The Factors Affecting Student Success at University: A Case Study in a Tunisian College

Many studies have sought to determine the potential factors that could increase success rates at universities as one of the main measures of technical efficiency in higher education. In the same framework, we try in this paper to analyze the impact of the student’s individual environment on his/her results at university. We use a unique set of data containing an entirely newly enrolled student population at a Tunisian college. The statistical results reached through the method of discriminant analysis reveal that the overall requirements for success can be explained by a number of conditions: The pre-university educational level, the student’s sex, the student’s place of residence and his/her social and economic conditions. The study also presents some recommendations pertaining to the use of these relevant variables in order to increase educational efficiency.