Designing a Model for Empowering Agriculture Students to Reduce Academic Burnout

The purpose of this study was to design a model for student empowerment to reduce academic burnout in the agricultural higher education system in Iran. The statistical population was composed of 10 higher education experts in the qualitative phase. In the quantitative phase, 200 students were selected by the Krejci-Morgan table. The sampling method was purposive in the qualitative phase and random in the quantitative phase. The experts (participants) mentioned seven indices as the main factors for model evaluation. Furthermore, the relative coefficient value of each index was determined by the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Model fitting results showed that RMSEA was equal to 0.096, and as this value was less than 0.1, it indicated that the mean squared error of the model was applicable and the initial model was acceptable. Likewise, FIGFI, CFI, and NFI were more than 0.9, indicating that the measurement model of the indices was propitious. The model evaluation and the assessment of the difference between the means of indices illustrated that empowering students would have a significant impact on reducing academic burnout in the agricultural higher education system in Iran. The significance level was estimated at less than 0.01. The impact was B=0.46 for future orientation, B=0.51 for the level of access to information, B=0.52 for emotional exhaustion, and B=0.57 for depersonalization.