7th International Conference On Research And Educations In Mathematics (ICREM7)

Factors Affecting Students’ Academic Performance

Using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)
Mardhiah Baharin, Wan Rosmanira Ismail, Rokiah@Rozita Ahmad, Noriza Majid
School of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi,
Selangor DE, Malaysia

Abstract—The purpose of this study was to identify factors According to Royo and Mahmood [5], facilities and
that influence students’ performance in the Faculty of Science environment in an educational institution affect students’
and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). learning. Meanwhile, according to Mat Saad et al. [6], the
Respondents in this study consisted of 10 students with the relationship between comfortable facilities and learning is
highest Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) in each school.
necessary to ensure students can focus on their studies.
The level of importance of each criterion was determined using
the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The findings show that Therefore, lack of educational facilities will affect students’
the most influential criteria for determining students’ learning process.
performance are academic and personal factors. Additionally, The findings by Dahar and La'anain [7] indicate that
the most dominants sub-criteria are instructor’s mastery of the lecturers play a role in influencing students’ academic
subject, instructor’s presentations, health problems, family excellence. According to Sines and Subramaniam [8],
relationships, and learning methods. lecturers play a role in transforming knowledge and as a
person that is accountable in ensuring students’ excellence
Keywords— Academic performance, AHP, CGPA based on the integration of knowledge, faith and charity.
I. INTRODUCTION In a study by Rasul and Bukhsh [9], the respondents
argued that psychological, physical, socio-economic and
Academic achievement is a measuring instrument that educational factors influenced their performance in
determines the level of students’ performance in the academic examination. In addition, the sudden change in the pattern of
field of higher learning institutions. Excellence in academics question near the examination time, fraud in examination and
can indicate the extent of knowledge in a particular field that no proper guidance from lecturers affect their performance in
is studied and is able to master. Students’ performance in the examination.
universities is one of the important criteria that is considered Becker and Luthar [10] mentioned that four socio-
by employers [1]. Therefore, it is difficult for students with emotional components affecting students’ academic
low academic achievement to get employed as they could not performance are students’ involvement in school programs,
compete with excellent students. teachers’ support, peer influence and mental health.
However, it is not a simple matter to achieve excellence in A review by Maphosa et al. [11] found that there are many
academics. In fact, many factors influence students’ excellent positive factors that influence students’ academic
performance [2]. Therefore, the aim of this study was to performance, namely the number of certified lecturers and
identify those factors. It is hoped that this study may identify have attended professional development courses in teaching,
related factors affecting academic performance and help the use of different methods in delivering module content and
producing excellent students. efficiency in handling evaluation. Other factors are lack of
II. LITERATURE REVIEW students’ preparation, the inability to use available resources
and lack of study space.
According to Najib and Weng [2], academic achievement Previous studies had listed the important factors affecting
is influenced by various factors. Among them are our self, academic performance. Using previous research as references,
friends, family and students’ environment. The studies the factors were selected based on the suitability of the study.
conducted found that students with excellent academic The four main criteria are academic factors, personal factors,
achievement are those who are smart in planning and organize socio-economic factors, and curricular and guidance factors.
their study time. The criteria and sub-criteria used in this study are summarized
The findings by Abu Bakar and Tumin [3], and Masri [4] in Table 1.
also showed students’ interest would encourage them to make
more revision and further improve students’ academic
performance. Interest is an important factor in determining the
success of a student. Students’ deeper interest will influence
the learning process.

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 7th International Conference On Research And Educations In Mathematics (ICREM7)
TABLE 1 CRITERIA AND SUB-CRITERIA III. METHODOLOGY
Criteria Sub-criteria Authors The study was conducted on 10 students who obtained the
Academic Instructor’s presentation Dahar and La'anain [7], best results for each school (Mathematical Sciences,
factors Sines and Subramaniam [8], Environmental and Natural Resources Sciences, Biosciences
Maphosa et al. [11]
and Biotechnology, Applied Physics, and Chemical Sciences
Instructor’s mastery of the Dahar and La'anain [7],
and Food Technology) in the Faculty of Science and
subject Sines and Subramaniam [8],
Maphosa et al. [11]
Technology of UKM. Survey method with the use of
Examination system Rasul and Bukhsh [9]
questionnaire was used for data collection. Table 2 shows an
Instructor-student Orth et al. [12] example of questionnaire for the main criteria.
relationship In this paper, AHP method was used to determine the
College infrastructure Royo and Mahmood [5], Mat weights of each criterion. AHP is a method for making
Saad et al. [6], Maphosa et decision that has been widely used. AHP was introduced by
al. [11], Dr. Thomas L. Saaty in the Journal of Mathematical
Education center promotes Sentamu [13] Psychology [21]. This technique was developed by Saaty
teaching and learning sometimes in 1970s and he had published a book called 'The
activities Analytic Hierarchy Process' around 1980s.
Campus infrastructure Royo and Mahmood [5], Mat AHP mathematical model is a method that generates
Saad et al. [6], Maphosa et weighting value. This method is designed to reflect how
al. [11]
people think. AHP is a technique often applied in analyzing
Course information Sentamu [13]
complex problems involving various criteria. This method is
Personal Learning methods Najib and Weng [2],
based on three basic principles, namely the arrangement of the
factors Maphosa et al. [11]
criteria in a hierarchical structure, comparison of interest
Health problems Becker and Luthar [10]
Family background Jeynes [14], Hodge and
between criteria, as well as selection of the decision and the
Mellin [15] synthesis of interests [22].
Academic qualification for Staffolani and Bratti [16] Many previous studies have used AHP method for multi-
university entrance criteria decision making. Suliyanto et al. [23] used this method
Time management Najib and Weng [2] in their study to evaluate the effectiveness of Micro Small and
First choice of study Abu Bakar and Tumin [3], Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) batik training programs in
program Masri [4] Indonesia. In addition, Yoon and Im [24] also used this
Socio- Parent’s official status Hodge and Mellin [15], method to evaluate user’s satisfaction of the information
economic Family relationship Jeynes [14] technology outsourcing system in Korea.
factors Friends relationship Becker and Luthar [10] The AHP procedure is given in the following steps.
Social activities Rasul and Bukhsh [9] Step 1: A hierarchy is constructed consisting the overall
Economic status Rasul and Bukhsh [9], objective at the top of the hierarchy, criteria, sub-criteria and
Considine and Zappala [17] the alternatives at the subsequent levels of the hierarchy.
Curricular and Counseling service Becker and Luthar [10] Step 2: Data are collected from experts or decision-makers
guidance Sport involvement Lee [18] corresponding to the hierarchic structure, in the pairwise
factors Involvement in outdoor Becker and Luthar [10] comparison of alternatives on a qualitative scale as described
activities
on the Saaty scale. Saaty scale can be seen in Table 3.
Reading practices Owusu-Acheaw [19]
Step 3: The pair-wise comparisons of various criteria
Curricular activities Wooten [20]
generated at previous step are organised into a square matrix.
Step 4: The weights of criteria, sub-criteria and alternatives
The above listed factors are being taken into consideration are computed.
while performing AHP. Step 5: The consistency index, CI is calculated in order to
describe the consistency of decision maker during evaluation
TABLE 2 AHP QUESTIONNAIRE
Equal
No Evaluation criteria Numerical scale
(1)
1. Academic Personal 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
2. Academic Socio-economic 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
3. Academic Curricular and guidance 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
4. Personal Socio-economic 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
5. Personal Curricular and guidance 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
6. Socio-economic Curricular and guidance 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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 7th International Confereence On Research And Educations In Mathematiccs (ICREM7)

process. CI can be calculated using the follow

wing equation, IV. RESULTS AN
ND DISCUSSIONS
The following findings werre obtained using AHP template
(1) by Goepel [15] (refer Fig. 1).

where is the maximum eigenvalue andd N is the number

of items being compared. The consistenncy ratio, CR is
calculated using Eq. 2.,

(2)

where the value of RI is taken from the table of random

consistency index table as shown below for n number of
experts.

n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
RCI 0 0 0.58 0.90 1.12 1.24 1.32 1.41 1.45

A pairwise comparison matrix is considered to be consistent if

CR is less than 0.10 [25]. If the value of CRC is greater than
0.10, the decision maker should revaluuate the pairwise
comparisons due to inconsistencies.
Step 6: The overall score of each alternative is calculated.

TABLE 3 SAATY SCALE FOR PAIRWISE COMPARISON

Numerical value Defin

nition
1 Equal importance
3 Moderate importannce
5 Strong importance
7 Demonstrated importance Fig. 1. Result for main criteria
9 Absolute importannce
2,4,6,8 Intermediate values Referring to Fig. 2, the most innfluential factors in determining
students’ academic performancce are academic factors (36%),
and followed by personal factors (32%).
In this paper an AHP template by Goepeel [26] is used for
evaluation purpose. The template allow forr group inputs, to
calculate consolidated weights for prioritiees or alternatives. Academic
36% Sosio-
Priorities, pi in each input sheet are calculaated using the row economic
geometric mean method, RGMM. With thhe pairwise NxN 21%
comparison matrix , then calculate

exp ∑ ln ∏ (3) Personal Curricular and

32% guidance
and normalize ·/ ∑ (4) 9.4%

Fig. 2. Percentage of weights for each criteria

where N is the number of item. Geometric consistency
c index,
GCI is calculated using Eq. 5. Table 4 shows the weighting value for each criteria and
sub-criteria. The study revveals that among five most
∑ dominants sub-criteria for the t determinants of students’
(5) performance are instructor’’s mastery of the subject,
instructor’s presentations, health problems, family
relationships, and learning methhods.

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 7th International Conference On Research And Educations In Mathematics (ICREM7)
TABLE 4 WEIGHT FOR EACH CRITERIA AND SUB-CRITERIA V. CONCLUSION
First Weight Second level Weights Weight of This study investigated factors affecting students'
level of first second
level level
performance in examination. In this regards, four factors,
Academic 35.8 Instructor’s 22.7 8.13 namely; academic, personal, socio-economic, and curricular
factors presentation and guidance were examined from the students' point of view.
Instructor’s 26.0 9.31 This study supported the findings of previous studies (Dahar
mastery of the and La'anain [7], Sines and Subramaniam [8], and Maphosa et
subject al. [11]) and the results showed that instructor’s mastery of the
Examination 10.6 3.79 subject, instructor’s presentations, health problems, family
system relationships, and learning methods, and some other factors
Instructor- 9.00 3.22 played the important roles in students' exam performance and
student they must be taken into account.
relationship
Therefore, paying attention to instructor’s mastery of the
College 7.30 2.61
subject and delivery method may be helpful and effective. It is
infrastructure
recommended that instructors must first understand the subject
Education center 9.10 3.26
promotes
taught and present the subject in an effective manner that is
teaching and easily understood by students.
learning
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
activities
Campus 7.00 2.51 The authors like to thank the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
infrastructure for the facilities and research grant (PTS-2013-116) used to
Course 8.30 2.97 finish this research project.
information
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