Factors associated to academic performance according to level of education and gender among colombian higher education students

The present paper analyzes the socioeconomic and educational factors associated to the academic performance of students who took the Saber Pro exam in 2009, according to gender and level of education. With this purpose in mind, certain data bases from ICFES were used and a data set with 4.031 observations was created. First, a descriptive analysis using frequency distributions was carried out. Next, the independence of variables was tested using the Pearson‘s chi-squared test. Then, a multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine the factors associated to the student’s academic performance according to gender and level of education. It was concluded that previous academic performance, measured by Saber 11 scores, is strongly and positively associated with the performance of higher education students, regardless their gender and level of education. On the other hand, socioeconomic and educational variables are weakly associated with the students’ performance in higher education as compared to their previous performance in high school education. Recibido: 20/12/2013 Evaluado: 23/02/2014 Factores asociados al desempeno academico segun nivel de formacion pregrado y genero de los estudiantes de educacion superior Colombia //Fatores associados ao desempenho academico segundo o nivel de formacao de graduacao e o sexo dos estudantes de educacao superior Colombia //Factors associated to academic performance according to level of education and gender among colombian higher education students