Socio-economic background and performance of the students at Presidency University in Bangladesh

Abstract

The study seeks to consider socio-economic background of the students enrolled at PU with a view to assessing individual performances and improvements. The assessment covers comparative achievements of different school of PU namely Business, Engineering and Liberal Arts and Social Science. Since performances of the students depend on the University curricula and quality of the faculties and also on parent/ guardian’s income level, gender, religion, accommodation arrangement, past academic background and socio-economic and cultural status, the paper tries to statistically evaluate comparative importance of factors behind their performances. The analysis attempted to collect data through population survey (SIMS), but had to rely on random sample survey as required data were not available in SIMS, and regressions were run to evaluate comparative importance of the factors. The results showed that parents’ income and father’s education level have influence on academic performance of a student.Past academic track records of the students plays an important role in university achievements. Business school seems to be performing better than other schools. Further, the results recommend choice of career preferences of the students, opportunities and alternative options for better job opportunities. As most students were found to prefer job and Business students like it in banks/financial institutions and Engineering students in construction and telecommunications industries, the university may be recommended to take appropriate policy package.