The Impact of Scholarship Programs on the Academic Performance of Accountancy Students

Scholarship initiatives support students by easing the financial burdens of their academic experiences and facilitating access to higher education. Literature on scholarship programs primarily emphasizes their benefits, including reduced stress and broader opportunities. Yet the results show contrasting findings. Some studies report greater persistence and better examination performance among recipients, while others show no statistically significant difference in overall achievement compared to non-recipients. This inconsistency underscores the need to further examine whether academic results consistently differ by scholarship status. Although scholarships are widely recognized to alleviate financial problems and expand access, evidence remains inconclusive about whether these benefits consistently translate into improved academic performance. Thus, this study examined whether accounting students’ final examination scores and General Weighted Average (GWA) differed by scholarship status. These questions were tested using the Jamovi software to determine whether a statistically significant difference exists between the two groups. Results showed a contrasting pattern: scholarship recipients performed better on the final examination, while non-recipients performed better in the GWA. These outcomes indicate that scholarship status was associated with different patterns across the two academic performance measures. Thus, the results provide empirical evidence to inform scholarship program refinement and support higher education policy decisions.