Academic disengagement in Lao higher education: systemic costs, ecological pressures, and reform pathways

Academic disengagement has been increasing worldwide, often leading to school dropout. Underachievement in school affects motivation and career opportunities. In finance and banking-related professional programmes in Laos, graduates with a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) below 3.0 are ineligible for employment at banks and prominent accounting firms. While these concerns call for interventions to enhance academic value and expectancy, few studies have examined whether low CGPA directly hinders employability, particularly in local contexts. This study investigates how external challenges and institutional deficiencies contribute to academic disengagement among undergraduates at the Banking Institute of the Bank of Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Using an integrative motivational-ecological framework, this study explores how microsystemic instructional failures and exosystemic pressures jointly undermine student motivation, providing a holistic perspective of disengagement across multiple environmental levels. The results suggest that academic disengagement is an adaptive response to high academic costs in unsustainable institutional environments. Exosystemic pressures – such as financial needs and limited self-regulation – intensify costs, whereas microsystemic and institutional factors undermine task value and the expectancy of success. This link suggests that policymakers and teachers should systematically adopt Universal Design for Learning-informed and evidence-based teaching practices to promote students’ learning engagement.