On The Differences In Undergraduates’ Academic Achievements In Local Universities And The Contributory Factors

Undergraduates constitute the largest student body in the current higher education.The undergraduate years are essentially important for the formation of students’ world outlook,the outlook on life and the core values.Evidently,undergraduate education plays a crucial role in the promotion of the quality of higher education.To run higher education well,the core is talent cultivation while the basis is undergraduate education.And the academic achievements of undergraduates are the key factors in measuring the quality of higher education.Therefore,the study on the learning and development of undergraduates is not only a practical problem worthy of particular concern from higher education managers but also an important field for higher education research.The subjects of this study are 8,320 undergraduate students from local universities.The research framework is established through document analysis,questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.An empirical analysis is carried out via methods and techniques such as education production functional model,tool variables,fractional regression and multi-level linear model,to study the subjects’ behavioral and psychological characteristics by exploring factors such as the source backgrounds of the sampled 8,320 undergraduates,their high school experiences,family backgrounds,the courses of undergraduate years,their expectations and recognition for extracurricular activities,learning satisfaction,academic performances,their competence and cognitive abilities,the level of confidence,physical and mental health,etc.In addition,this study attempts to identify the main contributory factors for academic achievements of undergraduates in local universities under the background of the reform and development of higher education in China.Furthermore,suggestions and countermeasures based on the analytic results are put forward to better improve the academic achievements of undergraduates from the perspectives of students,parents,universities and the government.Through theoretical investigation,a qualitative analysis and an empirical study,the preliminary findings of the study are listed below:1.The main contributory factors for the academic achievements of undergraduates in local universities are their personal characteristics,family backgrounds,learming foundation and abilities,experience and investment after enrollment.It should be noted that the performances of roommates have a significant impact on the academic achievements of undergraduates.2.The influence of genders on academic achievements is reflected by the fact that female students perform better than male students in local universities.However,with the improvement of students’ scores,the difference between genders diminishes.In addition,there is a higher tendency for male students to be affected by their roommates.Furthermore,other contributory factors have exerted different impact on the subgroups of male and female students.3.The type of family location has obvious effects on students’ academic achievements.Investigation from the same local university shows that the academic achievements of undergraduates coming from rural areas are higher than those coming from towns and cities and this effect is mainly reflected by students with higher and lower scores.Family annual income also has significant impact on the academic achievements of students,especially the male students whose scores are lower.4.There are significant differences in GPA scores among the 8,320 undergraduates from the sampled local universities,even if they are from the same major.The average family income per head,previous study experiences and effects,the educational experiences of their fathers and the index of satisfaction with the university and their majors all contribute to their GPA scores.The maj or contributions of this study are as follows:1.It helps make up for the deficiencies of the previous studies in underestimating individuals by collecting data from two different types of local universities.More importantly,it provides brand-new empirical evidence for relevant theoretical researches by conducting a large-scale survey and case studies on the learning experiences of the undergraduates and exploring the contributory factors for undergraduates’ academic performances via deep semi-structured interviews.2.This study has conducted a multi-angle study on the contributory factors for undergraduates’ academic achievements by integrating indexes and viewpoints from multiple disciplines,overcoming the limitation of research from a single discipline.Furthermore,our research provides solid empirical evidence for the development of related theories and the findings are of greater practical significance.3.It is found that in the same local university,students from families with lower income and less cultural capital generally perform better than those from families with higher income and more cultural capital.This finding differs from the argument proposed by Pierre Bourdieu who was renowned for his theory on cultural capital and the key idea that students coming from more culturally cultivated families seem to have a higher possibility of academic success.To some extent,our study provides the evidence for the fact that in the specifie eontext of loeal universities in China,the disparity among undergraduates caused by family income and cultural capital has greatly decreased as a result of the equality in the college entrance examination and the policies for supporting economically underprivileged students.To a certain degree,we have overcome the impact of family income and cultural capital on the academic performances of undergraduates as was discovered by the western scholars.Our finding could complement and modify the theory on cultural capital proposed by Pierre Bourdieu.Meanwhile,this finding could justify the positive role of local universities in China in funding and making incentive policies for students coming from families with lower income and less cultural capital.