Investigating the relationship between student characteristics and progression: An archive study

Progression has been seen as an indicator of a student’s academic development. Different students usually have different characteristics affecting student progression. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between students’ characteristics and progression. To achieve this objective, an archive study was performed to check 1547 Built Environment student records at Central Queensland University (CQUniversity). The student management data archive included all the students studying Built Environment programs at CQUniversity from the start of Term 1 2000 to the end of Term 3 2010. The Student Progression Unit (SPU) was used to measure the students’ progression. The analysis results indicated that the students with academic credit transfers performed better in terms of SPU than those without, and that the students who were in Building Surveying program received significantly higher SPU scores than those in other programs. In addition, the students’ gender, geographical location, socioeconomic status, and countries of birth did not significantly affect their SPUs. This study provides an in-depth understanding of the relationship between student characteristics and progression.