Determinants of Malaysian and Singaporean Economics Undergraduates’ Academic Performance

This study examines the determinants of economics undergraduates’ academic performance in the top national universities of Singapore and Malaysia: the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the University of Malaya (UM). Using three basic components of economics as the dependent variable, i.e. basic microeconomics, basic macroeconomics and statistics/econometrics, it was found that students’ pre-university grade is the most important determinant in undergraduates’ performance. However, unlike in some previous studies which suggest that taking economics and mathematics before university does have a major impact on students’ higher economics grades at undergraduate level, in this study, it was found that the type of subjects taken before university, including both economics and mathematics, has no significant impact on students’ academic performance. The type of pre-university programme taken prior to admission, and ethnicity were found to be important determinants among UM students, but not NUS. This is a significant finding since Malaysia does practice a modified quota system based on ethnicity in one of the pre-university programmes. The study also found no significant distinction between male and female performance in economics controlling for other socioeconomic and attitudinal effects.