Cultural identity and academic achievement among Māori undergraduate university students

Last updated by: ako_admin (Ako Administrator) on 2 February 2012 - 4:11pm

An investigation, from 2002, of 72 undergraduate students from Massey University and the correlation between cultural identity and academic achievement.

About the research

In this report, student problems were examined to identify the types of difficulties most prevalent among the population of 72 students. The degree to which cultural identity moderates the relationship between student problems and academic achievement was then examined.

Major findings were that:

  • there is a consistent negative relationship between student problems and academic achievement, and
  • cultural identity moderates the effect of student problems on academic achievement, in that: a high degree of problems were associated with decreases in grade point average among respondents with low cultural identity.

Despite the study having limitations, the findings have important implications for Māori students, deliverers of tertiary education, tertiary education providers, and those involved in the development and implementation of tertiary education policy.

Author

Simon T. Bennet

This report was published in the proceedings of the National Māori Graduates of Psychology Symposium 2002: Making a difference, hosted by the Māori & Psychology Research Unit at the University of Waikato in November 2002.

Further information

Find out more about the project and download the full report from the University Of Waikato website.

 

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