Academic Setbacks and Contributing Factors Among Computing Students in
Philippine Higher Education
email: ndequina@sunn.edu.ph
A B S T R A C T
Academic setbacks such as incomplete (INC) grades and course failures remain persistent challenges to student retention in information technology programs in Philippine state universities. It is critical to distinguish between these two academic statuses: an INC grade signifies that a student has completed substantial coursework but has unfinished requirements due to valid, often extenuating, circumstances, whereas a failing grade denotes that the student did not meet the minimum academic standards for the course (Romero & Ventura, 2020). Adopting a proactive, preventive approach, this study analyzed contributing factors, support system utilization, and emotional impacts among 101 computing students at a state university in the Philippines using a validated structured survey. Quantitative techniques such as descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation, one-way ANOVA, chi-square, and multiple linear regression were applied. Financial difficulties (M=3.22), heavy course load (M=3.14), and time management issues (M=3.10) were the top-rated contributors. A regression model explained 37% of stress variance (R²=0.370; F(15,72)=2.82, p=.002), with lack of resources (β=0.433), work commitments (β=0.320), and subject difficulty (β=0.303) as significant predictors. Second-year students showed significantly higher resource and connectivity barriers across all ANOVA factors (p<.05, η²=0.07–0.12). Findings support the development of data-driven early warning systems and proactive academic advising frameworks within computing programs.