Dependent Variable Measurement Research Methodology 1 Sample of Study

113 alternative that the students can choose is to go through diploma studies. The diploma courses are offered by education institutions that recognized by the senate of UMS like Universiti Institut Teknologi Mara UiTM, Politeknik and some of the private colleges. The duration of study in this diploma course normally 3 years, which means by age of 20 years old, the students will enroll into a university for their bachelor degree program. To further their studies in the degree program, the students should also achieve at least a CGPA of 2.00. Thus, in the current study, the type of entry measurement will be grouped into three groups, namely, STPM, Matriculation and Diploma. 3.3.2 Sponsorship We categorize the sponsorship into three types. The three types of sponsorship are 1. Government Education Loan, 2. Others and 3. Self-Funded. In Malaysia, students who want to pursue their studies may apply education loan from Majlis Amanah Rakyat MARA, Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam JPA or Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional PTPTN. These are the three government institutions that are responsible to sponsor Malaysian students to further their studies. The “Others” category represents other agency or institution that offer education loan or scholarship. Normally, this institution is established by the respective state governments in Malaysia, such as, Yayasan Pelajaran Sabah. Students who do not apply for any education loan or scholarship from the institutions and their studies are being funded by their parents are categorized as self-funded. 3.3.3 Academic Background Students whose background is from science stream are group as Science. On the other hand, non- science students are grouped into Art. 3.3.4 Gender Gender has been one of the main factors that can influence the students’ performance. As shown by Garkaz et. al. 2011 who claimed that women on average, were getting higher academic achievement than men. However, Byrne, M. and Flood, B 2008 found that there was no significant difference between male and female in terms of academic performance in the first year of an accounting program at an Irish University. Thus, this leads this current study to examine whether gender has any significant relationship to accounting students’ performance.

4. Discussion and Limitation

This study proposes and examines the factors that affecting accounting students’ performance in UMS. In this university, there are some procedures in selecting students to be enrolled in the accounting program. As mentioned earlier, students that enroll into the university can be from three methods, that is, through STPM, Matriculation and Diploma. Nowadays, the competition to enter the public universities is quite high. Most of the students perform very well during their STPM, matriculation and diploma studies. Thus, it is likely that students with very good result normally will be selected to enroll in the public universities. In Malaysia, accounting program is one of the professional programs that is being offered besides engineering, medical, architecture, law and other professional programs. Therefore, during the selection process, students with CGPA 3.50 and above will be selected for enrollment into the university.