Assessing PGDA entrance requirements: Appropriate or in need of change?

Andrew, Samuel

Assessing PGDA entrance requirements: Appropriate or in need of change?

Thesis / Dissertation

2023

Abstract

With the decreasing student pass rates in the Postgraduate Accounting Degree (PGDA) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) as well as UCT's lowered placement in ITC pass rate rankings – an assessment on PGDA's current entrance requirements could provide insight into a way-forward. The objective of this study is to evaluate endogenous factors that affect student performance in PGDA and ITC, namely race, secondary school type, home language, gender, age, and core final-year accounting course results (Financial Reporting III (FR3), Taxation II (TAX2), Corporate Governance II (CG2), Management Accounting II (MA2), and Business Analysis and Governance (BAG)). After identifying the factors linked to success, these factors were used to determine optimal entrance requirements that maximise the success of students in passing PGDA and ITC. Finally, the recommended entrance requirements were assessed against current and old entrance requirements and the effects of these requirements on student diversity was considered. A quantitative research method was used – comprising of stepwise regression, multivariate regression, and logistic regression models, together with receiver operator curves. The data was obtained from a sample of students that had commenced PGDA in 2018, 2019 and 2020 at UCT. The findings indicate that race and prior academic performance are the best predictors of academic success, however race was not considered when setting entrance requirements. Interesting findings were identified between core undergraduate courses and success in the four PGDA courses and ITC as not all undergraduate courses predicted academic success. Specifically, the lack of a significant relationship between core accounting subject – FR3 – and postgraduate courses – CG3 and MAF – in addition to ITC success. Furthermore, a significant, negative relationship was identified between MA2 and FR4. Recommended entrance requirements were identified to have adverse effects on student diversity for access, but minimal effect on pass rates. This study adds to existing literature on student performance in tertiary accounting programmes in South Africa with a specific focus on CTA course success. These findings could be useful for the UCT in determining the most appropriate entrance requirements to set for PGDA as well as whether setting such requirements would be equitable.

Keywords

Financial Reporting, Analysis and Governance

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