Students` academic motivation in Malaysian higher education institutions : a cross-ethnic comparison

Abstract

The present study aims to identify whether there is a difference in types of academic motivation between gender and ethnicity. In addition to this, the objective of this study was also to identify the types of academic motivation of students’ pursuing tertiary education in Malaysia. The research was conducted at two higher education institutions in Kuala Lumpur. A total of 300 students were chosen as participants of this study. A total of 150 students were from a Chinese-majority college, whereas the other 150 were from a Malay-majority university. The findings of the present research also demonstrated that there was a significant relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic academic motivation and ethnicity. The results of this study also confirmed that there was a significant difference in the intrinsic motivations of male and female respondents. Interestingly, the results also revealed that there was no significant difference between male and female students’ extrinsic motivations.