Factors Affecting the Students’ Academic Performance: A Cross-Sectional Study of a Public University in Bangladesh

Abstract

The study was intended to investigate the factors that affect students’ academic performance. Primary data were collected from the 100 undergraduate students via face-to-face interviews purposively sampled from the various academic departments of Noakhali Science and Technology University (NSTU), Bangladesh. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to analyze the data.  The study identified four categories of factors such as personal factors, social factors, psychological factors, and institutional factors that affect students’ academic performance. The study found that the personal factors involving gender, class participation, personal interests in academic majors and daily study hour, social factors involving family support, social media usage and teachers’ guidance, and institutional factors involving internet facilities, availability of books in central library and lab facilities positively affect students’ academic performance while psychological factors involving students’ level of depression, level of anxiety and the level of frustration negatively affect their academic performance . All associations were found to be statistically significant (p< 0.05).  The study suggested that students’ families and university should come forward to strengthen their academic support and guidance that would result in their better academic performance.