Determinants of Academic Achievement at Higher Education

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to explore the determinants of students’ academic achievement as well as gender based differences of these determinants in social and natural sciences. We selected 807 students (male = 504, female = 303) from Bahauddin Zakariya University by using multi-stage stratified random sampling and the data was collected through self-administered questionnaire whereas parenting style was measure by Lamborn, et al. (1991) questionnaire. Difference of teacher behavior toward male and female students in social and natural sciences was identified. It was explored that teachers’ politeness and time spend on studies by students have significant effect on academic achievement. The study suggested that teachers should be unbiased regarding gender during teaching and students should be more time devoted to their studies.