Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 27th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG7: Public Administration Education Author(s) Alina Maria Pavelea Babes-Bolyai University Cluj Napoca Romania Moldovan Octavian, Title Why Some Fail and Others Succeed? Explaining the Academic Performance of PA Undergraduate Students File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Alina Maria Pavelea Abstract Abstract The current study explores multiple factors (such as: class attendance, previous academic performance, in-class involvement and attention, class absenteeism, interest, schedule, gender and other control variables) which can influence the academic performance of public administration undergraduate students. The regression model developed based on the academic literature was tested on a sample of 1st year students (N = 80) enrolled in the Public Administration bachelor program of Babeș-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca) in order to explain their performance (grade) in a final exam. Since none of the variables included in the model are self-reported (i.e. classic self-administered questionnaires) we have eliminated the possibility for any type of social desirability bias to influence our results, thus strengthening the reliability and robustness of our findings. Starting from our results and other findings from the literature, we also propose and discuss specific measures which can be adopted by faculty level decision makers in order to help students improve their academic performance and ensure better educational outcomes.
