result but the time for entertainment activities is also very important. In detail, the time for being online is suggested. It is essential to relax and recharge after a hardworking day but what is the reasonable amount of time? If the amount is too much, it puts a negative impact on our concentration, productivity and efficiency resulting in poor performance. Nevertheless, if the amount is too little, the students may feel stressed, pressured and even lose their focus in study. The illustration for this hypothesis is that at the university, students often play and enjoy during the course and only absorb themselves in study until a few days before final exam. Due to time unbalance, their grade is low but they do not know the reasons. Additionally, the online hour means to not only entertain but also self-study by searching information in the Internet or discussing in the group via Skype or Facebook. Last but not least, the study orientation plays a very crucial determinant in high result or not. The study performance of the students who know exactly what they have to learn, how they can master it, and the very clear direction they want to look forward will be different with the students who just do everything by snatches carelessly with no purpose, method, orientation and easily to give up.

1. EMPIRICAL MODEL

The following model is proposed (model 1):

AGi = β0 + β1 SLi + β2 Ai + β3 ONLi + β4 ORIi + ui

        Its estimated model should be:

AG^i = β^0 + β^1 SLi + β^2 Ai + β^3 ONLi + β^4 ORIi

Here is the description of variables in the data set:

AGi :        The average grade of student i;

SLi :        The amount of time they spend on self-study, in hours;

Ai :        The number of days they are absent;

ONLi :        The amount of time they spend for being online, in hours;

ORIi :        The dummy variable presenting the study orientation, ORIi = 1 if student i is oriented about study and ORIi = 0 if not;

ui :                Stochastic error term with the usual assumptions.

This regression model is attempting to investigate and analyze factors having influences on the grade of students. These factors are diligence shown through the number of days they are absent, amount of time they attribute to surf the Internet, amount of time they spend on self-study and the study orientation. In the model 1, the sign of self-study and study orientation variables are expected to be positive. A student preparing more carefully for the final exam, spend more time on it is possible to get higher mark than the other student just sleeping. Not only the final exam but study during the course is appropriate. The student who prepares before coming the class and spend a few hours to re-learn at home will understands clearly the lecture; hence, it is highly possible to get a high mark. Moreover, the important is how to self-study effectively. The study orientation helps guide student in a right direction by proving method and relevant time table. Clearly, the study orientation is a short way for student to get a high grade.