“An exam by any other name...": Understanding the role of A-levels in students' assessment expectations
Workshop at DEE 2023,The importance of high-school preparation for economics undergraduates
Presentation at DEE 2017,Governments throughout the world are trying to improve the stock of human capital. One of the means for achieving is through an expansion of the number of university graduates. Often, however, this expansion takes place without the necessary preparation at secondary school level and in fact by lowering entry standards. As a result, when students enter university they find themselves unprepared and unable to follow the curriculum. This then leads to a high drop-out rate from academic studies, prolongation of studies and dents the quality of tertiary education. The paper uses individual-level data on the high-school performance of economics undergraduates at the University of Crete between 2003-4 and 2007-8 and exploits, inter alia, changes in entry to University requirements to illustrate the link between high school grades and degree success (grades, duration to degree). The paper aims to assess whether maths or verbal skills are more important for the academic performance of economics students. Demographic (age, gender), school features (public school, private school, region the school is located), the candidate's preference for the University of Crete vs other institutions are factors conditioned upon. The results have implications both for entry requirements and for the degree curriculum.
