samlet årgang - Økonomisk Institut - Københavns Universitet

WHAT AFFECTS STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE? 371
Table 5. Results of the estimation, 1 st year courses with math-variables.
Variable Course Course Course Course Course Course Course
111 112 114E 122E 123 131 132E
Intercept term 7.88*** 1.69 8.13*** -0.07 7.82*** 6.89*** 8.24***
DQ – – -2.52*** – – -3.78*** –
GPA*DQ – – – – – – –
MOTAVR*DQ – – 0.17*** – – 0.26*** –
DSCAND*DQ – – – – – – –
AGEADMIT – – – – – – –
MGRADE 0.17*** 0.67*** – 0.74*** 0.15** 0.21(*) –
ALEVEL
Number of
– – – 1.74*** – – –
observations 79 71 80 52 80 69 82
R2 0.08*** 0.21 *** 0.12*** 0.37*** 0.07** 0.23*** –
OLD – – + + – – –
Note: ** significant at the 5% level. *** significant at the 1% level.
our original data set as possible. 23 It turned out that this was not an easy task: the data set
we ended up with contains a reduced number of observations compared to the original
data set. In addition, the data set is biased in the sense that it was easier to get the mathgrade
data for Danish students than for the foreign students – in the new data set, about
two thirds of the students are Danish, while only one third are foreign. 24
In line with the results in Albæk (2001) and Andersen & Østergaard (2005), we decided
not to combine the math characteristics with the quota-1/2 variable. The procedure
of the analysis was then as follows: First, for each of the courses we run the original
(small) model of table 1 and table 2 to see whether it is still valid for the now smaller
data set. Next, we include both the math grade (MGRADE) and a dummy for the math
level (ALEVEL = 1 if math has been taken at the A-level and 0 otherwise) as additional
explanatory variables and again reduced the model when testing of sets of zero restrictions
allow us to do so. The results of this procedure are found in tables 5 and 6.
For the first year courses the reduction of the size of the data set means that only in
two courses (114, International Business Environment and 122, Macroeconomics) were
we able to obtain models with the same explanatory variables as before – for all
other courses one or more of the original explanatory variables have become insignifi-
23. Note that the IB’s minimum admission requirement is mathematics at high-school level B.
24. Due to these problems, we have chosen to report the results of the analysis in the sensitivity section of
this paper.