Factor structure and psychometric properties of two shortened scales for measuring competency for universities students in the 21st century

A scale was established to measure competency for universities students in the 21st Century. It has 6 domains (Basic, creativity, communication, moral & civic, international perspective and self directed learning), 40 items with each having 3 aspects (importance, self-rated and universities provision). Factor structure for each domain clearly identifies 3 aspects; and for each aspect clearly identifies 6 domains. Each scale is shortened by factor analysis where items are chosen according to absolute magnitude of factor loadings; and also by using the BI-method (Bhargava and Ishizuka 1981). The first four moments (mean, SD, skewness and kurtosis), reliabilities, factor structures and other basic psychometric properties are compared among two shortened scales and the original. Correlations among two shortened scales and the original are also compared. Implications of these findings are discussed. Technically, there are 120 items (40 items for 6 domains x 3 aspects). Factor analysis of all of them is messy and hence prohibits shortening the overall scale, but the BI-method does not have this limitation.