Key Drivers of Undergraduate Success: Emotional Intelligence, Self-Directed Learning, and Beyond in Malaysian Universities

Education is key to socio-economic development, aligning closely with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The undergraduate students in HEIs contribute to economic productivity through volunteering, employing themselves and encouraging innovation. Self-directed learning is generally recognized as one of the important learning goals in higher education. Self-directed learning therefore requires emotional intelligence, which is the ability to understand and regulate emotions and the ability to generate positive affect. This research aimed to assess the impact of Emotional Intelligence (EI) on self-directed learning and to explore how both EI and self-directed learning contribute to key aspects of learning in tertiary education. These aspects include students’ Grade Point Average (GPA), generic learning outcomes (encompassing social, cognitive, and personal dimensions), and students’ overall satisfaction with their universities. This study regarding undergraduate students from both the public and private universities, has theoretical implications that indicate that the students with high level of self- directed learning abilities possess better emotional intelligence. That, in turn, results in higher achievements in academic results as well as personal growth and development and, therefore, improved satisfaction with their university experience. Therefore, the results lay the theoretical framework that other researchers will use in empirical evaluation of this model.