Students’ networks influence on academic performance: An exploratory study

Abstract

Social networks can have a significant influence on students’ academic performance. This exploratory study details a study performed at a Portuguese university to assess the role of social networks in the students’ academic performance. We used an online questionnaire to collect. From the variety of network centrality measures considered, findings suggest that students with high centrality positions within the friendship network tend to present lower academic performance, except for eigenvector centrality (i.e., being connected to students who are themselves well connected). On advice and working group networks, there was minimal evidence of the relation between key positions and grades. Although there was not an overall homophily towards grades – neither through selection nor influence mechanisms – students with lower academic achievement tended to stablish friendship ties between themselves.