International Journal of Mathematics And Computer Research

Abstract

The performance of Malaysian Matriculation graduates has gained attention from local universities
and researchers, and is always compared with STPM, Diploma and Foundation graduates. This
study aims to evaluate the factors that contribute to academic performance of Matriculation
students. The factors considered were grouped into four categories; demographic, financial, prior
education, and current education. Two datasets (cohorts) were gathered from a Matriculation
college administration system. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression were used to
analyze the data. The results showed that prior education factors ranked first, followed by
demographic and current education. The most significant factor of prior education is SPM grade in
Mathematics.

Under Malaysia education system, SPM (Malaysian Certificate of Education) holders who plan to further their study at public universities (UAs) can apply for preuniversity programmes such as Form Six and Matriculation by the Ministry of Education (MOE) Malaysia, Diploma and Foundation by UAs. The Malaysian Matriculation Programme is a one or twoyear pre-university preparatory programme offered by MOE Malaysia with three streams; Science, Accountancy and Technical. It is designed to prepare students for undergraduate programmes at local and international universities [1]. The programme is currently operating at 12 Matriculation Colleges, three Technical Matriculation Colleges and two MARA Colleges. The curriculum is standardized by the Matriculation Division of MOE. The students will fill up application forms to enter undergraduate programmes at UAs through UPU (University Admission Unit) before the end of their programme. Starting 2016, the graduates are awarded the Matriculation Certificate to ease them in applying positions in the private and public sectors. However, the programme has shown a decline in its reputation as most students regard it as a second choice for pre-university programme. Even though they have enrolled as students, they can still withdraw if offered another programme. This is a common scenario in the first four weeks of the first semester. On average, 200 students per college would withdraw with approximately RM60,000 of parent’s money wasted for registration. Due to the shortage of students, Matriculation Division has to make new offers; additional costs to the management. The academic performance of Matriculation graduates has gained attention from local universities and researchers, and is always compared with STPM, Diploma and Foundation graduates. A study by Arsad et al. [2] found that Matriculation graduates performed fairly well compared to Diploma graduates in engineering degrees at UiTM (Universiti Teknologi MARA). Arzuman et al. [3] revealed that STPM (Malaysian Higher School Certificate) graduates performance is significantly better than Matriculation graduates in medical degrees. Nopiah et al. [4] found that Diploma and Matriculation graduates need more attention in their engineering programmes compared to STPM and Foundation graduates. These lead to a perception that STPM and Foundation are better than Matriculation [5]. The bad perception on Matriculation programme will eventually take toll to future students’ motivation and finally affect their retention on the programme. The Matriculation programme has been established for almost 20 years, and has opened up opportunities for many students as a preparation before taking undergraduate degrees. Thus, the quality and reputation of the programme should be maintained and enhanced by focusing on the factors that affect the academic performance. The objective of this study is to evaluate the factors that contribute to academic performance of Matriculation students and rank the factors according to their importance. The factors are restricted to the information obtained from administration data (demographic, financial, prior education, and current education). This study was conducted at one of the Matriculation colleges as the case study and limited to one-year programme and Science stream students. The findings showed that the most importance factors that affect the academic performance of students are prior education, followed by demographic and current education. The most significant factor of prior education is SPM grade in Mathematics. The financial factors (such as family income) were not significantly affecting the students’ performance.