SOME CORRELATES OF UNIVERSITY PERFORMANCE IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY: THE CASE OF ETIDOPIA

Abstract

Language background, educational backgrounds, and scores on a variety of
achievement and aptitude tests were examined for their relation to the first semester
performance of 1,213 freshman students at the Haile Sellassie I University in
Ethiopia.
Among the test data proficiency in English language skills was most strongly
related to university grade. Scores from all tests requiring English language skills
were moderately to strongly inter-related, and showed moderate relations to performance.
Scores from tests requiring skill in the official Ethiopian language, Amharic
predicated poorly to univer ity performance, and te ts of mathematic-numerical
ability showed intermediate but weak predicative utility.
The only language or educational background data related to performance was
educational mobility, the students tendency to move to areas of greater educational
re ources during their pre-univer ity education. This mobility probably reflects strong
motivation for education, a factor which deserves further research attention.
A major problem facing developing countries is a scarcity of indigenous, university
trained people. Sending students abroad for training has proven an unsatisfactory
solution to the problem. Many students fail to return from their studies
abroad and those who do return often suffer erious conflicts in values, resulting
in a diminished contribution to development.
Establi hing university training within the country has been seen as a more
effective long range solution. But for developing countries, higher education represents
an enormous expenditure compared with more immediate needs for development.
This fact heightens the importance of maximizing the utilization of this
scarce and costly training.
The common approach to maximization of training is to carefully screen
students for admidssion to the university, and to admit only those who are most
likely of complete their studies. This approach is highly developed in western
countries where universities u e a variety of fairly objective criteria for admission,
such as high school grades and standardized aptitude and achievement tests.
Developing countries have increa ingly adopted this approach. However, the
myriad of factors which mitigate against development may also limit the value of admi sion criteria used in we tern universities. Among these (actor
hcterog\;neity, primary and secondary education of poor and uneven
communication about educational opportunities, limited geographic
heterogenous cultural values.
are language
quality, poor
mobility and
Although these factors are generally recognized by educators in the developing
countries, little is known about the way in which they affect the performance
f university tudent. The research reported here wa designed to examine the relation
to university performance of both the we tern criteria of aptitude and achievement
tests and two of the factors noted above, the language and educational
background of students.