Characteristics of academically excellent business studies students in a post-1992 university

Abstract

In contrast to the extensive investigation of the characteristics of students who fail or perform badly in ‘new’ universities, research into the factors associated with academic excellence within post-1992 institutions has been sparse. This empirical study examined the profile of a sample of 81 high-flying business studies undergraduates in a new university in Greater London. The profile was then compared with that of 193 business undergraduates who were ‘ordinary’ in academic terms. A model intended to explain a student's categorisation as ‘good’ or ‘ordinary’ was constructed on the basis of prior academic literature relating to student performance as a whole. Tests of the model revealed that students in the academically excellent group tended to have a high internal locus of control and high intrinsic (rather than extrinsic) motivation to study. They worked hard and conscientiously, and devoted substantially more hours to private study than their ‘ordinary’ counterparts. Good students did not select the easiest options, and greatly preferred examinations to group-work assessment. Overall, the results implied that academic excellence was more the consequence of an individual's effort and ability than the person's socio-economic background. There were no significant connections between a student falling into the academically excellent category and that individual's financial status. The levels of a person's academic self-concept and social integration into life at university failed to explain the student's categorisation as ‘good’ or ‘ordinary’.