An Empirical Study on College Students’ Agency for Learning in Sabah, Malaysia

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the agency for learning among college students in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. The methodology involved administering the Agency for Learning Questionnaire online to 70 randomly selected college students. Responses were then automatically transferred onto a spreadsheet, and SPSS 26.0 was utilized to analyze the data. Mann-Whitney U test showed no significant gender differences in the college students’ agency for learning, while Kruskal-Wallis H test revealed no significant differences by way of ethnicity and age. Wilcoxon signed rank test revealed the following: (1) For intentionality/planful competence, three of the items were significant at p < 0.001, (2) for intentionality/decision competence, none of the items were significant, (3) for forethought/extrinsic motivation, six of the items were significant at p < 0.001, (4) for forethought/intrinsic motivation, six of the items were significant at p < 0.001, (5) for self-regulation, only one item was significant at p < 0.05, and (6) for self-efficacy, only one item was significant at p < 0.001. Lastly, group means indicated that the college students tended to exhibit low to low-average levels of agency for learning. Findings imply that it is crucial for colleges and universities to implement measures that encourage students to take greater agency over their academic life to progress into a meaningful future.