Open Access Journal Article

The Influence of Ethnic Identity on the Academic Performance of Chinese College Students: An Empirical Study Based on the Administrative Data of a University

by Zerong Wang a,*
a
School of Economics, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
REA  2022, 1; 1(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.58567/rea01010001
Received: 8 November 2022 / Accepted: 25 December 2022 / Published Online: 30 December 2022
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Abstract

The policy of ethnic equality and solidarity aims to narrow the ethnic gap and develop harmoniously. At the level of higher education, it should promote the equity of ethnic education. This paper uses the administrative data of undergraduate students from 2008 to 2015 in a liberal arts university in southwest China to study the differences, causes and dynamic trends in the scores of college students from different nationalities. The results show that compared with Han students, the average GPA of ethnic minority students is 0.13 points lower (equivalent to 0.23 and 0.3 standard deviations of the scores of ethnic minority and Han students), the fourth grade scores are 0.28 standard deviations lower, and 7.3% lower. This difference is more significant in the western region, especially in Xinjiang, Yunnan, Hubei and other provinces inhabited by ethnic minorities; Kazak and uygur are the nationalities with the biggest gap with han students; The difference between girls is more significant than that between boys. The "peer effect" and cultural distance between roommates are important reasons for this difference. Further analysis shows that although the ethnic differences in academic performance are gradually expanding, the growth rate tends to converge. The above conclusions are helpful to clarify the object and time of making national higher education policy, and also have important reference significance for primary and secondary education.

Keywords: Ethnic identity, Academic performance, Peer effect, Cultural distance;
Copyright: © 2022 by Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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ACS Style
Wang, Z. The Influence of Ethnic Identity on the Academic Performance of Chinese College Students: An Empirical Study Based on the Administrative Data of a University. Review of Economic Assessment, 2022, 1, 1. https://doi.org/10.58567/rea01010001
AMA Style
Wang Z. The Influence of Ethnic Identity on the Academic Performance of Chinese College Students: An Empirical Study Based on the Administrative Data of a University. Review of Economic Assessment; 2022, 1(1):1. https://doi.org/10.58567/rea01010001
Chicago/Turabian Style
Wang, Zerong 2022. "The Influence of Ethnic Identity on the Academic Performance of Chinese College Students: An Empirical Study Based on the Administrative Data of a University" Review of Economic Assessment 1, no.1:1. https://doi.org/10.58567/rea01010001
APA style
Wang, Z. (2022). The Influence of Ethnic Identity on the Academic Performance of Chinese College Students: An Empirical Study Based on the Administrative Data of a University. Review of Economic Assessment, 1(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.58567/rea01010001

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