A theory of student agency in higher education

This chapter proposes a theory of student agency in higher education as an overarching framework for structuring ideas about conditions of student experiences and student outcomes. Student agency is defined as students’ capabilities to navigate, influence, and take responsibility for their learning and education pathways and environments. The student agency model accounts for time, space, and place dynamics to explain the double ‘conversion’: the conversion of agentic orientations into a set of capabilities that comprise student agency and the conversion of student agency into student experiences and outcomes. The theory of student agency focuses on relationships between structures and students’ capabilities such as intentionality, forethought and self-direction, self-regulation and reflexivity, self-awareness and self-authorship, self-efficacy and self-determination, and mental wellbeing. It addresses the questions: (1) What is student agency? (2) What are the student agency dynamics across, time, space, and place in higher education? (3) How does student agency affect student outcomes?