Academic motivation is important to students' mental health and performance. One established measure is the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS), comprising 28 items. AMS assesses intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation, which are further categorised into seven subscales. One weakness of AMS is its length. In this study, we constructed and validated a short version of the 14-item Academic Motivation Scale (SAMS). Data from two university student samples were analysed to construct and validate the factorial structure. SAMS yielded adequate internal consistency, and very strong correlations with the original version of AMS in both samples. Confirmatory factor analysis on SAMS replicated the seven-factor model identified in the original AMS. SAMS can be a reliable and valid alternative to the original AMS.