Abstract
Globally, poor academic performance is a source of concern. Poor performance is defined as below-par performance or students struggling to maintain the expected level of performance. Higher education institutions recognize the need to provide additional guidance and support to university students in order to meet their needs. This work describes a survey research that sought to investigate how students perceive tutors' contributions to achieving expected performance (academic success). The research was done on a large sample of undergraduate students (first- and second-year students) enrolled in finance-related modules at a South African university. A questionnaire with 60 closed Likert-type questions was created to investigate students' expectations and perceptions of tutors and performance in terms of self-planning, self-regulation and self-evaluation. The data from 90 valid responses were subjected to quantitative analysis. The quantitative analysis contained descriptive statistics and Spearman’s correlation analysis. The study found a positive significant relationship between the tutor work ethic experience and self-planning. The relationship between tutors’ personality and students’ self-planning showed a significant negative relationship. The study also found that there was no relationship between tutor personality experience and self-evaluation. This paper adds to the existing knowledge on frameworks to support the tutoring function. The study's main outcome is to provide evidence to make informed decisions regarding investments in tutors and strategies to assist and help them perform better and ultimately improve student performance. The study recommends that universities should place a higher value on the tutors and provide them with the necessary training, support, and time to enable them to provide the level of care that students require. The findings may be generalized to other finance faculties in South African institutions. The sample was chosen to be broadly representative of the demographics of the population of the university studied.
Keywords: Correlation analysis, finance-related modules, higher education, learning theories, student performance, tutoring.