The influence of academic and social adjustment to higher education on academic achievement: a study conducted with first-year university students of cultural studies and management

Abstract

First-year university students experience many issues that hinder their development within campus, with greater index in failure and mass disapproval rates. Farther research showed that first-year students tend to depart from university with high drop-out rates in the first semester of the first year. For a better analysis and understanding of the process of transition, adjustment and academic achievement faced by this sample of Cultural Management students, this study resorted to the Tinto's theory of student retention and departure and examined the influence of academic and social adjusting experiences on academic achievement in the "Higher Institute of Arts and Culture". The researcher used univariate and bivariate analysis (descriptive narrative) to analyze the data collected from the adapted "Student Adjustment College Questionnaire" (SACQ) administered to first-year students (n = 65) to further examine the relationship between academic and social adjustment and academic achievement (final grade point average) of first-generation students using the pearson correlation test. The questionnaire is composed of two dimensions: (i) Academic adjustment and (ii) Social adjustment. The analysis of the adapted SACQ raveled statistical significance in the academic experiences, academic dimension (1.84) with the most significant component "motivation" (1.50).The relation between the adjustment dimensions and academic performance of students is expressive; there is a correlation of positive significance between the "academic dimension" and the discipline of ‘Theory of Knowledge’ (0.478) . There is also a moderate positive correlation between the “social dimension” and ‘Study Skills’ (0.246), revealing that the academic adjustment dimension is much closer to academic achievement than the social adjustment dimension, not excluding the important role of social experiences discussed in this study. Some implications of this study, as well as recommendations for future research, are referenced at the end of this thesis.