Measuring Social Determinants Influencing Australian University Students' Completion: Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Thu D Pham ^1* Angela Baeza Penã ² Congcong Xing ³ Levon E Blue ⁴ Peter Anderson ¹ Rhetta Chappell ⁵

• ¹ Indigenous Research Unit, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
• ² Carumba Institute, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
• ³ Graduate School, the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
• ⁴ Office of the Deputy-Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement), University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
• ⁵ Relational Insights Data Lab, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

In this study we compareThis study compares the 5-factor and 4-factor models of the Higher Education Success Factor (HESF) framework. Through this research, we aimed to identify the social determinants influencing Australian university students' completion rates. We analysed responses from 2,248 participants. The social determinants we examined included the social environment, physical environment, economic conditions, health and wellbeing, and individual characteristics. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate both models. While both models demonstrated strong and consistent goodness-of-fit measures, the findings reveal that the 4-factor model outperforms the 5-factor model. Our findings suggests that the 4-factor model provides a good fit to the modifiedcation model, and reduces the risk of redundancy and overfitting forin evaluating the factors that impacts on student success. Based on our findings, we advocate for academic institutions to adoptuse the HESF model to better assess identify where students need support, ultimately to improve improving university completion rates in Australia.