Factors Affecting the Academic Performance of College Students

The academic achievement of any student is the result of a complex interplay of various factors, such as study habits, personality trait, and personal interest of student as well as teaching skills of concerned faculties. This paper examines the relative importance of these factors on student's academic performance. The authors have collected data from 117 college/university students studying in Gurugram. To study the factors affecting academic grades of students, the authors have used factor analysis technique. Also to investigate the impact of these factors on academic grades, the they have used Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) with dummy variable for introducing categorical variable 'gender'. Results of the analysis indicates teaching efficacy of educators, study habits, distraction factors, and family environment of student as significant predictors of academic performance of college students. Results also point towards gender difference in academic achievement of students. On average, girls achieve higher grade than boys. For the purpose of data analysis, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) is used.