Admission policy in universities: In search of empirical evidence

This study set out to verify the hypothesis that ‘mature undergraduate students, in terms of chronological age, would signifi cantly perform better than immature undergraduate students academically’. Data on 679 undergraduate students were utilised in the study, out of which 375 were females and 304 were males. Their age ranged from 14 to 22 years with standard deviation of 1.2 while mean age was 17.05 years. The Grade Point Averages [GPA] for 100 level and 200 level first and second semesters, called alpha and omega semesters in this study, were utilised. The parametric statistics employed for analysis was the analysis of variance [ANOVA] which compared the GPA of the least, average and most mature students categorised with age range of 14-16, 17-18, 19-22 years respectively. The result showed that the least mature students, in terms of chronological age, consistently featured significantly higher academic performance than the average and most mature students (Mean Diff. = 0.153, p = 0.033 for 100 level alpha; Mean Diff. = 0.192, p = 0.0 for 200 level alpha). This finding tends to put to question the rationale for the adoption of the policy of not admitting applicants below age 16 into public universities on the ground of immaturity. © IJSTR 2019