The predictive validity of the admission standards in the college of education at King Faisal university in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Universities face numerous challenges each year, including the process of making decisions concerning the admission or otherwise of applicants (Tesfa, 2013). This could be compounded by an increase in student numbers and a decrease in university resources, predicting future academic success (Alghamdi, 2007). Educators and admission officers together try to decide what leads to the success of learners at certain colleges or on particular majors within universities. Administrators responsible for the admission policy need to be accurate and objective when making such decisions, using suitable admission standards which help in reaching a decision characterised by equity, accuracy, and objectivity (Alsaif, 2005). The purpose of the present study is to investigate the predictive validity of the current admission standards applied at the College of Education at KFU in Saudi Arabia and explore which score among the current criteria used offers the strongest contribution to students’ academic success. Furthermore, since this study attempts to include students from both gender groups, and very few studies have included both genders at the general level, and, to the best of my knowledge, none has been done in the Saudi context, this study aims to explore any possible variation between the criteria items in terms of gender grouping. Additionally, since none of the previous studies have addressed the issue of students changing their major after initially being admitted to certain majors at the university, this study attempts to explore the academic performance of students who changed their major after starting their university study. The participants in this mixed methods research largely drew on two resources: the first resource refers to the data that was collected from the Admission and Registration Office in the Education College. The database includes all fulltime students (males and females) who have attended the Education College at King Faisal University from the academic year 2010 up until their graduation in 2014. The sample did not include students who had left the Education College at KFU before the end of the academic year 2014 and any students who had not graduated by the end of the academic year 2014. The total number of participating students was 693. In addition, the researcher conducted face-to-face interviews with 8 academics who work at the Education College in KFU and who teach a number of education courses. These lecturers and professors were interviewed about a range of experiences and practices. Results indicated that a statistically significant relationship exists between the student accumulative rate in High School (SGPA) and the accumulative rate in the College of Education (CGPA) at King Faisal University at Alahsa (r = 0.562, p<0.01), between the General Aptitude Test (GAT) and Education College GPA (r = 0.324, p<0.01), and between the Achievement Test (ACT) and Education College GPA (r = 0.268, p<0.01). High School GPA is the most important factor in predicting the performance of students in the Education College, followed by the Aptitude Test, then the Achievement Test. Beta coefficients were 0.512, 0.163 and 0.006 respectively. Regarding the result, it was clear that females exhibited better performance compared to males in both the General Aptitude Test and the High School percentage. In addition, the students who changed major had a higher High School percentage mean compared to those that did not change major, and the mean difference was statistically significant. On the other hand, for the General Aptitude Test, those that did not change major had higher mean scores compared to those that changed major, and the mean difference was statistically significant.

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