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Determinants of academic achievement in Japanese university students: gender, study skills, and choice of university

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Abstract

This study analyses the determinants of academic achievement among Japanese university students. Based on a survey conducted by a Japanese educational think tank, this study confirms that female students record significantly higher academic achievement levels compared to their male counterparts, which is in line with the findings of most previous studies. This result is partly explained by the gender differences in students’ study skills at the university level. Further, the analysis reveals that the study skills attained by students at high school are maintained and affect their academic achievement at the university level. Although enrolment in one’s preferred university increases a student’s academic achievement, selecting a university based on the recommendations of others or according to the type of entrance examination lowers achievement. Further, receiving comparatively large monetary allowances from parents or earning significant amounts of money from part-time employment can potentially lower students’ academic achievement. Subgroup estimations—such as those for national universities, private universities, and different faculties—confirm the robustness of the current study’s results. According to the quantile regression model, although the effects of gender on academic achievement decrease with increasing quantiles, they remain significant at all quantiles.

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Fig. 1

Data availability

The data might be requested to the Social Science Japan Data Archive, Center for Social Research and Data Archives, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo, Japan.

Notes

  1. There are a large number of studies regarding the relations between study skills and academic achievement (Indreica et al. 2011; Bulent et al. 2015). Bakar et al. (2010) implies that learning style is correlated with gender and academic achievement.

  2. Arquero et al. (2009) point out that the motives, expectations, and interests of subjects are important factors for academic achievement; however, very few studies investigate the relationship between the reason for choice of university and academic achievement.

  3. To assess these three categories, there are 11, 12, and 22 questions for each category in this survey and each respondent was required to select one of the following responses for each question: (1) absolutely not applicable, (2) not very applicable, (3) quite applicable, and (4) very applicable. We converted these responses into the numerical values by factor analyses.

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Funding

Funding was provided by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant No. 18K01652).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aichi Gakuin University, Nagoya, Japan

    Mamiko Takeuchi

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  1. Mamiko Takeuchi
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Correspondence to Mamiko Takeuchi.

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Takeuchi, M. Determinants of academic achievement in Japanese university students: gender, study skills, and choice of university. SN Soc Sci 2, 83 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-022-00388-7

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