Predictors of academic performance for finance students

Abstract

PurposeThe study uses data drawn from a senior finance major cohort of 78 female undergraduates at Zayed University (ZU)-UAE to investigate factors, which increase the likelihood of achieving better academic performance in an Islamic finance course based on information about socioeconomic background of female students. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachThe research was conducted based on a survey designed to collect one-time individual data. Even though gender is considered as a variable affecting students’ performance as documented in the literature, it shall not be addressed in this study as the sample of our survey is limited to the female gender only. Whereas the population under investigation is a cohort of undergraduate female students enrolled at a finance course: Islamic finance and banking (BUS426) at one of the national universities in the UAE. ZU was established in 1998 by the federal government of the United Arab Emirates to educate UAE national women, in 2008 ZU started to accept male students in a separated campus building. The university is organized academically into six colleges: Arts and Sciences, Business Sciences, Communication and Media Sciences, Education, Information Technology, and University College. The primary language of instruction is English, though graduates are expected to be fully fluent in both English and Arabic (Zayed University, 2016). BUS426 is one of the major courses offered to students majoring in finance. The course is taught in English and requires mathematical skills on basic levels, but is mostly dependent on logical and critical thinking skills.FindingsThe study found that among the socioeconomic variables tested that being married, having a highly educated mother and having high pre-entry qualifications were significant variables as they increase the likelihood of an “A grade” performance.Originality/valueThe extent to which socioeconomic factors and lifestyle could contribute to student performance outcomes in an Arab culture setting is not clear due to the scarcity of research on this particular topic; hence the study attempts to fill this gap.