Initiatives to Improve the Academic Performance of Finance Undergraduate Students – a Case Study

Falling student academic performance, in particular increasing undergraduate finance student fail rates necessitated the implementation of a new ethos of student learning. The approach adopted in this case study comprised a compulsory attendance requirement, specific study incentives and improved student access to academic staff. Students were required to attend 70% of lectures and tutorials. Further, to encourage a new study ethos, an incentive was provided in that students were advised that questions on the final exam paper would be selected from the semester tutorial exercise questions. Student consultation hours were increased. The case study initiatives were applied in semester 1, 1998 and the results compared with semesters 1 and 2, 1997. The student cohort was 159, 144 and 113 students respectively. Student fail rates reached a high of 74.34% in 1997, but with the implementation of the compulsory attendance and study incentive approach the fail rate fell significantly to 19.50%. Furthermore, academic performance improved across the total student cohort.