REICE. Revista Iberoamericana sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educación

Socioeconomic Background and Academic Achievement.
The Case of an Argentine University

Carlos Cristóbal Coschiza, Juan Martín Fernández, Guillermo Gapel Redcozub,
Marcelo E. Nievas and Haraví E. Ruiz

The aim of our research is to assess the relationships between socioeconomic characteristics of students in undergraduate courses of Northeastern University (UNNE, Argentina) and their academic results using statistical regression, and to compare the findings with the ones obtained in similar studies in other national universities. There is strong evidence that variables of Socioeconomic Status (SES) are significant in explaining the differences in academic achievement between students of the several schools. The variables used as indicators of high SES presented a positive correlation, and variables that were used as indicators of lower SES have presented a negative correlation. The variables female sex, age, married marital status and inactive employment status are associated with better academic performance, while the variables number of children of the student, busy employment status, employment status, medical coverage, and beneficiary of social plans are related to lower academic performance. Regarding gender, the most important finding is that female students with children have lower performance than male students with children.

Educational policy, Higher education, Academic achievement, Socioeconomic background, Latin America, Case studies.

Coschiza, C.C., Martín Fernández, J., Gapel, G., Nievas, M.E., & Ruiz, H.U. (2016). Características socioeconómicas y rendimiento académico. El caso de una universidad argentina. [Socioeconomic background and academic achievement. The case of an Argentine university]. REICE. Revista Iberoamericana sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educación, 14(3), 51-76.
doi:10.15366/reice2016.14.3.003