The Role of Competitiveness, Gender and Ethnicity in Influencing Academic Performance

This study seeks to examine the impact of competition on student academic performance across different gender and ethnic groups. This study is based on real observations of the performance of 266 undergraduate Accounting students in taxation courses at the University of Malaya. It has been found that competition has different impacts on gender and ethnic groups. Prior to the introduction of the competition, this study found females outperformed males for both ethnic groups. The post competition results suggest academic performance among Chinese males significantly improved but not those of Bumiputera males. In the case of Bumiputeras, competition has widened the performance gap between males and females. This suggests that Chinese males are motivated by competition whilst no evidence exists to support the same effect among Bumiputra males. This result questions the motivational effects of competition toward improving the academic performance of male Bumiputeras which may suggest that the new generation of Bumiputeras is moving away from a patriarchal society.