Students’ Self-Efficacy in Higher Education: Evidence Before, During, and After COVID-19

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The COVID-19 pandemic, as experienced globally, disrupted students’ learning environment affecting their learning strategies, mode of engagement, participation, and assessment. As first-year students, many feel stressed and overwhelmed while trying to adapt to “university life,” and experiencing a pandemic that affected their self-efficacy and increased stress levels may have impacted on their ability to perform academically. This is the first study to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on first-year accounting students’ self-efficacy levels at a South African university over a period of three years: before, during, and after the pandemic. A quantitative research method was employed using online questionnaires (N = 1,238 students). Data were analysed using factor analysis and general linear models. The main results indicated that significant differences were found in the comparison of students’ confidence levels between the three groups versus students’ gender, ethnicity, choice of degree, and academic performance and that better-performing students are more confident. The contribution of the study may assist lecturers in increasing students’ confidence and creating awareness to assist students if there is a disruption in the learning environment to build and/or maintain students’ confidence levels.