Student Academic Performance

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Student Academic Performance in UndergraduateManagerial-Accounting CoursesAbdulrahman Ali Al-Twaij ry

a

aQassim University, Qassim, Al-Melaida, Saudi Arabia

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To cite this art icle: Abdulrahman Ali Al-Twaij ry (2010): Student Academic Performance in Undergraduate Managerial-Accounti ng Courses, Journal of Educat ion for Business, 85:6, 311-322

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JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS, 85: 311322, 2010

Copyright C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 0833-2323

DOI: 10.1080/08832320903449584

Student Academic Performance in Undergraduate

Managerial-Accounting Courses

Abdulrahman Ali Al-Twaijry

Qassim University, Qassim, Al-Melaida, Saudi Arabia

The authors purpose was to identify potential factors possibly affecting student performance

in three sequential management-accounting courses: Managerial Accounting (MA), Cost Ac-

counting (CA), and Advanced Managerial Accounting (AMA) within the Saudi Arabian con-

text. The sample, which was used to test the developed hypotheses, included 312 students

whose performance was followed throughout 3 semesters (4, 6, and 8) out of 8. Techniques of

mean comparison and correlation were employed. The results suggest that the preuniversity

accounting background was only found to have significant impact on the AMA course whereas

skill in mathematics was found to affect student performance significantly in the MA course.

It was evidenced that student performance in the MA course and overall was significantly

affected by preuniversity ability, general undergraduate academic capability, and matriculation

year. Student performance in the Financial Accounting course significantly correlated with

performance in the subsequent MA and AMA courses. There is also evidence of a significant

relationship between MA student performance and that of both CA and AMA. The findings of

this study confirmed that the load of weekly registered hours has no negative impact on the stu-

dent performance. It also suggested that accounting students had outperformed nonaccounting

students in accounting and nonaccounting courses.

Keywords: accounting, student performance, undergraduate

Accounting education has received much attention from re-searchers in developed nations. A great many studies have

been directed towards accounting education and how it might

be enhanced. However, the research on accounting education

in developing countries is still far behind. Their education

systems are affected by various factors (i.e., culture, politics,

and social factors) and this means that results from account-

ing education studies can not be always applied to different

nations because each has unique features. The education sys-

tem in Saudi Arabia differs widely from western education

systems in terms of teaching styles and program types, vol-

umes, and content.

As is the case with many accounting and business depart-

ments and schools worldwide facing the problem of weak

student academic performance (cf. Gayle & Michael, 1999;

Lane & Porch, 2002; Shotweel, 1999), the Accounting De-

partment at Qassim University in Saudi Arabia has encoun-

tered a severe challenge with its students. During the 15-year

Correspondence should be addressed to Abdulrahman Ali Al-Twaijry,

Qassim University, Accounting Department, Qassim, Al-Melaida 6633,

Saudi Arabia. E-mail: [email protected]

period from 1990 to 2005, the number of accounting stu-dents whose overall GPA was 4.00 or more out of 5.00 was

fewer than 100 students (less than 10%). A great majority

of accounting students find it rather difficult to understand

managerial accounting courses, and a high percentage (av-

erage 3550%) of students fail in management accounting

courses. As noted by Gracia and Jenkins (2002), academic

failures have huge consequences, both emotionally and finan-

cially. The reasons for these failures need to be understood

and appropriate remedies applied.

One possible reason that makes failures in managerial ac-

counting courses different from those in financial accounting

and other business courses is that the managerial courses

are not straightforward. They need critical thinking and a

good background, especially in mathematics, and this war-

rants further research to suggest ways for improving the stu-

dent performance in these courses in particular, and account-

ing programs more generally. Therefore, the question beg-

ging an answer is which factors affect student performance

in Managerial Accounting (MA) courses and whether they

are different from those affecting performance in Financial

Accounting (FA) courses as suggested by previous studies.

Because no research was found to tackle this issue within
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312 A. A. AL-TWAIJRY

the Arabian environment, a gap exists in the literature. This

study, however, endeavors to identify the potential factors

that may have some effect on student performance generally,

and particularly in three sequential management-accounting

courses. These undergraduate courses are: MA in the second

year (fourth semester), Cost Accounting (CA) in the third

year (sixth semester), and Advanced Managerial Accounting

(AMA) in the fourth year (eighth and final semester). The

outcomes of this study have field implications and applica-

tions to help enhance student performance generally and for

these courses specifically.

Background of Saudi Arabia BusinessEducational System

The Saudi Arabian business educational system, although

originally imported from the United States, is somewhat dif-

ferent from those in the West. Public business education in

Saudi Arabia, which represents about 80% of the industry

and is only available for Saudis, is free with the government

paying each student up to 1000 SR per month. Even thoughbusiness education is available for both men and women,

they are separated from each other. Students admitted to the

business schools must have a high school degree with an

acceptable GPA (normally above 70%).

The average undergraduate student stay at university is 4

years, in which an average of 140 hr (about 4045% of them

within the student major) must be studied and passed. Both

Arabic and English are used as a medium of instruction. As

for textbooks, they are mainly published in the West, with

most of them having been translated into Arabic. Teach-

ing styles are mostly a one-way street, which means that

the instructor does almost all the talking, and students are

the audience. Government regulations do not allow female

instructors to teach male students whereas the opposite is

possible but only through video conferencing.

A high percentage (an average of 85%) of the course

assessment is based on the examinations, and the rest (15%)

is based on homework, attendance, and projects. The passing

level is 60%, and when the student cannot get a total of 60

out of 100 points for a course, he or she must restudy the

course; there is no limit for retaking the same course as long

as the GPA is at the required level (2.00 or above out of

5.00). When the GPA goes below 2.00, the student loses his

or her stipend. When the GPA stays below 2.00 for three

(and sometimes five) sequential semesters, the student must

leave the university. In general, business students can find

jobs easily, especially those majoring in accounting.

Literature Review and Hypothesis Development

Accounting education is one of the chief subjects that has

been receiving and continues to receive great attention from

accounting researchers. Many studies have focused on how

to improve thequality of accounting education (i.e., Jackling,

2005; Kramer, Johnson, Crain, & Miller, 2005; Mustafa &

Chiang, 2006). Some research has been directed toward iden-

tifying and suggesting solutions to problems and difficulties

confronting accounting students (Booth, Luckett, & Mladen-

ovic, 1999; Davidson, Slotnick, & Waldman, 2000; Gracia &

Jenkins 2002; Lane & Porch 2002). More narrowly, several

studies concentrated on one or more undergraduate or grad-

uate accounting courses. Based on research carried out 18

years ago, Doran, Bouillon, and Smith (1991) found that the

preuniversity accounting knowledge of students negatively

affected their performance in the basic managerial account-

ing course. Although this was a surprising result, it may not

still be the case nowadays because both accounting academic

programs and preuniversity education systems have changed.

Auyeung (1991), Keef(1992), Rohde and Kavanagh (1996a),

and Lee (1999) searched for possible variables affecting stu-

dent performance in the Principles of Financial Accounting

(PFA) course. One important finding of these studies was that

the prior university accounting background and the general

academic ability had a significant impact on performance in

PFA.The impact on student performance and of various en-

try paths to tertiary education in a second-year accounting

management course was assessed by Jackling and Anderson

(1998). They examined the effect of background features of

some students on their performance in the course. Jackling

and Andersons results revealed that part-time students out-

performed full-time students, and that both entry qualifica-

tions and a students general ability together can predict per-

formance in the management course. However, there was no

evidence of any significant effect of preuniversity account-

ing study, gender, or language background on the course

performance of students. On the other hand, Lane and Porch

(2002) endeavored to investigate the possible impact of back-ground factors of nonspecialist accounting students on their

performance on the UK Level One and Level Two accounting

modules. Multiple regression analysis was employed to eval-

uate the effect of various explanatory variables. The analysis

outcomes suggest that a students accounting background

does not have a significant effect on Level One and Level

Two accounting modules. More recently, Al-Twaijry (2005)

studied the potential effects of various factors on student

performance in the PFA course. The analysis of his sample

(379 students) provided evidence that the significant vari-

ables that affect the student performance in the PFA course

are: (a) the preuniversity academic achievement, (b) the pre-

university accounting background, and (c) the preuniversitymathematics attainment.

These studies have contradictory results regarding the po-

tential effect of the student accounting and general back-

ground on the introduction to accounting courses. The pos-

sible reasons for that are either the time elapsed between the

studies (some of them older than 15 years) or the cultural

and educational system differences. Because the results of

the majority of these studies supported the thesis that preuni-

versity academic ability in accounting generally has a strong
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PERFORMANCE IN MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING COURSES 313

effect on accounting courses, the potential impact of the stu-

dent preuniversity accounting and their general background

and performance on managerial accounting courses can be

hypothesized as follows:

Hypothesis 1 (H1): The performance of Saudi Arabian

students with a preuniversity accounting acquaintance

would be significantly higher in the university manage-ment accounting courses than those without such expe-

rience.

H2: The performance of Saudi Arabian students with a higher

secondary school GPA would be significantly better

in the university management accounting courses than

those with a lower GPA.

Some research has been concerned with the students gen-

eral performance in business and management schools. For

example, Marcal and Roberts (2000), Brasfield, Harrison,

and McCoy (1993), and Allmen (1996) found that past per-

formance (i.e., at high school) was a good predictor of future

(i.e., university) performance in the fields of management,business, and economic studies. Similarly, Duff (2004) used

linear regression analyses to test the explanatory power of

students approaches to learning, their gender and age, and

their prior academic performance on the subsequent aca-

demic achievement. The analysis outcome suggested that

prior academic attainment was the strongest predicting vari-

able of accounting and business economics students first-

year academic performance. Based on these findings, the

extent of the impact of student preuniversity performance

and experience on performance at undergraduate business

schools can be tested through the following hypotheses:

H3: The performance of Saudi Arabian undergraduate busi-

ness students with a higher secondary school GPA

would be significantly better than those with a lower

GPA.


ness students who graduated from scientific high schools

would be significantly higher than those who graduated

from nonscientific high schools.

Fewer studies (i.e., Drennan & Rohde, 2002; Jackling,

Russell, & Anderson, 1994; Rohde & Kavanogh, 1996b)

have focused on managerial accounting courses. Jackling

et al. examined the influence of relaxing the condition of

the prerequisite of basic managerial accounting (basic fi-

nancial accounting) on the performance on the managerialaccounting course and the influence of a students level of

understanding English language on his or her performance

in the basic accounting courses. Their results suggest that,

under certain circumstances, waiving the prerequisite has a

negative impact on student performance. This result, how-

ever, could not be generalized. The level of understanding

English was not found to have a significant effect on the

student performance in the basic accounting courses. On the

other hand, Rohde and Kavanagh searched for the factors

affecting student performance in a course on the principles

of management accounting. The most important variable to

help predict student performance was the course grade in the

prerequisite course (Introduction to Financial Accounting).

Considering that financial accounting courses differ in many

aspects from managerial accounting courses, the effect of one

on the other is questionable. To discover if the results reached

can be confirmed or contradicted, the following hypothesis

was tested:

H5: The Saudi Arabian undergraduate students who perform

better in the financial accounting course would also per-

form significantly better in the management accounting

courses.

Drennan and Rohde (2002) studied the factors expected

to have an effect on student performance in AMA in an

Australian university. They found that the performance of

students whose mother tongue was not English in Introduc-

tion to Managerial Accounting was relatively poor whereas

their performance was good in AMA. Also, they found thatthe student performance in AMA was better for those who

studied its prerequisite at the same university than for those

who had taken the prerequisite somewhere else. The admis-

sion procedure, which was not specifically addressed in this

study, but which can be inferred from its findings, may cor-

relate with the student performance in managerial courses

and overall. In the year 2000, the acceptance procedure and

criteria changed at the School of Business to which the Ac-

counting Department belongs. To test the possible effect of

such changes on academic performance, the following hy-

pothesis was developed:

H6: The performance of Saudi Arabian business students

entering the University after the year 2000 would be

significantly higher than those who entered before the

year 2000.

Although accounting courses share some similarities, they

sometimes differ widely from each other. The relationship

between student performance in the first year accounting

courses and the following year accounting courses was in-

vestigated by Augeung (1991). The results confirm a strong

relationship between student performance in the Introduction

to Accounting course and in the advanced financial account-

ing course. To extend their analysis to examine if the re-

lation among introduction to management accounting, cost

accounting, and advanced management accounting is alsostrong, the following hypothesis was set forth:

H7: The Saudi Arabian undergraduate students who per-

form better in a managerial accounting course would

also significantly perform better in the other managerial

accounting courses.

Other researchers endeavored to identify different fac-

tors that may affect student performance in nonaccounting

courses. For example, Anderson, Benjamin, and Fuss (1994)
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examined the possible impact of the students ability in math-

ematics in high school on his or her performance in the basic

economics course. They found a significant positive corre-

lation. On the other hand, in an earlier study, Ely and Hittle

(1990)could notfind such an effect of student ability in math-

ematics on the performance in the business finance course.

Because managerial accounting uses mathematics in a deeper

manner than the other accounting courses, it was expected

that students with good understanding of mathematics would

perform better in management accounting courses, and so

the following hypothesis was set forth:

H8: The SaudiArabian undergraduatestudentsachieving bet-

ter in preuniversity mathematics would perform signif-

icantly better in the university management accounting

courses than those whose achievement in mathematics

is poorer.

Mathematical ability can significantly affect graduate and

undergraduate business studies given thatmany of the courses

at business schools rely on mathematics. Based on that, thefollowing hypothesis was developed:


ness students who have done well in preuniversity math-

ematics would be significantly higher than those whose

achievement in preuniversity mathematics is poor.

Course scheduling and load could have an effect on the

student performance. The likely influence of course schedul-

ing during the week was investigated by Henebry (1997),

who focused on the financial management course. Henebrys

results show that the likelihood of passing the course when

it is scheduled for more than one meeting during the week is

higher than when if there is only one long meeting during theweek. The probability of the load effect was examined in a

recent study by Mustafa and Chiang (2006), who suggested

that course materials and course content do affect the quality

of higher education. Because the time and load of the course

are expected to affect performance in the course, also time

and load of all other courses, which can be measured by the

number of registered hours, are expected to negatively affect

the individual courses and overall performance. That is be-

cause a high load means less time available for homework

and examination preparation for individual courses and vice

versa. Based on this, the following hypotheses were devel-

oped:

H10: Saudi Arabian undergraduate students with a small load

would perform significantly better in the university man-

agement accounting courses as compared to those with

a large load.


ness students with a small load would be significantly

higher as compared to those with a large load.

Other factors, such as class size, course problems, atten-

dance, student personality, and instructors attributes, could

have an effect on a university students academic perfor-

mance. Naser and Peel (1998) found out that the class size,

the instructors character and personality, the students effort,

and the course problems are the factors most influencing stu-

dent performance in the Introduction to Accounting course.

Paisey and Paisey (2004) identified potential causes behind

student absences from classes and found a strong positive

relationship between student attendance and performance in

an accounting module. The possible effect of a students

personality was studied by Nguyen, Allen, and Fraccastoro

(2005). They used data of 368 undergraduate and graduate

students of a university business course. Anxiety was found

to be positively and significantly predicting overall GPA,

whereas the other personality characteristics such as agree-

ableness, extroversion, emotionality, and intellect had some

impact on the final course grade and overall GPA. The influ-

ence of emotionality and intellect, however, depended on the

students gender. Mustafa and Chiang (2006) endeavored to

identify the quality dimensions in higher education and how

they were related to instructor ability and attitudes, coursematerial, and load and the amount of knowledge provided.

The results, which were based on analyzing 485 question-

naires, suggest that the key factors affecting the quality of

higher education are teacher ability and attitude. The mean

comparison analysis showed that students with a high GPA

perceive course content to be more important for enhancing

education quality, whereas the students with low GPAs per-

ceived that a teachers superior performance enhanced course

content.

Although the literature on this subject has highlighted

various factors affecting student performance either in a par-

ticular course or in general, other factors that may affect

performance in accounting studies were not discussed. Theterm load, the type of high school, the term length and the

student major are further factors that have the potential to

have an impact on accounting student performance, and they

need to be investigated. These variables are addressed and

discussed in this study.

DATA COLLECTION AND DESCRIPTIVEANALYSIS

The sample used in this study (312 students) was randomly

selected from students registering during the academic years

2000, 2001, and 2002. These particular years were chosenbecause, as the normal stay at the university is 4 years, those

students should have graduated, and they would have studied

all three courses. The data sample was collected from the

students present and permanent files kept in the university

registration system, to which I was given access, through

two steps. First, the data regarding the university academic

performance was gathered from the students present files,

files which contain information about the students academic

transcripts, all semesters details, such as registered hours,
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TABLE 1

Number of Students Who Either Received or

Did Not Receive a Grade in the Course

Status MA CA AMA

Received a grade 219 187 90

Did not receive a grade 93 125 222

Total sample 312 312 312

Note. Students who did not receive a grade either dropped the

course or had chosen different major (other than accounting) or left

the university.

passed hours, term GPA, overall GPA, and specialization.

Second, the other data were collected from the students

permanent files, files that contain preuniversity information

such as high school transcripts, date of birth, addresses, and

special needs. Table 1 shows the number of students in the

sample who received a grade in the management accounting

courses.

TheMA courseis in Level 4 (second year),and allstudents

in the college must take and pass it. A high percentage (30%

= 93 students) did not receive a grade in that course, which

means that nearly one third of the students in Level 4 had left

the university (withdrawal or dismissal). The CA course is in

Level 6 (third year) and must be taken by business students

in addition to accounting students. The number of students

who received a grade in the CA course was 187 whereas 125

(40%) did not get a grade in the course, which means that 30

(12593) students (10%) had left the college during their

third year. The AMA course is in Level 8, the last semester

(in the fourth year) and taken only by accounting students.

The total number of students in the sample who graduated inaccounting was only ninety students. Table 2 represents the

number and percentage of the sample students in each grade.

Very few students (< 2%) received an A+ or A in the MA

course, and even fewer (1.6%) in the CA course. Nobody

received an A+ or A in the AMA course. The number of

students who got a B (4 points) or more is 6 (6.4%) in the

MA course, 5 (5.9%) in the CA course, and 2 (2.2%) in the

AMA course. The vast majority of the students who passed

the courses (MA, CA, AMA) received between a D and

C+. On the other hand, 88 students (40%) failed the MA

course, 55 students (29%) failed the CA course, and fewer

(22%) failed the AMA course. This data may suggest that

the performance of students in the management courses did

not follow a normal distribution.

By looking at the term GPA and the overall GPA of the

sample, which is illustrated in Table 3, it is noticeable that

very few students got a GPA of 4.0 or over (between 1% and

3% in all cases). The great majority of the students (between

35% and 72%) had a GPA lower than 2.5. According to the

university rules, a student with an overall GPA lower than

2.00 gets a warning and if the student could not improve his

or her overall GPA to 2.00 or more for a number of terms

(normally three), the student would be asked to leave the

university. The percentage of those students who were at risk

of being dismissed was 18% in Year 2, 5% in Year 3, and

1% in Year 4. Looking at the term performance, I noticed

substantial development because in Term 4 more than 60%of the sample students had an overall GPA lower than 2.5,

but in Term 8 more than 60% of the sample students had

an overall GPA higher than 2.5. One possible reason of this

is that the more time (terms) a student spends at university,

the better the student understands and the better the student

performs because, with time, the student gets used to the

culture, system, and teaching style of the university, and he

or she also is more mature.

Statistical Analysis and Hypothesis Testing

The hypotheses used in this research were of the alternative

hypothesis format, which suggest an existence of an effect orrelationship between variables. Such an effect or relationship

was examined, and, if the hypothesis is proven, it would

be possible to improve the academic performance by the

affecting variables. The most widely used measurement of

the students future academic performance was his or her

past accomplishment. Normally, students with backgrounds

in a subject are expected to do better than others with no

TABLE 2

Number and Percentage of Students in Each Grade

Course Grade MA (n = 219) CA (n = 187) AMA (n = 90)

Symbol Points Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %

A+ 5 1 0.5 0 0.0 0 0.0

A 4.75 3 1.4 3 1.6 0 0.0

B+ 4.5 4 1.8 3 1.6 1 1.1

B 4 6 2.7 5 2.7 1 1.1

C+ 3.5 16 7.3 3 1.6 5 5.6

C 3 19 8.7 16 8.6 17 18.9

D+ 2.5 25 11.4 21 11.2 19 21.1

D 2 57 26.0 81 43.3 27 30.0

F 1 88 40.2 55 29.4 20 22.2
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TABLE 3

Student Term and Overall Performance During the Three Academic Terms

MA (n = 219) CA (n = 187) AMA (n = 90)

Term GPA Overall GPA Term GPA Overall GPA Term GPA Overall GPA

n % n % n % n % n % n % Grade

4 2 3 1 6 3 1 1 2 2 1 1 4.0

41 19 14 6 33 18 17 9 27 30 15 17 3.03.99

40 18 43 20 60 32 48 26 29 32 30 33 2.52.99

66 30 119 54 40 21 111 59 19 21 43 48 2.02.49

68 31 40 19 48 26 10 5 13 14 1 1 < 2.00

background. To examine this case in managerial accounting,

I divided the sample into students who had studied at least

one accounting course at high school and those who had not.

The mean comparison results are disclosed in Table 4.

Students with preuniversity accounting backgrounds per-

formed slightly better (not significantly) in the MA course,

and this, to some extent, contradicts the findings of Doran etal.(1991) andthoseof Al-Twaijry (2005), but they areconsis-

tent with those of Jackling and Anderson (1998). However,

in the CA course, students without such backgrounds per-

formed slightly better (not significantly). On the other hand,

students who had some experience in accounting before uni-

versity did significantly (p .20) effect of

the preuniversity accounting background on term and over-

all GPA. It seems that, although preuniversity accounting

backgrounds may help students understand some topics in

accounting, it is not very helpful, and so it may not be con-

sidered as an influencing factor on overall performance inundergraduate accounting.

On the other hand, students who do well at high school

are also expected to do well at university. To find out to what

extent this was true, I compared the performance of students

with a high school grade of 77.5 or higher to those with a

grade lower than 77.5. This specific point was chosen be-

cause, normally, the high school grades of students admitted

to thebusiness school at QassimUniversityrange between 70

and 85, with an average of 77.5. Table 5 reveals the statistical

analysis.

Students who performed better before university did sig-

nificantly better (p


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TABLE 5

Course Mean Comparison Using a 77.5 High School Grade Cut-Off Point

Course Grade (%) n M SD t Sig. (2-tailed)

MA 77.50 105 2.138 1.052 2.585 .011

< 77.50 86 1.770 0.880

CA 77.50 92 2.073 0.816 1.594 .113

< 77.50 71 1.866 0.832AMA 77.50 49 2.194 0.783 0.548 .586

< 77.50 32 2.094 0.837

language. To examine to what extent the type of high school

may affect undergraduate business student performance, we

used ttest, the results of which shows that there were no sig-

nificant differences (p>.25 in terms and overall) in the GPAs

between students from scientific high schools and those from

other high schools. Thus H4 must be rejected. At present, the

Business College at Qassim University prefers students form

scientific high schools to others, but as these findings sug-

gest, the school type should not be considered as a dominantfactor influencing the admission decision. On the other hand,

the admissionminimum acceptance level of high school GPA

should be increased.

Probably, management accounting courses use mathemat-

icsmore than financial accounting, andso students with a bet-

ter understanding (i.e., higher grades) of mathematics were

expected to do better in these three management courses

(MA, CA, and AMA). Using the mean comparison of grade

in the course between students with a grade in mathematics

equal to 65 (the average grade of the sample students) or

more and others with less than 65 in mathematics, the only

significant (p = .07) difference in means was found in the

MA course, and so we do not reject H8 for the MA course.This result is consistent with Al-Twaijrys (2005) findings

regarding the effect of mathematics achievement on the stu-

dent performance in financial accounting. In the other two

courses (CA and AMA), and also in the term and overall

GPA, student mathematics skill had no significant effect on

his performance. As a result, H8 for CA and AMA and also

H9 cannot be accepted. A possible reason behind the non-

significant effect of the preuniversity mathematics capabil-

ity on the school of business student performance, although

mathematics is used in most of the courses, is either that

mathematics content or teaching technique is different.

Development in higher education is dynamic. Admission

procedures, course contents, and syllabi change over time.

To examine whether the changes introduced in the year 2000helped students in their academic performance and achieve

better grades, we compared the performance (measured by

course grade, passed hours, and GPA) for students enrolled

at the college before the academic year 2000 and those who

enrolled either in year 2000 or after. Table 7 shows the Mann-

Whitney U results.

Students entering the university in the year 2000 or later

performed significantly better (p .20) in all three terms (4, 6, 8). The term GPA was

better for those matriculating in the year 2000 or later, but

the mean differences were not significant except at the 15%

level for Terms 4 and 8 and not significant at all for Term 6.

Therefore, H6 must be rejected for term performance. On the

TABLE 6

Term and Overall GPAs Means Comparison Using a 77.5 High School Grade Cutoff Point

Course Grade (%) n M SD t Sig. (2-tailed)

Term 4 GPA 77.50 105 2.421 0.718 1.899 .059

< 77.50 86 2.223 0.714Term 6 GPA 77.50 92 2.511 0.668 1.320 .189

< 77.50 71 2.377 0.612

Term 8 GPA 77.50 49 2.696 0.649 1.393 .168

< 77.50 32 2.503 0.545

Overall GPA (Term 4) 77.50 105 2.463 0.476 2.955 .004

< 77.50 86 2.271 0.410

Overall GPA (Term 6) 77.50 92 2.540 0.408 2.889 .004

< 77.50 71 2.362 0.366

Overall GPA (Term 8) 77.50 49 2.670 0.420 1.915 .059

< 77.50 32 2.485 0.431
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TABLE 7

Course, Passed Hours, and GPA Means Comparison Using an Academic Year 2000 Cutoff Point

Term Course Test Course grade Passed hours Term GPA Overall GPA

Four Mean Comparison A > B A > B A > B A > B

MA Mann-Whitney U 4589.500 5120.000 4910.50 3685.00

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.015 0.248 0.107 0.000

Six Mean Comparison A < B A > B A > B A > BCA Mann-Whitney U 4166.500 4124.500 3986.50 3068.00

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.922 0.833 0.556 0.002

Eight Mean Comparison A < B A > B A > B A > B

AMA Mann-Whitney U 934.500 986.000 804.50 756.00

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.560 0.879 0.105 0.044

A = entered the college on or after the year 2000, B = entered college before year 2000.

other hand, students enrolled in the year 2000 or later gen-

erally (overall GPA) performed significantly better (p


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TABLE 9

Correlation Between Performance of MA, CA, and AMA

Correlations

MA CA AMA

Spearmans rho Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .200 .239

MA Sig. (2-tailed) .006 .023N 219 187 90

Correlation Coefficient .200 1.000 .179

CA Sig. (2-tailed) .006 .092

N 187 187 90

Correlation Coefficient .239 .179 1.000

AMA Sig. (2-tailed) .023 .092

N

90 90 90

Correlation is significant at the .01 level (2-tailed)Correlation is significant at the .05 level (2-tailed).

TABLE 10

Comparison Between Registered and Term Hours Passed

Term Description Min Max M SD

4 (MA; n = 219) # of hours registered in the term 5 17 13.94 3.13

# of hours passed 0 17 10.25 4.69

6 (CA; n = 187) # of hours registered in the term 5 18 15.24 2.35

# of hours passed 0 18 12.19 4.14

8 (AMA; n = 90) # of hours registered in the term 5 20 15.54 2.83

# of hours passed 0 20 13.91 4.04

with low overall GPA in order forthem to do better. To test the

effect of the number of term hours on student performance

on the three courses and whether lighter loads result in better

performance, we ran a t test, and the results are shown in

Table 11.

Forthe MA course, which is given in thesecond year,there

wasa significant difference (p.10)

between the means, and so we must rejectH10. These results,

however, contrast with what is expected from the students.

We may thus infer that students with more hours are more

conscientious than others and work harder, whereas students

with fewer hours do not care as much because they think they

can pass a few courses without having to worry too much and

subsequently they neglect their studies. Table 12 compares

the term GPA means between students with more than 15 hr

and those with equal to or fewer than 15 registered hours per

week.

From the previous mean comparison statistical analysis,

in all three terms (4, 6 8), the term GPA means of students

taking more than 15 hr were significantly better than were

those of students with fewer hours per week. In Terms 4

and 6, the difference is significant at the 1% level, but the

means differences in Term 8 are only significant at the 10%

level. These results lead us to reject H11, thus restricting

the students with a low GPA to fewer weekly registered

hours, which may not be an encouraging decision and a

better alternative should be sought.

TABLE 11Course Mean Comparison Using a 15-hr Cutoff Point

Course Registered hours n M SD t Sig. (2-tailed)

MA > 15 69 2.370 1.100 3.680 .000

15 150 1.840 0.949

CA > 15 61 2.120 0.937 1.228 .221

15 126 1.950 0.851

AMA > 15 41 2.200 0.765 0.110 .913

15 49 2.210 0.866
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TABLE 12

Term GPA Mean Comparison Using a 15-hr Cutoff Point

Variable Registered hours n M SD t Sig. (2-tailed)

Term 4 GPA > 15 69 2.637 0.799 4.079 .000

15 150 2.215 0.667

Term 6 GPA > 15 61 2.793 0.528 5.031 .000

15 126 2.294 0.682Term 8 GPA > 15 41 2.812 0.597 1.93 .057

15 49 2.557 0.653

FURTHER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this section more findings are presented and discussed.

The relationship between management accounting courses

and the other undergraduate courses reflects the level of con-

sistency between them. The extent of relationship between

the students performance in each of the three management

accounting courses and his general (term and all) perfor-

mance are measured by the Spearman test, the results ofwhich are shown in Table 13.

Spearmans results confirm the strong, significant corre-

lations between student performance in the courses (MA,

CA, and AMA) and student performance in the other courses

(term GPA). Also, there are significant (but weaker) corre-

lations between the performance in these individual courses

and the students general performance at a university level

(overall GPA). Table 14 shows the correlation results between

four semesters. Term 3 was included because it contains FA,

and the others are Terms 4, 6, and 8.

The strongest relationships were found between student

performance in Term 6 and in Term 8 (Pearson correlation=

. 53). There were also strong relationships between the per-formance in Terms 3 and 4 (Pearson correlation = .47) and

between performance in Terms 3 and 8 (Person correlation

= .46). However, the correlation between Terms 4 and 6 was

weaker (Pearson correlation = .37). The weakest relation-

ship was between Terms 3 and 6. All these correlations are

significant at the 1% level.

TABLE 13

Correlation (Spearmans Rho) Between Course

Performance (MA, CA, and AMA)and General

Performance (Term and Overall GPA)

Course Variable Term GPA Overall GPA

MA Correlation coefficient .694 .554

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000

n 219 219

CA Correlation coefficient .605 .357

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000

n 187 187

AMA Correlation coefficient .637 .464

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000

n 90 90

Two of three management accounting courses (MA and

CA) are required to be taken nonaccounting students. By

comparing the performance of accounting students to nonac-

counting students in these courses, we found that the mean

performance(grade) of accounting students in theMA course

(2.34) was significantly (p = .000) better than that of the

nonaccounting students (1.77). Also the accounting student

performance in the CA course (2.16) was significantly (p


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TABLE 14

Correlations Between Four Semesters: Term 2 (with FA) and Terms 4, 6, and 8

Semester Correlation Term 4 GPA Term 6 GPA Term 8 GPA

Term 3 GPA Pearson correlation .47 .24 .46

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .002 .000

n 204 174 83

Term 4 GPA Pearson correlation .37 .41Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000

n 187 90

Term 6 GPA Pearson correlation .53

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

n 90

terms (2.11). In the CA course, there were no significant

(p >.30) differences, either in the course performance or in

the term GPA. Nevertheless, a significant difference exists

when examining the results for the AMA course. Students

who studied AMA in normal terms performed better (2.27)

than those who had taken the course in summer term (1.20).

In fact, 4 out of 5 (80%) students who studied AMA in the

summer term failed in the course. The general performance

in all term courses (Term GPA) was significantly (p = .086)

higher in the normal terms. One probable reason of the weak

performance in the summer term is the level of absence, and

this, as reported by Paisey and Paisey (2004), has a negative

influence on academic performance. From these results, we

conclude that it would be better not to offer AMA in the

summer term. Otherwise, the absenteeism problem must be

resolved. The case is, however, more flexible in the MA and

CA courses. In other words, there must be a careful selection

of the courses that can be offered during summer semester,

course with which the students can cope.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Many problems are associated with weak student perfor-

mance at the university level. To eliminate such problems, a

sufficient amount of research must be undertaken to uncover

ways to enhance student academic performance. However,

in the present study, we have attempted to identify factors

which may affect accounting student performance in Saudi

Arabia, mainly in the management accounting courses as

well as more generally. Student performance in management

accounting courses was very weak. The failing percentagegoes up to 50%, and the great majority of students (up to

80%) who passed the course(s), got low marks (D to C). In

terms of general performance (term and overall GPA), over

60% of the sampled students had a GPA lower than 2.50 in

Term 4. Although this percentage has improved when going

to the higher level (Terms 6 and 8), it is still high (4550%).

There was evidence of a significant effect of preuniversity

academic ability on the MA course and on overall perfor-

mance. The preuniversity accounting background was only

found to have significant impact on theAMA course, whereas

the preuniversity mathematics ability was found to signifi-

cantly affect student performance in the MA course. How-

ever, no effects related to the type of high school were de-

tected on the student undergraduate performance. Student

performance in the Financial Accounting course did signif-

icantly correlate to the performance in the subsequent MA

and AMA courses, but its correlation to the CA was weak.

There is also evidence of a significant relationship between

the student performance in the MA course and performance

in both CM and AMA, but the correlation between CA and

AMA was weaker. On the other hand, it was evidenced that

students with a better performance in the MA, CA, and AMA

also performed significantly better in the other term courses

and in the university courses more generally. Moreover, the

analysis of the research shows that student performances in

Terms 3, 4, 6, and 8 are significantly correlated, emphasizing

that the strongest correlation coefficient is between Terms 6

and 8 whereas the weakest coefficient exists between Terms

3 and 6.

The number of weekly registered hours was expected to

have a negative impact on the student performance, but, in

fact, it did not. The results of the MA course and Term 4 GPA

were amazing because a significant positive relation existed

between performance and the number of registered hours. On

the other hand, it was evident that students who entered the

university in the year 2000 or later performed significantly

betterin theMA courseand overall.The comparison between

accounting and nonaccounting student performance proved

that accounting students had outperformed nonaccounting

students even in the nonaccounting courses. Moreover, the

performance comparison between normal terms and summerterms confirmed that, in general, students perform better in

normal terms.

Based on these findings, we suggest that high school

student selection criteria should concentrate more on high

school performance, and more attention should be placed

on the undergraduate new students and introductory courses.

Relaxing the restriction on the number of weekly hours for

which students with lower GPA can register might enhance

term performance. The accounting curriculum and course
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