Abstract
This study examines the persistent poor performance in quantitative course units amongst undergraduate business students, using the case of Makerere University Business School. The data were collected from 346 third year students using a face-to-face administered questionnaire survey; and analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation and hierarchical regression analyses. The findings indicate that while learning environment and students’ attitude are positively associated with performance in quantitative courses, students’ attitude towards quantitative courses causes more variations in performance. Paucity of studies on performance in quantitative business courses deprived the study of the opportunity to cross validate the findings. Future studies should be conducted to confirm the results. Management of universities should consider learning environment and students’ attitude when determining possible changes to enhance students’ performance in quantitative courses. This study extends the predominantly mathematics studies to other business quantitative courses at university level.
Highlights
In this study, we extend the predominantly mathematics studies to other quantitative courses at university level
The results show that there is a positive and significant relationship between learning environment and performance in quantitative courses (r= .265, p< .05), which implies that changes in learning environment are associated with positive changes in performance
The findings and discussion above leads to the conclusion that learning environment and students’ attitude influence performance in quantitative course units
Summary
We extend the predominantly mathematics studies to other quantitative courses at university level. We investigate the relationship between learning environment, students’ attitude and performance in quantitative courses. Universities around the globe are under pressure to adopt strategies that will enable them generate competitive graduates for the job market. This implies the need to understand the factors that enhance academic performance of university students. The few studies that have examined specific course units have tended to concentrate on college students’ performance in mathematics (Beswick, 2006; Uusimaki & Nason, 2004; Wilkins & Brand, 2004). There is insufficient knowledge on the impact of learning environment and students’ attitude on performance in quantitative course units, in a developing country like Uganda
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