Institutional characteristics and the relationship between students' first-year university and final-year secondary school academic performance

A study of academic results of a student cohort in a diverse faculty of a large multi-campus university indicates that students' first-year performance at university is related to their prior academic achievement at secondary school, both overall and discipline specific, but that the extent and form of the relationship can vary by subject area and institutional - secondary school and university - characteristics. This may have implications for university selection and specification ofprerequisite subjects for courses.