Beyond GPA: a quantitative evaluation of York et al.'s model of academic success in higher education

Abstract This study quantitatively evaluated the theoretical model of academic success proposed by York et al. This model proposes that six interacting domains contribute to the broad concept of academic success in tertiary education. These domains include academic achievement, course satisfaction, perceptions of career success, acquisition of skills and competencies, persistence, and attainment of learning outcomes. A sample of 1127 students at an Australian university completed an online survey designed to capture each of these six domains. A confirmatory factor analytic approach was applied to evaluate (1) the measurement properties of each of the six domains, and (2) the extent to which the six domains mapped on to a higher-order construct. While there was supporting evidence for the model of academic success described by York et al., the measurement of the domains was unreliable in four of the six constructs. This study represents a preliminary quantitative evaluation of the model, and lends some support to a broader conceptualisation of academic success.