The role of study programs on freshmen’s academic adjustment: context-specificity under investigation

Academic achievement in higher education has been extensively documented in the literature. In this line, many variables were identified as strong predictors of academic achievement. Yet, this literature suffers from two main limitations. First, multifactorial approach is seldom endorsed impeding the global understanding of achievement process. Second, contextual factors have often been left out of the investigation. The majority of studies have tested a general model assuming that the effects are the same in different programs. However, differences between institutions or programs could result in specific learning contexts leading to different achievement processes. As an attempt to overcome these limitations in the literature, the current study has investigated the impact of study programs on academic achievement through a multifactorial multilevel analysis. The analyses were carried out on 1173 freshmen from 27 study programs. Results highlighted that achievement interclass variation is about 15%. Eight factors remained predictive in multifactorial approach namely, past performance, socioeconomic status, informed choice, self-efficacy beliefs, value, study time, external engagement and mastery goal structure. Finally, significant effect variations were identified for gender, peer support, attendance and external engagement. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed in the conclusion.

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UCLouvainSSH/IPSY - Psychological Sciences Research Institute

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De Clercq, M., Frenay, M., & Galand, B. (2017). The role of study programs on freshmen’s academic adjustment: context-specificity under investigation. EARLI 2017, Tampere. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/176068