Factors Influencing Academic Achievement of University Students

Abstract

Academic achievement is one of the significant outcomes of the formal education processes. Thus, understanding the factors which influence academic performance is timely. This study aims to examine the determinants that impact the academic performance of students. The determinants include student engagement, general knowledge, social skills, and communication skills. This study applied a quantitative research design, with an online survey questionnaire distributed to the students of a private university in Klang Valley, and 150 valid responses were solicited. The Pearson’s product-moment correlations in the current study demonstrated that student engagement had a positive and strong relationship with student’s academic achievement. General knowledge and social skills were found to have a positive and moderate relationship with academic achievement; however, communication skills were found to have a positive but weak correlation with academic achievement. Multiple regression analysis found that student engagement, general knowledge, and social skills were predictors of academic achievement. However, communication skills were not the predictor. In addition, this study significantly contributes to students’ social life aspects as it is consistent with the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education's initiative to integrate soft skills into the curriculum and learning processes. This will urge the university's management to develop initiatives and programmes that equip students with various soft skills to make them competent in the market force after graduation. This study also discusses the conclusion, implications, and future research directions.