Student status and academic performance: an approach of the quality determinants of university studies in Greece

This study employs administrative and survey data to assess the impact of students’ socioeconomic background on educational outcomes. The academic and social profiles of 867 students, studying in a university of Economic and Social Studies, are analyzed by means of Ordinary Least Squares and Quantile Regression Methods. We take into account of the existing institutional framework which gives rise to substantial differentiation in the duration of studies among students. Thus, besides examining the influence of students’ status − working and non-working − on degree grades we also examine whether the documented negative influence of long duration of studies on grades is associated to students’ status. The findings reject both hypotheses; working students do not achieve lower grades than their non-working peers; the negative impact of the length of studies on grades is not linked to status, and affects both working and non-working students in the same way. The prolonging of studies seems to be an institutional effect deriving from the conditions of schooling rather than from students’ financial circumstances.