Higher Education Choices Research Articles

Choosing fields in an expansionary era: Comparing two cohorts of baccalaureate degree-holders in the United States and Canada

In an era of expanding postsecondary markets and heightened student and institutional competition, students’ field of study decisions may be becoming an increasingly important point of differentiation in the process of social mobility. Drawing on the two most recent cohorts of the Baccalaureate and Beyond and National Graduates Surveys, this paper examines and compares field of study choices among American and Canadian baccalaureate degree-holders. Consistent with existing research, gender remains an important and consistent predictor of field of study choices. In Canada, the analyses show some evidence that the gender gap for business and management is shrinking, but the engineering and mathematics gap remains significant. In the U.S. the situation was reversed, as the engineering gap shrunk and the business and management gap did not change across cohorts. Moderate family background effects, strong and consistent academic ability effects and growing academic aspiration effects were found across most analyses, lending support to theories that predict family background has direct and indirect effects on higher education choices.

The Process of Choosing What to Study: A Longitudinal Study of Upper Secondary Students' Identity Work When Choosing Higher Education

This paper presents the first results from a longitudinal qualitative study following 38 Danish students' choice of higher education. By using a narrative psychological framework it is shown how the choice of higher education is embedded in various dilemmas, making it difficult for the students to make meaningful choices. They believe the choice should be unique and individual and that it should correspond with who they are and wish to become. However, the analysis shows that choosing what to study after upper-secondary school is a complex ongoing and social process, rather than an isolated individual event. Implications of these results are discussed and the educational system is urged to provide room for and facilitate students' production of choice narratives.

Cultural capital and gender differences in parental involvement in children's schooling and higher education choice in China

This article employs the concept of cultural capital to examine the ways in which social difference in terms of gender are played out in parental involvement in children's schooling and higher education choice. The intention has been to provide an in-depth analysis of the ways in which Chinese mothers and fathers are involved in the process. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 47 secondary school students and 50 parents in Beijing. This article reveals that the transmission of cultural capital is gendered. Mothers have a different and more direct relationship to the generation of cultural capital than fathers. This article reveals that patriarchal relationships are common among Chinese families, with fathers having a controlling role and mothers having a servicing one. I suggest that the traditional cultural norms, such as that based on Confucian patriarchy, have had influences on gender relationships in the transmission of cultural capital to children's educational achievement.

Student Choice in Higher Education

The international branch campus has emerged as a prominent feature on the international higher education landscape. Although there exists a fairly substantial body of literature that has sought to identify the motivations or choice criteria used by international students to select countries and institutions, there has to date been little research on student motivations for studying at an international branch campus. This quantitative study, using the push-pull model of international student destination choice as its theoretical framework, involved 320 undergraduate and postgraduate students studying at branch campuses in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It was found that the main motivations of students who choose to study at an international branch campus are different to those students who choose to study at home campuses. Thus, we propose a revised model of international student destination choice, which incorporates two distinct sets of push and pull factors—one that applies to the home campuses of Western universities and one that applies to international branch campuses. In addition to developing the theory on international student choice, our findings may be used by higher education institutions to better understand both their existing and potential students, with the view to applying segmentation techniques in their marketing activities.

Family Income and Higher Education Choices: The Importance of Accounting for College Quality

In the examination of the determinants of educational choices, little attention has been devoted to the relationship between family income and the quality of higher education. Using the 1979 and 1997 waves of the NLSY, we show that family income significantly affects the quality of higher education, especially for high-ability individuals.While the impact of family income on college quality is significant in both samples, it has declined considerably over time for high-ability students. Overall, the trends we observe are highly consistent with increases in tuition across the quality spectrum, coupled with more generous merit-based aid at high-quality institutions.

Cultural values and higher education choices: Chinese families

Research on the marketing of higher education institutions has mainly been concerned about the selection criteria used in the decision making process, this research fills a gap in the literature by exploring how in-grained cultural values influence a Chinese student’s decision to study abroad. Twenty interviews were conducted among participants who were in the process of deciding on higher education abroad. Nine of the participants were Chinese parents, and eleven were students. The themes which emerged from the interviews are discussed by linking it to the literature to provide insights. The decision making process is strongly influenced by traditional values rooted in Confucianism, and child-centredness due to China’s one-child policy and modern Western values. The article concludes with a discussion on the implications for the marketing of international higher education institutions.

In Search of a "Good College": Decisions and Determinations Behind Asian American Students' College Choice

Through in-depth interviews, 14 Asian American college students at an elite, private Northeastern US university were asked to describe their experiences and relationships with family, friends, teachers, and counselors during their college-choice process. The results suggest that students considered their social networks, especially family and peers, to be most important in making decisions about where to apply and attend. The type of support students received from high school guidance counselors mainly depended on the kind of secondary school they attended. Students also relied on external sources of information provided by various media outlets. Implications of the findings for conceptualizing access and choice in higher education for Asian American students are discussed and recommendations for future research and practice are offered.

Earnings expectations of typical South African university of technology first‐year students

Human capital theory holds that a higher education will be pursued to the extent that its pecuniary rewards outstrip its costs. This notion is founded on the neoclassical economic assumption that expected earnings conditional on educational investment are accurately anticipated by those considering such investments. However, the evidence in support of this thesis is slim and, in the case of South Africa in particular, remains largely untested. This paper – the product of a qualitative study – reports the expected earnings data of Durban University of Technology first‐year students who, on the whole, are evidently able to relatively accurately predict their commencing and medium‐ to long‐term earnings. This merited the computation and analysis of expected private rates of return to educational investments which were found to be significantly related to study field and parents’ educational attainment, useful knowledge in any description of higher education demand. More importantly, though, the paper argues, possibly somewhat controversially, that human capital theory may offer a more plausible explanation of individual higher education choice if it is unconstrained by its neoclassical economic framework.

Similar performance, but different choices: social class and higher education choice in Greece

Higher education choice has been a central theme in sociological research in recent decades, especially following the policies for the widening of participation adopted in many countries. Research has shown a relationship between social class and higher education choice, and this is a reason why the expansion of higher education does not reduce social inequalities. This article is based on quantitative and qualitative research on first‐year university students, and examines the higher education choice of students from different socio‐economic backgrounds, but with similar levels of performance. The findings provide evidence that, even when high performance provides students with a wide range of choices, higher education choice is a different experience for middle‐class and working‐class students. The authors argue that choice is a multifaceted process, the analysis of which needs to consider the general financial and societal context, and the specific labour market characteristics in each country.

Role of brand related factors in influencing students' choice in Higher Education (HE) market

The objective of this empirical paper is to highlight the role of brand related factors in influencing students’ choice in the Higher Education (HE) market. The paper starts by presenting a brief literature review followed by a discussion of the results of two phases of empirical work in the form of qualitative and quantitative research. The empirical setting for this research is Egypt which has recently liberalised HE resulting in a competitive market. The results of the empirical work offer reasonable insights into the role of brand related factors in influencing students’ choice in the HE Market. This paper presents the managerial implication to be used by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to enhance their strategic management decisions.

‘They know nothing about university – neither of them went’: the effect of parents’ level of education on their involvement in their daughters’ higher education choices

This article attempts to explore how parents are involved in their daughters’ decision‐making around their higher education path. It draws on qualitative research that investigated the process through which young women from the UK and Saudi Arabia reached a decision about a subject or an institution for higher educational study. The paper demonstrates different forms of parents’ involvement (emotional, financial, providing information) in their daughters’ higher educational choices in relation to parents’ prior level of education. It concludes that parents’ involvement differs according to the gender of the parent. It suggests little relationship between the parents’ educational background and the nature of their involvement in their daughters’ educational choices. The article shows some similarities in the nature of parents’ involvement in young women’s decision‐making process between the UK groups and the Saudi groups, though decisions were made within two different cultural contexts.

‘I don’t want to go to a crummy little university’: social class, higher education choice and the paradox of widening participation

Whilst there has been growing attention paid to the imbalance of Higher Education (HE) applications according to social class, insufficient attention has been paid to the successful minority of working-class young people who do secure places in some of the UK’s leading HE institutions. In particular, the influence and nature of pre-university interventions on such students’ choice of institution has been under-explored. Data from an ESRC-funded PhD study of 16 young people who participated in a Sutton Trust Summer School are used to illustrate how the effects of a school-based institutional habitus and directed intervention programmes can be instrumental in guiding student choices and decisions relating to participation in Higher Education.

Too comfortable? Young people, social capital development and the FHE institutional habitus

Drawing upon a case‐study of the students and teaching staff of an Advanced Vocational Certificate of Education (AVCE) in Travel and Tourism, this paper examines the effects of the institutional habitus of a Further and Higher Education (FHE) college upon the higher education choices of a group of ethnically‐mixed, working‐class young people. The study focuses upon two of the three aspects of the institutional habitus: the expressive order (teacher–student relations) and educational status (curriculum offerings and reputation). Evidence indicated that both aspects exerted a distinct ‘college‐effect’ upon the students' decision‐making. Among staff, however, there was a strong degree of ambivalence regarding the effects of supportive teacher–student relations on the students' educational development and choice‐making. This ambivalence relates, in turn, to staff perceptions of distinct FE and H.E teaching and learning cultures within the College – or, in effect, a belief that there is not one institutional habitus but two.

Different settings, different choosers? Applying Ball’s framework on the case of second‐generation Turks

This article examines the applicability of Ball’s categorisation of ethnic minority students as contingent and embedded choosers in the context of higher education choice. Considering the role of the selective school system in shaping the educational careers of the children of Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands the study uses case studies to illustrate the interplay of social class background with the educational structure. The cases of educationally successful second‐generation Turks interviewed in the city of Amsterdam clearly illustrate the significance of early tracking in regulating the educational outcomes of pupils of immigrant origin, thus determining their chances for educational advancement and social mobility.

Women’s and men’s choice of higher education—what explains the persistent sex segregation in Norway?

This article examines sex segregation in higher education in Norway. The extent to which parent’s education and occupation and students’ grades have an impact on the choice of male and female dominated subjects is analysed. The analysis uses a framework which integrates socialisation and rational choice perspectives. The data used are from a retrospective survey referring to the autumn of 2000. It was found that grades in mathematics affected the choice of subject field in higher education, but the effect is much stronger among men than women, indicating that rational choice theory serves as a better explanation of the former’s behaviour. It was also found that gender atypical choices were most common, among both men and women, if their parents had experienced higher education. Socialisation factors and same‐sex influence are important, but the results offer no simple explanation where the youth copies the same‐sex parent.

‘My school has been quite pushy about the Oxbridge thing’: voice and choice of higher education

Whilst government policies are now pushing teachers to listen to pupils, this concern is largely framed within the school improvement agenda. This is not the only arena where listening to pupils counts. This article examines the ways in which two young people, making a significant choice about which university to attend, felt unable to discuss their interests and concerns with their teachers. In one case, this resulted in a young woman doing less well in her examinations in order to avoid getting her first preference of Oxbridge, and securing her ‘real choice’ at another Russell Group university. The other was not invited by his school to apply to Oxbridge, despite a desire to go there which he felt unable to articulate at school. We suggest that, given the current concern over widening participation, these two cases provide hints that all is not well with school gate-keeping and career guidance procedures.

The influence of aspirations on higher education choice: a telecommunication engineering perspective

This paper analyses the influence of external factors that affect the decision-making process in the selection of telecommunications engineering studies. Particularly, we have studied the influence of factors related to the generation of expectations about the studies. A survey was conducted on a sample of 701 male and female telecommunications engineering students. The results show the existence of a direct relationship between the choice of telecommunications studies in non-vocationally oriented students and their expectations of finding a job more easily, getting higher salaries and more prestige. On the other hand, non-vocationally oriented students show similar academic performance to that of vocationally oriented students.

Rationality, Information Search and Choice in Higher Education: Evidence from Greece

The paper presents the findings of a study of the decision-making process which precedes the choice of a university in Greece. Specifically, the degree of rationality exhibited by prospective students is assessed in an attempt to provide a test for the economic approach to the explanation of human behaviour. Information search is used as an indication of rationality and measured through a survey conducted among 220 university students in the academic year 2003/2004. The findings provide weak support for the rationality postulate in that they indicate that more than 40% of respondents could not be classified as information seekers. Logistic regression analysis was used in order to identify characteristics associated with the propensity to engage in information search: high socioeconomic status students, students who perceived the decision as important, and students who had acquired information prior to the choice of a university were found to be more likely to engage in information search. The paper draws attention to the limitations of the economic rational man model of human behaviour and discusses the implications of the findings for the promotional strategy of universities.

‘My mum would be as pleased as punch if I actually went, but my dad seems a bit more particular about it’: paternal involvement in young people's higher education choices

Research on parental involvement in educational ‘choice’, as well as in educational processes more generally, has highlighted clear disparities between the close and active involvement of mothers and the more distant role of fathers. While this article does not question the broad patterns identified by such studies, it does suggest that, in some circumstances at least, fathers are both able and willing to become closely involved in decision‐making processes and to take on much of the ‘hard work’ of educational choice. Drawing on a longitudinal study of young people's higher education decision‐making processes, the article presents evidence of detailed paternal involvement. It then suggests that this apparent ‘anomaly’ can be explained by the mothers' and fathers' differential access to cultural and social capital; a lack of previous experience of active engagement with educational markets; and, in a few cases, young people's active resistance to the involvement of their mothers.

Young People's Higher Education Choices: The role of family and friends

Previous studies of higher education (HE) choice have tended to draw a strong contrast between the decisions made by young people from working-class backgrounds and those of their middle-class peers. This paper draws on a qualitative, longitudinal study to argue that such assumptions about social class homogeneity overlook the very different ways in which students from a similar (middle class) location come to understand the HE sector. It also suggests that while families have a strong influence on young people's conceptualisation of the sector, friends and peers play an important role in informing decisions about what constitutes a 'feasible' choice. Indeed, this paper shows how rankings within friendship groups were, in many cases, transposed directly onto a hierarchy of HE institutions and courses. On the basis of this evidence, it concludes that a two-step interaction between family and friends best explains the decision-making processes in which these young people were engaged.