Relationship between admission criteria and academic
performance: A correlational study in nursing students
Abstracts :
An admission criterion is one of the key indicators of academic success. The purpose of
admission process is to select best candidates for the particular program who will complete the
program successfully. Thus rigorous admission criteria can predict academic performance,
decrease failure rate and successful completion of degree. The objective of this study was to
determine the relationship between various variables in the existing admission criteria and
academic performance.
Methods:
A cross sectional study design was chosen. Data (2009-2017) was gathered from the records of
Institute of Nursing Science, Khyber Medical University. Variables in the admission criteria
included age, gender, previous academic performance, entry test score and experience. The
dependent variable was academic performance measured in CGPA. The data was analyzed using
correlation and regression analysis through SPSS and STATA.
Results:
The results reported a significant relationship between admission criteria and the academic
performance of nursing students. Various variables in the admission criteria i.e. SSC marks
(r=0.32, p=>0.001), previous academic score at diploma level (r=0.48, p=>0.001) and entry test
scores (r=0.26, p=>0.001) have significant relationship between academic performance.
However, previous academic scores at diploma level were better predictors of the academic
performance.
Conclusion:
The study concludes to use integrated admission criteria for the selection of students and bring
changes in the traditional admission process.
Keywords: Admission criteria, academic performance, Post RN, Nursing
Table-I
Relationship of academic performance with variables of admission criteria using Pearson’s
correlation analysis (N=197).
Previous academic
Age at the time SSC Entry
score in diploma Experience
of admission Marks Test score
nursing
Academic -0.1539* 0.3287* 0.4825* 0.2698* -0.0953
Performance 0.0308 0.0000 0.0000 0.0001 0.1827
Table-II
Regression analysis for variables predicting academic performance. (N=197)
Academic performance
Predicto
r
variable
s
coefficient (β) (95 CI) P value
Gender
Male* -0.1642 (-0.3014, -0.0270) 0.019
Academic performance
Predicto
r
variable
s
coefficient (β) (95 CI) P value
Female
Age at
admissio -0.0181 (-0.3185, -0.0043) 0.010
n
SSC
0.0127 (0.0063, 0.019) 0.000
Marks
Marks at
diploma 0.0327 (0.0242, 0.0412) 0.000
Nursing
Entry
Test 0.0052 (0.0019, 0.0085) 0.002
score
Experien
0.0237 (0.0054, 0.04197) 0.011
ce
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