Investigation into the Impact of Students’ Admission Policy in One of the UAE Universities

Abstract

This research paper investigates the impact of the admission policy on a group of university students in the UAE. The admission policy selects certain students from high school graduates to be streamed in Accelerated or Applied Tracks based on their English language proficiency test and high school cumulative average. It also selects students for the Engineering program based on their STEM courses average. In this study, the researcher has involved both current students and graduates in diploma and bachelor degrees. There are around 76 students who have participated in our online survey. The survey sent to students investigated three aspects of the admission policy's influence on them which are (1) Student’s self-efficacy (2) Motivation and performance (3) Career choice. The research findings showed that the admission policy did not restrict students’ degree choices or pushed them to reconsider their preferences. They feel confident about what they have chosen as their current major and career choice. Moreover, most students believed that their major choice was based on their own free will rather than the admission policy rules. Also, students feel that their future career choice will be considerably related to their majors and their degrees will contribute to the UAE society in the future. To conclude, the researcher argues that the admission policy does not necessarily impact university students' self-efficacy and degree choices.