The impact of pre-undergraduate preparation courses in accounting on academic performance

Abstract

This study provides a thick description of an Accounting bridging course and it examines the impact of this pre-university course on the academic performance of students in a first-year introductory Accounting course at a South African university. Several control variables (such as taking Accounting at school, performance in mathematics at school, learning self-efficacy, motivation to learn and student motivation) were taken into account to determine the impact of the course on students’ performance in various assessments of the first-year Accounting course. Propensity score matching and Heckman’s procedure were used to compensate for selection bias. The findings show that there is a positive association between students’ attendance of this pre-university course and their academic performance in Module test 1.