Factors influencing college students’ academic achievement in Cambodia: a case study

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to address achievement gaps among Cambodian students attending an English higher education institution in Cambodia by exploring factors that contribute to their academic achievement. Using a hierarchical multiple regression on second-year students (N=215) and teachers (N=23), this study examined the relative influence of student engagement behaviors, students’ background characteristics, and teacher quality on students’ academic achievement. Both general and interaction effects by students’ geographical origins were examined. The results suggested a variety of factors that positively predicted student achievement: the importance of students investing more efforts in homework or given tasks and whole-class participation, students’ pre-college academic experience, teachers’ teaching experience and course workload and difficulty. Interaction effect existed between students’ pre-college academic experience and geographical origins. With these findings, some important implications for closing student achievement gaps are discussed.