Student Performance in Higher Education: Ability, Class Attendance, Mobility and the Bologna Process

Abstract

The thesis “Student Performance in Higher Education: Ability, Class Attendance, Mobility and the Bologna Process” empirically analyzes determinants of students’ success at university. Administrative student data as well as survey data collected at Göttingen University, Germany are used. Chapter 2 identifies individual and institutional factors, for example the high school leaving grade or the faculty a student is enrolled at, and analyzes their impact on academic performance. In this context, academic performance is measured in three dimensions: the probability of obtaining any degree at university, the probability of obtaining a degree within a chosen field of study and the grade of the final university degree. Two main results emerge: Firstly, the high school leaving grade is by far the most important individual determinant of students’ success at university. In contrast, criteria such as social origin or gender only play a minor role. Secondly, there are substantial differences between faculties implying that institutional factors also influence academic performance. Chapter 3 evaluates whether attending the lecture and/or tutorial in two basic courses in business administration and economics has an impact on the achieved grade. The analysis finds no significant effect of class attendance on university performance in most specifications. Although identifying a causal effect may not be possible with the data at hand, the result allows the conclusion that going to class and studying on one’s own may be substitutes in the given framework. Chapter 4 focuses on bachelor students to analyze whether a study-related visit abroad influences university outcomes. In this context, university outcomes are measured by the final grade of the bachelor degree and the probability of graduating within the standard time period. A propensity score matching strategy is applied to overcome the potential problem of self-selection into studying abroad. The analysis shows that a sojourn improves the final university grade. However, the result seems mainly to be driven by selective transferring of grades. In addition, bachelor students who do a study-related visit abroad have a lower probability of graduating within the standard time period than their peers who stay at the home institution. This supports the idea that students do not count all grades achieved abroad towards their degree at home. Finally, Chapter 5 is devoted to the Bologna process. It evaluates the effect of replacing traditional five-year degrees (Magister, Diplom, old teacher degree) with three-year bachelor programs on the duration until graduation and the timing of university drop-out. Competing risks models are estimated using a relative time measure that makes information on duration between old and new study programs comparable. The analysis shows that the Bologna process reduced the duration until students achieve their first university degree both in absolute and relative terms. However, concerning the timing of university drop-out, the results are less conclusive. Only for the faculty of humanities there is a clear effect of the Bologna process on the probability of dropping out of university.