Factors associated with student performance in intermediate accounting subjects in a changing university environment

The aim of this paper is to determine whether the performance of a representative group of intermediate accounting students is associated with selected features that reflect the students’ diversity. The study analyses the association between a number of attributes associated with the changing profile of the student cohort and their performance across a range of intermediate accounting subjects in a Sydney based tertiary institution. Our analysis, based on data obtained from the student information system of this tertiary institution, provides convincing evidence of an association between student performance and the three factors examined in the study, namely entrance score, entry route and primary language. The positive association between entrance score and student performance in the second year of their studies is weaker than is found in previous studies at the first year level, which suggests that the positive relation between performance in pre-tertiary studies, and tertiary studies overall, might diminish as the students progress in their studies. The positive association between primary language and student performance is found to be stronger in subjects that have a higher reliance on language skills.