THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UNIVERSITY ADMISSION CRITERIA AND FIRST-YEAR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: A CASE STUDY AT DONG THAP UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Identifying the factors influencing students' academic performance during their university education is of critical importance to higher education institutions. This study aims to explore the relationship between first-year academic performance and various university admission criteria, including admission method, subject combination, 12th-grade academic classification, and entrance scores. The data were extracted from the admission records and academic results of students enrolled in the 2023 cohort at Dong Thap University, as recorded in the university’s training management system. Utilizing statistical techniques such as t-tests, ANOVA, and particularly multiple linear regression modeling implemented in R, the study reveals statistically significant differences in academic performance based on subject combination and 12th-grade academic classification. Conversely, no significant difference was found with respect to the method of admission. Notably, all examined admission criteria were found to have an impact on students’ first-year academic performance.