The Academic Performance of First Year Students at Victoria University by Entry Score and SES, 2009-2013

Sep 20, 2026

Report analyzing how tertiary entry scores and socio-economic status affect first-year performance of higher education students at Victoria University in Melbourne. The study reviews Victoria University’s student database, defines socio-economic status, and examines students’ characteristics alongside ATAR scores. It applies multivariate quantile regressions and matched quantile regression, discusses outcomes, and outlines future work based on data covering 2009–2013 and matched analyses.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages30

Reading Time1 h 16 min

AccessFree to download

Key Points

Executive Summary

Background

Data and Characteristics of Victoria University Students

The VU database

Definition of socio-economic status

Students characteristics and SES at Victoria University

ATAR scores and students performance

Multivariate Analysis: Quantile Regressions

Matched Quantile Regression

Discussion and Future Work

References

Data Appendix

The Academic Performance of First Year Students at Victoria University by Entry Score and SES, 2009‐2013 George Messinis and Peter Sheehan Victoria Institute of Strategic Economic Studies Melbourne 1 May 2015 The authors would like to acknowledge funding from the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) at Curtin University and express our gratitude to John Phillimore and Mike Dockery from NCSEHE, and Peter Dawkins and Kerri‐Lee Krause from Victoria University for valuable comments on earlier drafts. We also wish to thank Vicki Gunn and Sandra Thompson of Victoria University’s Government Reporting and Systems Support Unit in providing the basic data for the project. Further, we are most grateful to Steven Parker for excellent data support, Margarita Kumnick for editorial assistance, and to Peter Davenport for the geo‐coding and matching of ABS SEIFA indicators to VU student data, for about 60,000 unique addresses. The usual caveat applies for remaining errors. © 2015 National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education Curtin University, Victoria Institute of Strategic Economic Studies Victoria University PO Box 14428 Melbourne VIC 8001 Contact for further information: George Messinis [george. messinis@vu.edu.au](george. messinis@vu.edu.au) Table of Contents List of Tables ........................................................................................................................................... 4 List of Charts ........................................................................................................................................... 4 Key Points................................................................................................................................................ 5 Executive Summary................................................................................................................................. 6 1. Background ....................................................................................................................................... 11 2. Data and Characteristics of Victoria University Students ................................................................. 12 The VU database ............................................................................................................................... 12 Definition of socio‐economic status ................................................................................................. 12 Students characteristics and SES at Victoria University.................................................................... 13 ATAR scores and students performance........................................................................................... 15 3. Multivariate Analysis: Quantile Regressions..................................................................................... 18 4. Matched Quantile Regression........................................................................................................... 21 5. Discussion and Future Work ............................................................................................................. 28 References ............................................................................................................................................ 29 Data Appendix....................................................................................................................................... 30 List of Tables Table 1. First‐year VU Student characteristics, low SES group ............................................................. 14 Table 2. First‐year VU Student characteristics, high SES group ............................................................ 14 Table 3. Academic performance of first‐year VU students and SES officially defined ......................... 19 Table 4. Academic performance of first‐year VU students and school‐adjusted SES

FAQs

What factors does the report examine for first-year performance at Victoria University?

The report examines tertiary entry scores, socio-economic status, and other factors in relation to first-year performance of higher education students at Victoria University in Melbourne.

How is socio-economic status (SES) treated in the analysis?

The report includes a definition of socio-economic status and evaluates students’ characteristics and SES at Victoria University, then uses SES in the regression and matched analyses.

Which statistical approaches are used to analyze the relationship between entry scores, SES, and performance?

The report uses multivariate analysis with quantile regressions and also employs matched quantile regression to compare outcomes under matched conditions.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Lucas Vance