Determinants of Students’ Academic Performance in Higher Learning Institutions in Malaysia

Abstract

In this era, competition is everywhere, especially for graduated students who are looking for a job. Graduated students need to equip themselves with the knowledge and soft skills required by the industry. In the industry's view, they recruit and select workers based on selective criteria such as academic qualifications, intelligent, communication skills and ability to work as a team. Therefore, the graduated students are supposedly preparing themselves accordingly. This study aims to identify the factors that contribute to students' academic performance in higher learning institutions in Malaysia. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used in this study with a combination of the principal component extraction method and the varimax rotation analysis to extract the possible factors. The findings revealed that there are three factors that contribute to students' academic performance in higher learning institutions namely learning ability, learning effort and time management. In producing highquality students, higher learning institutions must ensure all students' necessity to possess these skills as demanded by the industry. As a result, it will increase the number of employed graduates and reduce the unemployment rate among graduates in Malaysia as inspired by the Twelfth Malaysia Plan.

Characteristics of Governance System of Health Training Institutions in Sub-saharan Africa: Ghana in Focus

“…To address this issue, it is essential to establish robust mechanisms that monitor and regulate educational standards within these institutions. 94 One recommendation for strengthening oversight is to enhance the capacity of regulatory bodies responsible for monitoring educational standards. These bodies should be adequately funded and empowered to conduct regular inspections and assessments.…”

Factors Influencing Academic Achievement of University Students

“…Although much literature studies factors related to academic performance, it mainly focuses on external factors such as financial issues or problems (Norazlan et al, 2020), the influence of friends and family, and school or institutional factors (Zhou & Mustappha, 2022). Besides, students' learning ability and efforts in studying (Bakar et al, 2023) and time management (Mulugeta & Pandian, 2022) have also been found to contribute to the success of academic performance. However, students' soft-skills-related determinants and academic performance need further investigation (Casali et al, 2023;Obilor, 2019) because technical skills are insufficient to succeed in academic performance and industry (Patacsil & Tablatin, 2017).…”