Academic Problems Facing High Achieving Students at Universities

Abstract

The study aimed to identify the academic problems facing high achieving students in Jordanian universities. The study sample consisted of (353) randomly selected high achieving male and female students from graduate and Bachelor’s degrees at Amman Arab University and Balqa Applied University, who obtained a cumulative GPA of 3.7/4 or higher. The researchers followed the descriptive approach, and developed a scale that mainly focused on the following areas (studying problems, emotional problems, problems related to future professional choices, social problems, and family problems). The results indicated that academic problems are the most common problems among high achieving students, which affect them moderately, whereas family problems affect them the least. The results also indicated that there were no statistically significant differences at the level of (α=0.05) due to gender and college variables, and a statistically significant difference at the level of (α=0.05) due to the degree variable in favor of bachelors. Also, differences appeared in emotional problems in favor of females and in studying problems in favor of high achieving students in scientific colleges.