Abstract:
This study investigated the assertions made by early researchers on the role
prior knowledge in Accounting has on the academic performance of university
students in Ghana. It was designed to make a comparison on the differences
in academic performance between students with Accounting background prior
to gaining admission to pursue Accounting degree and those without prior
Accounting knowledge. All the respondents included in the sample were
university students pursuing a Bachelor degree programme in Accounting in
both Private and Public universities in Ghana. A total of 250 students were
sampled. This was made of 130 who pursued Accounting programme and 120
students who did not pursue Accounting programme at the Senior High
School. Correlation and regression analyses were carried out and the finding
was that, the subjects pursued at the senior high school has a relationship with
the academic performance of university accounting students. In addition to
this, a T-test was performed to assess the difference in the performance of the
students, and it was revealed that there was no significant difference between
students with prior Accounting background and those without accounting
knowledge. It was also revealed that the performance of students without
Accounting background was as a result of other courses in the accounting
programme but not accounting-related courses. It is therefore recommended
that a balanced background should be provided to the students at the Senior
High School level so that those students who would be admitted to pursue a
bachelor degree in Accounting would have Accounting background prior to
entering the university.
