Determining the profile of the successful first-year accounting student

Abstract

A concern about the pass rate in first-year accounting courses in higher education
has resulted in a number of national and international research projects on the
subject. Researchers have looked at the possible effect of factors such as the
student's proficiency in English, prior experience in accounting and mathematics,
gender, motivation and personality type on the pass rate at first-year accounting.
The outcomes of the research have been varied and often contradictory. This may
be attributed to the different research strategies in the different contexts. This article
maps the journey towards establishing an appropriate analysis strategy to profile
the successful Accounting101 student. The context of this journey is the teaching of
first-year accounting studies at the University of South Africa (Unisa), which is an
open and distance learning (ODL) institution.

South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 19 (4) 2005: pp.684-698