Determinants of Success of University Students in Vietnam: An Empirical Study

Abstract

This paper investigates the determinants of students' success in Vietnam through conducting online interviews and surveys with 2,500 Vietnamese students at eight famous universities in Vietnam. By applying both SPSS 22 and STATA software, the study is to evaluate the impact of four driver factors, which affect GPA, language efficacy, and personal achievement. These factors are psychological perspective, home environmental, student demographic, and school environmental. The research results emphasize a positive effect of psychological and home-environmental determinants, but the negative effect of school environmental factors on the students' success. Besides, the relationship between demographics and student success was tested and indicated that male students have a better language learning ability, but a low level of academic achievement than female students. The results also point out the impact of religious affiliation and ethnicity on personal achievement. Non-religious students are better achievers than those having a religion or those in minority ethnicity. Moreover, accumulated schooling years are negatively associated with students' success. The more working experience students accrued, the higher possibility they are successful. Finally, the finding provides an insight into students' success that might be useful to government authorities and other universities in designing policies for enhancing the quality of education.