Abstract
This study reveals issues regarding academic failures among accounting students. Employing a qualitative approach, this paper draws on data from open-ended questionnaire surveys distributed to those students who failed one of the intermediate accounting courses offered at undergraduate level. A total of 38 undergraduate students form a sample for this study. The findings indicate the key reasons of failures are poor time management, overconfidence, lack of doing tutorial exercises or revisions, lecturer teach too fast, do not focus in class and personal deficiency. A few suggestions to improve academic performance based on students’ perspective are highlighted. The research findings contribute new dimensions in understanding the reasons behind a high failure rate and ways to overcome this issue. These findings are particularly beneficial to lecturers in planning their teaching methods so as to reduce the percentage of academic failure rate among accounting graduates.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2000). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Eskew, R. K., & Faley, R. H. (1988). Some determinants of students’ performance in the first college-level financial accounting course. The Accounting Review, 63(1), 137–147.
Gracia, L., & Jenkins, E. (2002). An exploration of students’ performance on an undergraduate accounting programme of study. Accounting Education, 11(1), 93–107.
Gul, F. A., & Fong, S. C. C. (1993). Predicting success for introductory accounting students: Some further Hong Kong evidence.
Harman, G. (2004). New directions in internationalizing higher education: Australia’s development as an exporter of higher education services. Higher Education Policy, 17, 101–120.
Nik Zam, N. W., Noraida, S., Roslina, S. S., & Marziana, M. M. (2014). FAR400: Reasons for higher failure rate from UiTM Kelantan Students’ and Lecturers’ perspectives. Prosiding Kolokium Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran UiTM Ke 2, June 3–5, 2014.
Peelo, M. (2002). Setting the scene. In M. Peelo & T. Wareham (Eds.), Failing students in higher education (pp. 1–12). Buckingham: SRHE/Open University Press.
Principe, H. R. (2005). Factors influencing students’ academic performance in the first accounting course: A comparative study between public and private universities in Puerto Rico. A dissertation thesis for Doctor in Business Administration.
Rasimah, A., Zurina, R., Yeop, U., & Anuar, M. (2008). Students’ learning styles and academic performance. In 22nd Annual SAS Malaysia Forum, July 15th, 2008. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur Convention Center.
Suhaiza, I., & Nuramariah, K. (2011). Accounting for Non-Accounting students: What’s affect their performance? Journal of Technical Education and Training, 3(2), 19–31.
Susilawati, A., & Salwana, S. (2011). Determinants of student performance in management accounting. In 2nd International Conference on Business and Economic Research.
Wald, S. P., Wilson, T. E., Jr., & Ward, D. R. (1994). Students’ assessment of factors contributing to failure in the first accounting course. Physiological Report, 75(1), 29–30.
Wong, D. S. N., & Chia, Y. M. (1996). English language, mathematics, and first-year financial accounting performance: A research note. Accounting Education, 5(2), 183–189.
Young, R., & Aoun, C. (2008). Generic skills to reduce failure rates in an undergraduate accounting information course. Asian Social Science, 4(10), 60–70.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the management of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Kedah for supporting this research and the students for participating in this research. Also, we would like to thank participants of Accounting Colloquium UiTM Kedah for their constructive comments. However, all the contents in this paper are of the authors’ responsibilities.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Mohd Saad, S., Marzuki, M., Saidon, I.M., Ghani, N.A. (2018). Why They Didn’t Make It? The Untold Story. In: Said, R., Mohd Sidek, N., Azhar, Z., Anuar Kamarudin, K. (eds) State-of-the-Art Theories and Empirical Evidence. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6926-0_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6926-0_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-6924-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-6926-0
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)