Effect of Students’ Personal Agency on Academic Compliance: An Experimental Study

Academic compliance is originally an externally handled action, which means that students tend to follow the directions provided to them by various authorities such as teachers, administration, and so forth. Modern trends in education are based on the principal assumption that students can make choices that are in their best interest. In this context, it is proposed that if the issue of academic compliance, which is originally an externally handled action, becomes a function of students’ agency, it may lead to improvement in many aspects of students’ overall academic engagement and performance. The present study aims to understand the influence of students’ personal agency on their academic compliance within the context of higher education institutions in India, from the regions of Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR), Mumbai and Pondicherry. Employing an embedded mixed-method design, the current research integrated a matched pair scenario experiment regarding students’ compliance towards timely submission of assignments, along with content analysis of descriptions provided by participants about their perception towards compliance. The findings revealed a significant increase in academic compliance among students exposed to interventions aimed at enhancing their personal agency through dimensions of personal agency: shared practices and socialization in the institution. The content analysis underscored the multifaceted nature of compliance, highlighting factors such as acknowledgement of personal efforts, compliance to authority, importance of academic performance, and a perceived lack of concern for peers as determinants of compliance.