The School has been actively involved in a long-term project investigating cultural variables that influence students’ academic performance. The research project was initiated by one of South Africa’s accounting bodies which were unable to determine the reasons for differences in the pass rates between black and non-black students in professional examinations.
The research project explores possible drivers of academic performance including:
- Results for English and Mathematics at the secondary level
- Home languages
- Socio-cultural contexts
- Behavioural and psychological factors/traits
The research was prompted by the call for more ‘African’ research problems to be investigated and the criticism that institutions of higher learning remain too ‘western-focused’.
Prof Elmarie Papageorgiou is an Associate Professor in the School of Accountancy and former President of the Southern African Accounting Association. She publishes in National and International journals and presented at numerous local and international conferences. Her research interest is mainly Accounting Education.
Please follow the links for her papers on Accounting Education:
E Papageorgiou - South African Journal of Higher Education, 2017 - journals.co.za
The purpose of the study was to explore first-year accounting students’ profile (N= 3075) in
terms of academic performance over a period of five years (2010‒2014) at a South African …
Research contacts:
Prof Elmarie Papageorgiou, Prof Andres Merino, Michele Aucock, Lanelle Willmott and Lelys Madock