Academic failure and students’ viewpoint: The influence of individual, internal and external organizational factors

BACKGROUND: Educational failure is one of the most important problems in higher education institutes in Iran. This study was performed to investigate the factors affecting students’ academic failure in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 280 students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences were studied in 2009. They were chosen using multiple cluster sampling. The students’ demographic characteristics and study information were collected by a valid and reliable questionnaire. Data were analyzed with SPSS (15) software. RESULTS: The most important factors affecting educational failure from students’ point of view were: curriculum (4.23 ± 0.63), factors related to educator (3.88 ± 0.55), learning environment (3.63 ± 0.62), family factors (3.53 ± 0.6), socioeconomic factors (3.45 ± 0.69). There is a significant relationship between attitudes of students in two sexes and educator (P = 0.03) and socioeconomic environment (P = 0.003). In addition, the results did not show a significant difference between attitudes of students with age, marital status and employment status (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: More attention to curriculum, factors related to educator and learning environment can prevent students’ educational failure, in addition to preventing loss of resources and contribute to develop a more effective educational system.