Determinants of Academic Achievements in Continuing Education

This research attempts to identify factors that affect academic achievements of students which have decided to continue their professional education after graduation from their first college or university. This question is very relevant due to the fact that most of the research is dedicated to the academic achievements of young people and neglects those students who decide to continue their education and are willing to financially support their study. Managerial application might be related to the marketing and promotional activities of universities. Moreover, knowledge about factors influencing academic achievement of adult students can help to build better educational programs. The purpose of this study is to reveal the factors of academic achievement of adult students in programs of continuing education in the HSE in Perm. The survey for the purpose of this research was carried out in two waves: in 2015 and 2016. Students’ academic achievement data was taken for the first year of education at the HSE- Perm, because in this case we focus more on pure primary factors and avoid endogenous evolution of students’ incentives. In the study we were dealing with censored data, because it does not take into account those applicants who have made a non-random decision not to study at the NRU HSE in Perm. That is why the Heckman procedure was used, which allowed us to eliminate bias brought by self-selection. Results of the study showed that the probability of completing the study depends on students’ original intentions. Meanwhile, academic achievements of adult students depend mainly on financial considerations, such as their level of income and the source of the financial support of their study.