The Role of Academic History on the Academic Performance of Accounting Students in Universities in Ghana

Abstract

This study investigated the assertions made by early researchers on the role prior knowledge in Accounting has on the academic performance of university students in Ghana. It was designed to make a comparison on the differences in academic performance between students with Accounting background prior to gaining admission to pursue Accounting degree and those without prior Accounting knowledge. All the respondents included in the sample were university students pursuing a Bachelor degree programme in Accounting in both Private and Public universities in Ghana. A total of 250 students were sampled. This was made of 130 who pursued Accounting programme and 120 students who did not pursue Accounting programme at the Senior High School. Correlation and regression analyses were carried out and the finding was that, the subjects pursued at the senior high school has a relationship with the academic performance of university accounting students. In addition to this, a T-test was performed to assess the difference in the performance of the students, and it was revealed that there was no significant difference between students with prior Accounting background and those without accounting knowledge. It was also revealed that the performance of students without Accounting background was as a result of other courses in the accounting programme but not accounting-related courses. It is therefore recommended that a balanced background should be provided to the students at the Senior High School level so that those students who would be admitted to pursue a bachelor degree in Accounting would have Accounting background prior to entering the university.