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Factors that Affect the Academic Performance of Pharmacy Students at the University of Costa Rica

Luis Rojas, Arlene Loría, Nien Tzu Weng, Jessica Morera, Luis Jiménez*

INIFAR Institute of Pharmaceutical Research, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica

Abstract: Introduction: in the complex process of teaching and learning, there are are factors from different sources that can affect the academic performance of students. Objective: to find the factors that affect the academic performance of Pharmacy students at the University of Costa Rica (UCR). Methodology: In 2017, a data collection instrument was designed with 164 items, organized in the following 5 sections: aspects that affect academic performance before entering university (8 items), aspects in the first years (37 items), aspects in later years (86 items), socioeconomic-geographical aspects (25 items) and general aspects (8 items). The students participated voluntarily and for each element included in the instrument, the students selected if that element affected the academic performance in a positive or negative way. The data was handled confidentially and the respective statistical analyzes were carried out. Results: 307 students participated in the study; most of the second and third level of the curriculum; 86% had between 1 and 6 years of studies; most entered and maintain a weighted average that is acceptable; most only study Pharmacy; the largest amount comes from public schools, 67% comes from the urban area; 50% have not failed courses or have only failed between 1 and 4 courses, it was found that the higher the number of non-approved courses, the students extend the time in the curriculum and there was a correlation between the opinion of the factors that affect the academic performance and the number of years in the studies. Conclusions: the factors that affect academic performance are related to institutional, personal and social aspects; some occur in stages prior to university admission, during the first years or at any other time later.

Keywords: university students, pharmacy, academic performance, education

Citation: Luis Rojas, Arlene Loría, Nien Tzu Weng, Jessica Morera, Luis Jiménez, Factors that Affect the Academic Performance of Pharmacy Students at the University of Costa Rica. American Journal of Educational Research, 6 (6). 729-734. January 2018. doi:10.12691/education-6-6-22

1. Introduction

The educational process is highly complex and involved in various aspects of an institutional nature, either administrative (admission process, enrollment, courses, schedules, student follow-up) and academic (related to the discipline, university environment, habit of studies, attendance to classes, management of time, sleep patterns, recreation, hours and effort devoted to study), psychological (aptitudes, personality, motivation, learning strategies), pedagogical (teaching methodology, evaluative strategies), social and demographic; all these aspects can affect the academic performance of students at any level [1,2,3,4,5].

These various aspects that can affect the performance of university students, are usually measured or reflected through the grades, which shows the academic performance obtained in each course; that performance allows students the approval, the non-approval or the abandonment of the courses [3,6].

Those situations that affect student academic performance may have occurred prior to entering university (high school, academic bases, geographical area where students come from), during the admission process (tests or admission mechanisms, vocational aspects), during the first years (adaptation to the university environment, study strategies, exams, attitudes and interests, social support, socioeconomic aspects, academic load, study techniques, time organization) or in later years during the university period [3,7,8,9,10,11,12].

The identification and monitoring of factors that affect the academic performance of students, allows to establish measures or changes that improve the variables involved in the educational process, so that this contributes to the generation of mechanisms for students to achieve academic success [13,14,15,16,17,18].

Given that academic performance can be considered as an indicator of the quality of work of a higher education center [6,19,20], in the Faculty of Pharmacy of the UCR, there is interest in studying the aspects that affect the development of the university student.

In this sense, the objective of this study is to find the factors that affect the academic performance of pharmacy students at the UCR.

2. Methodology

This research was known by the Scientific Ethics Committee of the UCR and the respective administrative permits were obtained.

This investigation is constituted in the third phase of a big research project, which studied the factors that prolong the permanence of Pharmacy students at the UCR.

From the results obtained in the two previous qualitative phases (virtual forum, focus groups) and whose results can be consulted in the respective publications [21,22]; a general data collection instrument was designed; a pilot test was carried out with the participation of student volunteers, who only collaborated in this stage with the intention of achieving the necessary and pertinent improvements to the instrument in order to obtain the stated objective of the research.

The data collection instrument with 164 items in total, was structured in 5 sections as follow:

a. Section I (8 items): aspects before the university that affect the academic performance, such as orientation and information received by students during the activities of vocational orientation, induction talks, university admission process and the first enrollment process.

b. Section II (37 items): aspects during the first two university years, among others; the academic bases of the secondary school, the periods of enrollment, number of courses and schedules offered, biopsychosocial aspects, spaces of academic support for students with learning difficulties (study techniques, learning skills), hours of consultation, study spaces, library services, advice from various professionals (orientation, psychology, social work), content developed in the courses, pedagogical aspects (didactic techniques and evaluations), carrying out activities complementary to the curriculum.

c. Section III (86 items): in addition to the same aspects included in section 2, other factors were also considered such as attendance at the classes, the evaluation of the teaching performance, the academic load, the interpersonal relations with the teachers, the cultural aspects of the academic environment.

d. Section IV (25 items): in this part were included socioeconomic and geographical aspects, part time job, interest and motivation in studies, family pressure, distance and time of transfer, life skills (self-control, self-knowledge, decision-making, empathy, conflict management, creative/critical thinking, emotion management, interpersonal relationships).

e. Section V (8 items): general aspects, such as the university identification number, type of secondary (public, private, mixed), average entrance to the university, total weighted average in Pharmacy, average of the last enrollment in Pharmacy, years of study (permanence) university, years of permanence in Pharmacy, number of not approved courses, enrollment in other careers simultaneously. With the exception of the university identification and the type of secondary, the rest of the data was obtained from the official computerized records of the university. In the end, the students had a space to give the explanatory comments they considered relevant.

Volunteer students of all levels of pharmacy participated in this research in first academic cycle, 2017.

For the application of the instrument in a self-administered way, several classes were visited where the student's support was requested, the students who voluntarily decided to participate, had an average duration of thirty minutes to complete the data collection instrument.

After the basic instructions given to the students, they had to answer objectively and honestly to each item of the instrument, in some cases they had to make an adequate reflection before answering. For each item, student had to select if that particular situation affect positive o negative way the academic performance. In the pertinent cases, the student had to select the option of not applicable, did not receive it or did not correspond to his/her particular situation according to level in curriculum. It is confirmed that each instrument was well completed.

We proceeded to compile the data collected in a Microsoft Excel database, Office 365. Then, descriptive statistical analysis, correlation analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were carried out, with the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 24.0).

3. Results

Next the main results

a) A total of 307 active pharmacy students were surveyed in first cycle of 2017, the distribution of students by level was: 1 (5 / 1,6%), 2 (75/24%), 3 (99 / 32%), 4 (44/14%), 5 (37/12%) and 6 (47/16%).

Next, the data of the distribution of students according to:

b) Permanence period in university: 1-3 years (129/42%), 4-6 years (125/41%), 7-9 years (40/13%), > 10 years (13 /4%).

c) Period staying in Pharmacy: 1-3 years (141/46%), 4-6 years (122/40%), 7-9 years (35/11%), > 10 years (9 / 3%).

d) Grade obtained in the academic aptitude test (mechanism of admission) to the UCR: <600 (36/12%), 600-700 (230/75%), > 700 (41/14%)

e) Pharmacy entry method: academic aptitude test (279/91%), academic performance (15/5%), academic excellence (13/4%).

f) Total weighted average in Pharmacy: < 7 (43/14%), > 7 (264/86%).

g) Type of secondary: public (151/49%), mixed (53/17%), private (103/34%).

h) Geographical area of the secondary: rural (101/33%), urban (206/67%).

i) Traveling time in minutes (from home to the university): 0-60 minutes (154/50%), 61-120 minutes (81/27%), 121-180 minutes (25/8%), > 180 minutes (47/15%)

j) Number of courses not approved in the curriculum: 1-4 courses (129/42%), 5-9 courses (49/16%), 10-20 courses (29/9%), more than 20 courses (12/4%). Students who approved all courses were 88 (29%). The number of students ordered according to the type of secondary was the follows: public > private > mixed.

k) In Table 1, the distribution of students according to the number of not approved courses and the number of years of permanence in Pharmacy is observed.

l) Table 2 shows the distribution of students when considering their enrollment in Pharmacy and in another university discipline.

m) Table 3 shows the distribution of the aspects according to the opinion of the majority of students regarding the positive or negative impact of academic performance due to the aspects of those situations.

Table 1. Distribution of students according to not approved courses by number of years in Pharmacy

Table 2. Distribution of students according to the university discipline

Table 3. Distribution of aspects according to students opinion that positively or negatively affect academic performance related to the indicated situation

n) A correlation was found with a correlation coefficient of 0.6 (p = 0.0) between the opinions of students regarding the aspects that affect the academic performance and the years of permanence in Pharmacy. No correlation was found with the other variables (averages, secondary, number of not approved courses).

o) Table 4 shows the aspects that in the opinion of the students affect the academic performance, these have significant statistical differences according to the years of study in Pharmacy.

Table 4. Responses with significant statistical difference according to years of study in Pharmacy and positive or negative aspect that affects academic performance

4. Discussion

This study developed in the first academic cycle in 2017 and aimed to find the factors that affect academic performance by considering the opinion of 307 active students of the Faculty of Pharmacy at the UCR. The majority of students were in second (75) or third year (99) of career, they live less than an hour away from the university (154), many of them had acceptable grades in the university admission mark (271) or in the total weighted average (264), some only study Pharmacy (245), some students approved all courses (78) or have not approved between one and four courses (128), some studied in public secondary and urban area (206), with permanence in Pharmacy between one and six years (163).

Although, no study was found at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the UCR, studies related to the subject and carried out in the UCR were found; studies were also found from other countries, carried out in pharmacy´s students.

With this study, as shown in Table 3 and Table 4, it is evident that there is a diversity of factors that affect student academic performance. In the opinion of the majority of the students, there are aspects related to the academic, socioeconomic and geographical situation, which affect in positive o negative way the student's academic performance

However, for most students, all the aspects that occur before entering the university (orientation, information, academic bases and type of high school) affect positively the academic performance. This majority of students with this opinion, as shown in Table 2 only study Pharmacy and have approved all courses or disapproved only a few of them.

However, there are also students who think at the same time that these aspects have affected them negatively, these are the students who have more courses without approval, they come from public secondary high schools or have more years of permanence in Pharmacy or they are also enrolled simultaneously in other disciplines.

These findings agree with the results of a previous study at the UCR, except for the aspect related to the entrance test to the university, where they also found that the factors that affect academic performance are related to a) institutional aspects: the conditions and support services offered by the university, the teacher-student relationship, the student environment; b) personal: academic bases of high school, cognitive competence, academic self-concept, perceived self-efficacy, psychological well-being and class attendance, and c) social: family environment, socioeconomic context, demographic variables [20].

In another study and through a multilevel analysis, they found that academic performance of students of the UCR can be explained by an emotional intelligence scale, the experience of teachers trained for their work, who using participatory techniques and receive good evaluation of their performance by students [6].

Our findings also agree with the results of investigations conducted in pharmacy´s students at other universities, such as research at the Universities of Howard and Houston [23,24]; where they also found that student academic success is affected by the development of adequate study techniques and time management. In this particular case, they found differences between the academic performance of the first and second year students. Our students likewise consider that these aspects positively affect academic performance, as shown in Table 3 and their opinions also change according to the level in the curriculum of the student, as evidenced by the correlation that was get.

An important aspect that is pointed out in other research is the fact that a good orientation of students for university life and especially in Pharmacy [12,25,26], must also include, in addition to the availability of adequate facilities, such as libraries, counseling and other services, advice and motivation in vocational aspects [7]; the development of adequate learning skills [27], appropriate study habits and techniques [1,7,12,26], organization of time and prioritization of activities [15,19,26,28]. In this sense, it is said that passive procrastination shows a negative relationship and this is generally accompanied by attitudes contrary to study, to the teacher, to academic self-perception and to self-motivation [8].

Thus, these useful tools for student life should be strengthened with life skills in general, which should include, among other aspects, academic commitment, self-efficacy, autonomy, the handling of positive emotions [17] and finally, an adequate emotional intelligence [6]; these are aspects that our students recognize as necessary, since, in their opinion, they positively affect academic performance. This is even more important during the first years at the university due to there are also some external aspects to the person, such as the availability of courses offered and the schedules [1,29], which are show as results in Table 4 because it can affect academic performance; while the modality of admission [1,7,29] or the weighted averages [7], as it is also in our study, do not seem to be so relevant, even though the UCR study had shown it [6].

In other studies, importance is given to secondary, especially in relation to learning techniques, the academic bases and and the location area [1,3,7,12,26,28,29,30,31,32] because they are useful factors for academic success. Aspects that are also mentioned in this research, as confirmed in Table 3, because our students recognize that these factors positively affect academic performance. Although the majority of our students come from public high schools located in the urban area, it seems that the academic bases added to the individual deficiencies of the students place them at a disadvantage since these students are those who do not pass most of the courses and this way is that academic performance is affected. These students have chosen to enroll in another discipline, since their staying in pharmacy career has increased and that is why there are 62 students, as shown in Table 2, who are studying pharmacy and another discipline at the same time.

Likewise, in another study conducted in pharmacy´s students in Malaysia, they found that the management of psychological distress and anxiety through systematic psychoeducation can favor academic motivation during the first years in the university [33]. In our study, this psychological distress is evidenced by the fear of the reprisals and negative social climate with unconstructive criticism [10]. These criticisms are related to a teacher, a course, a content or one level in the curriculum and in the opinion of some people, this generates higher academic demand, which negatively affects academic performance. Although for some students these unknown facts generate fear for them, even if they are experiences of other people with negative thoughts. This forces students to delay some courses for fear of not passing them if they take the whole block of subjects.

The previous situation becomes more complex when the students have an adjusted socioeconomic situation [9,18,28,34] and, as well as, they are students with little resilience to face or not be able to adapt at adversities of the university environment [19]. These students tend to experience a higher level of stress, which may be manifested on sleep hygiene, so they are students who maybe are more tired and with less encouragement [35,36]. Hence, in this regard, a study showed that all aspects that affect the mental health of students will have a negative impact on academic performance [13,36].

These situations that generate anxiety in students diminish the motivation and interest in studies so that it was found that low or moderate levels of motivation negatively affect academic performance [2,37,38]. Therefore, the orientation is very important and in this way, the teaching action plays a preponderant role, since they become a key factor for the quality of educational process [39,40]. In our study, this is evidenced as shown in Table 4, when students consider that the teaching support in terms of biopsychosocial aspects are factors that affect academic performance. Therefore, research has shown that teacher support [19], the methodology used by teachers [1,6], teacher-student interpersonal relationships [1,18,34] or pedagogy deficiency [10] can affect the academic performance.

If to this is added an excessive academic load or an inadequate balance in the academic curriculum [1,7,10,12,26], this generates little student attendance at the classes, in some levels, a situation that is experienced by students in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the UCR [1,7,32,41,42]. This means that students find themselves at a crossroads, as was evidenced in this research, because students have to decide between complying with the academic assignments in laboratories, research work, extra jobs class, study for written exams [10] or to attend, participate and enjoy teaching process naturally in the classroom or in the learning spaces, along with other classmates and teachers.

In this sense, it is known that motivation, self-esteem and optimism are personal and those factors are affected by the social context, so students require more family support [1,2,3,9,12,15,16,18,26,31,34,37,38]; either face to face or favored with technology through social networks [43], especially for those who are living close university for away from family residence [12,26]. Thanks these tecnological mechanisms which allow them to be in greater contact with their families and even with teachers [43]. In spite of the fact that sometimes the family itself becomes a stressful pressure [18,34], since the students can not detach themselves from the particular situations of their family [30].

The results of this study, constitute a valuable contribution that can help to establish measures in the academic unit that allow the improvement in student academic development.

The main limitation of this research is that the grades obtained by the students, considered by means of the university entrance note and the total weighted average in pharmacy, which reflect the academic performance were not associated with the variables considered in the study.

5. Conclusions

Given the diversity of variables found through this study, it is confirmed that student academic performance is a complex process affected by a large number of factors that come from different sources according to each context.

The main factors that affect student academic performance can be grouped into aspects: a) institutional: orientation, information, support, courses (amount and schedules) and services offered to students, aspects related to teachers (pedagogy, evaluations, interpersonal relationships); b) personal: emotional intelligence, biopsychosocial, attendance at classes; and c) social: family, socioeconomic status.

The influence of these factors occurs before the student enters the university, during the admission process, the first and subsequent years in the university; which suggests that adequate measures must be implemented during all phases of the teaching-learning process in the university.

Acknowledgements

The students who collaborated in the study, Pharmacy´s Faculty, INIFAR and Vice-rectory of Investigation of the UCR.

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