Peer Effects on First-Year University Students’ Results: The Role of Classmates’ Academic Performance and Socioeconomic Status

Peer effects in the context of higher education have lately received increased attention. Higher diversity in the composition of new cohorts of students, generated mainly in countries where public and institutional policies have enabled access to students from low socioeconomic conditions and races...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Mathematics (Basel) 2021-12, Vol.9 (23), p.3115
Main Authors: Granger-Serrano, Angela, Villarraga-Orjuela, Alexander
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
academic performance
Colleges & universities
Communication skills
Composition
Education
Estimates
Food science
heterogeneity
linear model
multilevel or hierarchical model
peer effects
Private schools
Socioeconomic factors
socioeconomic status
Students
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Summary:Peer effects in the context of higher education have lately received increased attention. Higher diversity in the composition of new cohorts of students, generated mainly in countries where public and institutional policies have enabled access to students from low socioeconomic conditions and races who unusually attend postsecondary education, make these effects even more relevant. This research estimates and analyzes the effect of peers’ academic performance and course composition by socioeconomic origin on students’ academic achievement at a private Colombian university between 2008 and 2019. The estimates, by Ordinary Least Squares and Multilevel models, support the existence of significant peer effects. There was a positive effect of peers’ performance on Calculus I academic results, principally of medium and high-performance peers, and a null effect of the socioeconomic level in Calculus I, but a significant effect in Communication Skills I, although with a limited impact. By introducing heterogeneities, it is evident that students perceived a greater benefit from performance improvements from peers who are in the same performance category or socioeconomic level. These results provide evidence of the existence, direction, and magnitude of peer effects in Colombian higher education. Additionally, they suggest that the most relevant characteristic of classmates is their academic performance and not their socioeconomic origin.
ISSN:2227-7390
2227-7390
DOI:10.3390/math9233115